Abbey (merged)

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Since you ask, I've thrown in a few suggestions and edited your letter a tad

jonny1974 wrote: »

I have a court date set for the 11th Sept. I've decided to write to the bank to give them one last change to settle out of court. Any feedback would be appreciated before I send the letter:

Abbey PLC

Dear Sir or Madam,

Re. Account number: xxxxxx

Your REF: xxxxxxxxxxxx

With regard to the above account and pending court hearing on 11th September 2007 for refund of unlawful default charges applied to my account totalling £4671.41.

Please find attached a full updated schedule of charges and interest inclusive of recent charges and court costs to date. The amount subject to reclaim now totals £4926.41 and an additional amount of £200 will be claimed in respect of loss of earnings to attend court.

Without prejudice
I am prepared to accept £4500.00 in full and final settlement of the above on condition that this amount is paid within 14 days of the date of this letter. Should you wish to further discuss this offer prior to court hearing you may contact me on the above telephone number.

I await your prompt reply.

Yours faithfully,


Jonny1974

in_debt_again_but_dealing_with_it

Has anyone out there received an offer from abbey before it got to court stage?

saraharrow

Hi, these are when you have not enough money but they pay it on your behalf anyway. This can be from things that have Continous Payment Authority (like AOL) or while you are waiting for a cheque to clear. You can claim these back too.Kind Regards, Sarah

Stephen_Leak

Annybananny wrote: »

I've started the process of reclaiming my charges from Abbey. Sent off for statements, sent of first letter with schedule of charges &interest. Have now received a letter from Abbey saying they're "investigating" and it will take 4 weeks. Do I wait for 4 weeks, or do I stick to the 14 days as stated in the letter template?

Ann

Your first claim letter should give them 14 days to reply. If you have not received an acceptable reply by your deadline, send them the second “Letter Before Action” letter.

<O:p</O:pAt this point, you have to decide between referring your claim to the Financial Ombudsman and starting court proceedings.

If you don't think that you could successfully handle a court claim, or can't afford the court fees and aren't eligible for fee relief, then the Financial Ombudsman is an alternative. It is free of charge and handles everything for you. However, they cannot force the bank to pay up, set the level of the settlement or award interest like a court. Despite this, a formal investigation by them is something a bank will do almost anything to avoid, and their success rate is good. However, if the Financial Ombudsman is unsuccessful or the settlement is unacceptable, you can still start court proceedings.

If you threaten to refer your claim to the Financial Ombudsman, give them until 8 weeks from the date of your first letter to reply. However, if the reply either suggests that you now refer your claim to the Financial Ombudsman or says a definite no, then you can refer your claim to the Financial Ombudsman straight away. If you have not received any reply for the 8 weeks, you can then refer your claim to the Financial Ombudsman.

If you threaten to start court proceedings, give them 14 days to reply. If you have not received an acceptable reply by your deadline, then start court proceedings on Money Claim Online.<O:p</O:p

saraharrow

And finally, Abbey tend to settle with everyone before court. Use the offer of goodwill to start the negotiating with them. Dont accept less than 100%, did they ever say to us you can have a 50% reduction on our charges???? Lat year I won £850 for 3 years worth of charges, and now currently using the ombudsmans to get back the other 3 years, and MCOL for business charges, MCOL is better and faster in my opinion than the ombudsman - who is probably swamped under from bank charges. Good luck, sarah

Orlando_Virgin

Got my letter of acknowledgement from Abbey today after sending off for my statements. Very nicey nicey, saying I will no way be singled out for asking for my claims, expect them within 4 weeks and so on. Worryingly polite and helpful to be honest...

AmateurRevolutionary

OK, I've been planning to put in my claim, with Abbey for a while now... I was originally waiting until I had a decent buffer in the bank account (a couple of cheques, plus salary), but that's been rather scuppered, thanks to them doing the 'charge-then-take-then-charge-again' dance.

So, I have some questions for all you good people

1) They took last month's charges (the first in quite some time) out a few days ago, and I thus incurred more charges. If I claim for the current charges, can I then claim again once the new batch have been put on?

2) Alternatively, are there any grounds for requesting, as part of my claim, that the impending charges be cancelled?

3) If I put in my claim for repayment, will that reflect badly on my argument on me if I try to phone the bank directly to try and get the impending batch of charges cancelled?

Thanks in advance for any help!

PI_Guy

Hi

To cut a long story short, the Abbey is defending my claim and the whole thing has been transfered to Croydon County Court. At the same time Abbey has offered to settle for 65% of the claim.

What do i do?

peter191260

i am in the process of claiming from abbey i have done my mcol and have had a letter back saying abbey are going to defend then couple days later had a letter off abbey offering to repay me 65% of my claim but i aint decided what to do yet

Stephen_Leak

PI_Guy wrote: »

Hi

To cut a long story short, the Abbey is defending my claim and the whole thing has been transfered to Croydon County Court. At the same time Abbey has offered to settle for 65% of the claim.

What do i do?

Obviously, it all depends on your circumstances and the amount involved (both in real and percentage terms) but, personally, I regard any part offer or payment as an attempt to take some of the charges from you for a second time.

65% is Abbey's current standard offer.

If it is a gesture of goodwill, write back to the bank, politely accepting it as a "part payment without prejudice". Continue your claim for the rest.

If it is a full and final settlement and you want to refuse it, write back to the bank, politely refusing it. Continue your claim.

If it is a full and final settlement and you want to accept it and close your claim, write back to the bank, accepting it. When the money is received, close your claim.

Please read the Reclaim Bank Charges Help thread for information and the Reclaimed Bank Charges Success Stories and Reclaimed Bank Charges Success Stories II threads for inspiration.<O:p</O:p