Cahoot

newcook

I am having a bit of a 'mare with them too. Abbey National have been good with replying to my letters its just a shame that the first 2 went to a different address and the 3rd had my name spelt wrong (although at least they got the address right)

I have just posted a nicely nicely letter saying that if they dont reply back/refund charges then they will go to court and pay x plus x interest plus x court costs but that I would rather settle out of court and have given them another 14 days to think about it.

Have sent a similar one to egg as well

view

Hi :hello:

I have read through the Cahoot boards and some of the other general boards, just wondering if anyone has actually won money back from Cahoot?

I am claiming for 1 x Cahoot Credit card charges and 1 x Cahoot Bank charges over the last two years. Approx £600 in total.

I sent two different letters [on for the credit card and one for the bank] and sent them separately via Special Delivery [so can prove they have received and signed for them].

I have only just sent letters off, but am feeling a little disheartened from the chat on the forum about Cahoot - they seem to be playing very hard ball and not offering any money back, just stating that customers signed up for this when they opened accounts.

Can you let me know if you have won with Cahoot and the letters you have recieved for them, and also which method you took to respond?

Thanks

Well done to all the people who have won money back :T , here's to a fresh start with finances and not giving the banks a chance to charge us in the future!

newcook

aarrrgghh!!! cahoot/abbey really infuriate me!!!! started my letters 19th March asking for my monies - got bog standard reply (which was also sent to wrong address!) so sent letter 2 got their bog standard reply again (and again to wrong address!) so sent LBA. thought I would be nice and sent a letter stating I would settle out of court and just chased it up. spent 1/2 hour on hold only to be put through to a trainee who kept saying they were still within their 8 week time frame(?) told her that I had actually given an extra 14 days as a good will gesture and they need to reply by 14th May - has anyone else been told that they have 8 weeks to reply??? thats 8 weeks from their reply from your request for monies letter by the way!!

barsiem_2

Having a nightmare with Cahoot now extending to court date set for October 8th - that is ages away. I started proceedings with 1st letter in February!!!! Is there anyone out there who has got this far with them and what was the result? They are awkward beyond belief!! Really need advice - what are they playing at??

mrploddy

Hi,

I've just typed this letter out and wanted peoples opinions about how successful this strategy might be in reclaiming some money. I know I could go for the full amount but I'm looking to make a fast an easy bit of money and just wanted to know what people thought -

Letter below -

From mrploddy
mrploddy land

Bank Charges Claim Team
Cahoot
Friars House
PO BOX 1981
Coventry
CV1 2ZA


Dear Sir or Madam,

Re. Account number: XXXXXXXXX (Closed in 2006)

SUBJECT ACCESS DATA REQUEST UNDER DATA PROTECTION ACT

I am writing to request a fully comprehensive list of all the unauthorized overdraft fees that I paid during the time which I banked with you from 2002 to 2006.

Please find enclosed a cheque for the maximum statutory charge of £10. If you are unable to provide this data, I will accept a copy of my statements going back six years; I understand that statements on their own are not covered by the Data Protection Act 1998, yet I’m not requesting the statements per se, but the charges, which I’m entitled to by law.

If you store any of the older records on microfiche, please be aware that the Information Commissioner deems this to be a relevant filing system under the Act. As such, any microfiche data must be sent to me in fully legible and comprehensible form.

I look forward to your response within 40 days, as Cahoot is obliged to reply under the Data Protection Act. If not I shall seek remedy from the Information Commissioner.

Pleases be advised that the I will consider the 40 days to have begun from the 1 business day following the postage of this letter which is the 15th. I would therefore expect to receive a reply from yourselves by Monday 25th June. If I have not received a reply which includes the data requested above by this day I will iniate proceedings with the Information Commissioner on the morning of the 26th June as is my right under the Data Protection Act. Please note that I will not consider any letter advising me of a “delay” in accessing my records as a sufficient and satisfactory reply to this letter and that the 40 day countdown will still continue to “tick” so to speak.

BANK CHARGES

I must inform you that on receipt of such data I intend to pursue a claim for the reclaim of bank charges as has been done successfully by a number of other people and has hit the media spotlight of late.
I roughly estimate that during the time that I banked I incurred charges on 20 different occasions. The first was on the 3/4/04 and the last being 3/2/06. This was calculated from looking at my email records as I do still have the Charge Notification emails in my inbox.

Although I don’t have the absolute specific information to hand and hence the reason for my request I estimate that I incurred in the region of £250 - £350 of unauthorised penalty fees and interest charges. I fully understand the law which states that interest charges are not claimable and this claim will be solely centred around the cost of unauthorised overdraft costs which at times were less than £2.00 overdraft and even on some occasions because of your interest charges taking me overdrawn and the funds to cover the charges not reaching the account on time.

