Bank Charges case upheld

keltbrat

I was approached by my bank who were willing to offer me £1500, after I took them to a small claim court. The actual amount owing is £2500. I declined and they acknowledged my claim. Today I received a defence which outlines the following message;

It is quite detailed and refers to the "defendant being embarrassed by the lack of particularlity pleaded in the Particulars of Claim to the extent that Particulars of Claim fail to disclose reasonable grounds for bringing a claim against the Defendent".

I am not entirely sure if I should be ignoring this and following the instructions on completing the courts Questionnaire as Martin suggests. If anyone has encountered a similar defence, this in particular has come from Natwest, I would be grateful if you can advise me how you handled this and did you succeed in reclaiming the full amount owing.

Many thanks in advance to any comments you may have, however, seemingly minor they may be.


" The claimant proves the allegation that the Defendent debited charges to the claimant's bank account, insofar

krisskross

keltbrat wrote: »

I was approached by my bank who were willing to offer me £1500, after I took them to a small claim court. The actual amount owing is £2500. I declined and they acknowledged my claim. Today I received a defence which outlines the following message;

It is quite detailed and refers to the "defendant being embarrassed by the lack of particularlity pleaded in the Particulars of Claim to the extent that Particulars of Claim fail to disclose reasonable grounds for bringing a claim against the Defendent".

I am not entirely sure if I should be ignoring this and following the instructions on completing the courts Questionnaire as Martin suggests. If anyone has encountered a similar defence, this in particular has come from Natwest, I would be grateful if you can advise me how you handled this and did you succeed in reclaiming the full amount owing.

Many thanks in advance to any comments you may have, however, seemingly minor they may be.


" The claimant proves the allegation that the Defendent debited charges to the claimant's bank account, insofar

I do sometimes worry about the people that are in over their heads in all this legal stuff. Any fool can download a template letter and fill in the bits marked with an X. Greed is creeping in and nothing but the full amount plus interest plus costs will now do. The way some people need their hands holding and guidance every step of the way makes me certain that they have no comprehension about what they are doing.

I hope all the reclaimers are pondering on the thought that even a £5 charge if applied to their account often enough will see them deeply in the mire. That's assuming any bank wants their business of course.

Compound_2

I’m not making allegations of corruption, but hypothetically: could there be grounds for appeal if a judge held shares in Lloyds TSB (or another bank)?

I wonder whether people would now be best advised to use the Ombudsman procedure. It may take longer, but it’s less risky. And the decision isn’t binding so you can still go to court.

If the plaintiff decides to appeal, it wouldn’t surprise me if Lloyds offered a ‘goodwill’ payment to avert a hearing.

BindiBahji

Aark wrote: »

As far as I can understand, the key issue of fact that decided Berwick v Lloyds TSB was that there is no term that states you must not attempt to withdraw money from the current account that would take you over any authorised overdraft facility.

If there is no term, there can be no breach - and therefore no penalty.

You've hit the nail squarely on the head, Aark. This would appear to be the crux of the judge's opinion in this case.

Having recently had some updated T&Cs through from Barclays, I had a quick look to see if there was a similar term which prohibited exceeding my overdraft limit:

Barclays Retail Customer Agreement 2007
7.3 If you do not request us to make overdraft facilities to you... you may still request the use of our overdraft facilities by seeking to make a payment on your account... even though there are insufficient funds standing to the credit of your account to meet such a payment.

When you seek to make such a payment, or if such a payment would cause you to exceed the limit of an overdraft agreed with you..., it shall be entirely within our discretion whether we agree to process your payment.

Whether or not we do so, we shall be entitled to charge you our fees for considering whether to process each such payment...

So it appears that Barclays have themselves pretty well covered on that score. I think it would be quite difficult to argue that bank charges are penalties for a breach of contract when it seems clear that the contract hasn't actually been breached by the customer.

Edinburghlass_2

keltbrat wrote: »

It is quite detailed and refers to the "defendant being embarrassed by the lack of particularlity pleaded in the Particulars of Claim to the extent that Particulars of Claim fail to disclose reasonable grounds for bringing a claim against the Defendent".
" The claimant proves the allegation that the Defendent debited charges to the claimant's bank account, insofar

You need to read this thread...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=415574

and post on that thread if you need further help.

tinkerbell1978

ok now panicking we are at the stage where the financial ombudsman has sent TSB a letter and are now waiting for their reply to this within the next 48 days! do we stand no chance?

lindilou39

I shouldnt take any notice of these article clerks on here, no precedent has been set, only a high court judge can set a precedent...the district judge was well within his right to favour the defendant...lloydstsb have every right to charge, wether they cloak it as a service not a charge is up to them..its stil a charge....as for the people on this board deem it necessary to basically slag off account (abusers) i just may add...this is a form of abuse...you yourselves dont know the true facts of these people making claims....as already posted....my husband had a zero balance on his account and no overdraft facility nor had he used the account...yet he got a letter to say , we paid all the amounts from your account that you requested £6.57..then he gets a a charge of £30 and then via statement gets told the reason for the £6.57 charge is an account charge... I think the moderator should remove your posts...


Lindi

DeeDee07

LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyds TSB became the first British bank to defeat a court challenge by a customer seeking to claim back overdraft fees on Tuesday.
A district judge at Birmingham County Court dismissed a claim for more than 2,000 pounds in fees and interest from Lloyds customer Kevin Berwick on the grounds that charges levied by the bank were for a service, the Press Association reported.
"The court has agreed with us that these are charges for a service and not default or penalty fees as has been argued by others," Lloyds said in a statement.

Thousands of Britons have reclaimed bank charges in recent years, encouraged by an Office of Fair Trading investigation into charges and anecdotal evidence that banks are repaying charges in full and are reluctant to go to court.

Consumer campaigners said customers should continue reclaiming charges as Tuesday's decision did not set a precedent in the way that a High Court judgment would.

"People should not let today's decision put them off reclaiming their bank charges. This was a county court ruling and does not set a precedent," said Emma Bandey, personal finance campaigner for the Which? consumer association.


How can this happen if it is illegal??? Anybody???

chrisw81_2

I have claimed against Barclays and they offered me £2600 a week ago . Since then I have won the case by default (No defence offered ) of over £4000 . Where do I stand now with this ruling ?? Can the bank go back to the County court and appeal or are they likely just to pay out / If so how long have they got i.e. do i just wait or should I issue a Warrant etc to speed things up . Thanks?

nykied

I know this is my first post, I've merely lurked before now, but

why on earth is everyone just posting the same link? /

Surely once by the original poster would be fine, otherwise everyone's going to be looking at each one and thinking it's something new.