Woolwich Bank Charges (merged)

Nat72

Good Luck with your claim. I hope you don't have to wait too long for a court date. If I hadn't needed the money I probably would have gone all the way. I'd like to take my kids on holiday so that was the decider for me, and by the time it went to court cause they are now defending claims, the summer holidays would have been over. Once again, Good Luck.

Nat72

Hi, It was without interest. I totalled up the interest and it would have been around £1,400.00. The Woolwich have been very easy to deal with and I stuck to their timescale and after the 1st letter got my offer 28 days later. I was happy with my offer so decided to take it. Remember they are now telling you to take them to court if you don't accept the 1st offer and from reading this site people can wait ages for their date to come through cause the courts have a back-log. You need to decide what to do for you own circumstances. Good Luck.

salsagal

Hi - Nat72 can you tell me the name and number of the person you spoke to at the Woolwich? I need to ring them as the 7 days I gave them before filing charges is up and I really can't afford to file tbh. I would like to speak to them as prepared to accept less money in order to get it quicker. Thanks.

Nat72

Hi Salsagal, I spoke to a nice man called Martin on the main switchboard 08450700360. I think it's just luck of the draw who you get through to. They are not sticking to our timetables though and if you call them they will let you know roughly where your claim is at. What date did they give you on your letter about dealing with your "complaint"? That's the time you will get an offer. Another number you can try is customer relations on 01255 477032, but have your reference number handy. That department is dealing with the claims direct and they might be willing to bargain with you. If you have threatened court hopefully they wont say if that's what you want then go ahead. When I had my offer and tried to negotiate they were not interested. All us claimants are waring pretty thin on them and I think they are sick to death of us!!
Good Luck, and if your claim is a big one it might be worth borrowing the money to file your claim online.

Goldenlady

I used to have an Open Plan account with the Woolwich, but they closed it about 4 years ago (mainly due to the fees taking me overdrawn) and transferred me to a basic bank account.

I used MSE's advice to get my bank charges refunded. Barclays/Woolwich sent me a list of charges but the list is incomplete: on the basic account they only list fees up to December 2006. They also sent a letter saying that I agreed to the charges when I opened the account and am not entitled to have the fees repaid.

The charges on both accounts total £569.50. They’ve made an offer of £415.96, which is lower than the combined charges, but to add insult to injury, they are insisting that £215.96 of the offer be used to repay the charges on the Open Plan account!

How do I go about getting a more comprehensive list of the fees, and does Martyn have a letter telling them (nicely!) to stick their “offer”?

Kurt_Hamster

They say you aren't entitled to the charges being refunded... so if that's the case why are they offering you anything? It's because you are entitled, they just don't want to tell you so.

Sadly they are entitled to use the monies you reclaim to offset any of their losses.

If they haven't complied with your SAR request then they are in contravention of the DPA. Write them a letter saying so and they have another 7 days (or how ever many days is left from the 40 days since your request) to comply or you will be writing to the Information Commissioner to complain.

But before you do that please read http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=400981

Riggsy1367

An Update.
Paid the £100 pound allocation fee (cos my claim is so large).
My local CC decided to proceed on their own initiative and have asked me to send them (and Barclays/Woolwich again) the list of charges and an interest calculation.
This seems to be a good sign ....no?

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Kurt_Hamster

It just means you didn't include it when you issued your claim... as you should have done.

Riggsy1367

Included it with what part of the claim?
Couldn't put it on MCOL.
If you mean to Woolwich/Barclays, I did...TWICE!

Kurt_Hamster

Riggsy1367 wrote: »

Included it with what part of the claim?
Couldn't put it on MCOL.
If you mean to Woolwich/Barclays, I did...TWICE!

This is the downside to using MCOL. Personally I think that in the long run walking into your local court is actually easier.

Incidentally, it doesn't matter what you sent to the bank. It's what is sent to the court that is important.