I recognise the fact that in late 2005 you refunded approximately £90 of charges as a good will gesture and I thank you for your kindness in this respect however I was not then aware of the information regarding unfair contract terms and hence the reason for my letter.
OFFER OF EARLY AND FULL AND FINAL SETTLEMENT

I would like to offer the opportunity to settle this case without the need for any lengthy correspondence or being forced in to the serving of litigation.

I offer the opportunity to settle this matter using the formula below

Settlement = Total sum of all unauthorised overdraft charges – Refunded charges – (Total number of unauthorised charges x £12).

To explain the above I refer to the OFT Ruling issued in April 2006 which stated that it believed that all credit charges should be a maximum of £12 and the banking industry has since come in to line with this recommendation. It is expected for the recommendation to be extended to cover current accounts.

I recognise the fact that there is a “cost” involved in administering overdrafts and therefore you are entitled to charge a reasonable fee and hence I offer the opportunity to refund based the difference between the amount that was charged and the OFT recommended amount.

If you agree to this offer which I have outlined above please consider my signature to this letter to be an agreement to FULLY disclaim all future rights to pursue claims against yourself and I will consider the matter closed upon receipt of a cheque to cover the calculated amount. However I will expect a full statement detailed how the figure was arrived at.

However please be advised that if you do not agree to this offer that I will have no hesitation in pursuring the matter to it’s fullest extent taking the matter to the Small Claims court and in this instance I will be asking for the full amount along with accrued interest at the rate of 8%.

I hope that you can provide a full and speedy response in relation to this matter.

Yours faithfully,




mrploddy

-End letter

So what do people think? Think Cahoot might "take the money and run' so to speak?

Regards

mrploddy

Russjo

Mmmmm, difficult to say. I think they will still force your hand, but you have nothing to lose by sending it. Anything is worth a try. Good Luck

Kurt_Hamster

I am writing to request a fully comprehensive list of all the unauthorized overdraft fees that I paid during the time which I banked with you from 2002 to 2006.

Please find enclosed a cheque for the maximum statutory charge of £10. If you are unable to provide this data, I will accept a copy of my statements going back six years

May I suggest you amend that bit as by wording it that way you are allowing them to not supply you with some information that could be used in your defence should it come to a court appearance.

You don't just need a list of all your charges. You also want any log entries or notes of manual intervention. If they can't supply these you need a written explanation of why they can't supply them. For example, if they say there are none then that points to the charges being levied automatically by computer programming and therefore lowers the costs to the banks relative to human intervention, thereby helping to demonstrate that they are not seeking charges that relate to recouping losses.

view

I sent two letters to Cahoot, Abbey responded with stock standard letter, three and a half weeks later Abbey sent another letter advising that now MBNA will respond to me. Does this start the process again? I didn't realise that MBNA are responsible for Credit Cards with Cahoot?

Anyone had this?

milo11

hi i worked there for five years only leaving fairly recently and mbna had nothing to do with cahoot in all tha time, asking round some of my former colleagues none of them are aware of mbna being involved.

view

Hi

I have a credit card with Cahoot.

Sent recorded delivery to them 30th April. Can see via royal mail that it was signed for.

3rd May I receive a letter from Abbey advising they will deal with my claim.

18th May I receive another letter from Abbey advising that MBNA will now deal with my credit card claim.

I today ring MBNA who advise they have nothing to do with Cahoot....and to call Abbey back to advise.

I rang Abbey who advise MBNA do handle Cahoot credit cards so to call MBNA back....:mad:

I rang Abbey back [starting to sound familar!?] who again state it is MBNA..
they advised to call Cahoot to treble check this [why can they not confirm?]

Here it gets fun....

Cahoot claim they have never recieved any letters from me. I query how I have received letters back from Abbey then in response to my claim? They don't know...:rotfl:

I said that Cahoot have received as I can quote the person's signature on the special delivery letters sent to Cahoot. The go quiet for a bit and say meekly that that person is a manager at Cahoot... they will go and investigate.

They come back and now agree they did receive the letters [thank goodness I sent them special delivery recorded!] asking me to send all letters AGAIN to Cahoot as Cahoot shouldn't have passed it onto Abbey IN THE FIRST PLACE!

I am :mad: :mad: :mad: at this as I spent £10.00 for two special delivery letters and at the end of April, it's nearly the end of May and the process will start again.

What jokers.

Anyone else had this type of trouble!!!?