sainsburys bank puzzle

andypandyy

i'm trying to claim my Bank charges back from Sainsburys Bank. I am requesting £420.00 plus interest. Received an offer minus interest over the weekend,but on the attched letter if i were going to accept it went drastically down to £45.00. Is this a genuine mistake or do they think i'm stupid and would sign anything by pulling a fast one.

Twinkly

andypandyy wrote: »

i'm trying to claim my Bank charges back from Sainsburys Bank. I am requesting £420.00 plus interest. Received an offer minus interest over the weekend,but on the attched letter if i were going to accept it went drastically down to £45.00. Is this a genuine mistake or do they think i'm stupid and would sign anything by pulling a fast one.

It's possible its a typo. As they have offered the full amount minus interest you must accept at this point. I'd ring the bank advising you intend to accept but explain about the error in the letter and ask for a correct copy before signing. Check carefully any conditions of acceptance too.

Zedicus

Twinkly wrote: »

... As they have offered the full amount minus interest you must accept at this point...

Is this correct?

I can't see why anyone should be denied interest, which could be a significant amount, just because the bank chose to pay at a certain time.

Stephen_Leak

Zedicus wrote: »

Is this correct?

I can't see why anyone should be denied interest, which could be a significant amount, just because the bank chose to pay at a certain time.

You cannot claim the interest charges raised by the bank or CCC on the overdraft or late payment. You don't actually have a legal right to interest on the charges, until they are awarded by the court.

However, you can always use them as a bargaining chip up to that point, and include them in the court claim.

Zedicus

I'm a bit confused by this.

Are you saying that if the bank are prepared to pay back the charges when asked there is no way you can get the interest that has accrued on the money they've taken?

I can't honestly see why you can't claim whatever you like.

You see, the problem I see is that if the bank say; "Yes, we'll pay you back the penalties only", and you took them to court, you would be taking them to court for an amount they'd agreed to pay. Which could be a problem.

Are you absolutely sure of what you are saying, because it does not make sense to me (although I'm not a legal expert so that doesn't mean much )?

Moglex

This is the sort of question that needs to be answered by a legal professional rather than having well meaning amateurs giving what appear to be definitive answers based on what they've picked up from other threads.

It's actually a rather important question because for someone claiming back charges from 6 years ago the interest would be around a third of the total sum.

Kurt_Hamster

You can claim the interest accrued on the unlawful penalty charges, but it is not an easy task to do. There are quite a few people claiming for contractual interest, but it does increase the complexity of the case considerably (not to mention the complexity of the calculation involved).

This isn't a recommended course of action for people who are just following templates and don't really know what they are doing.

Zedicus

Kurt_Hamster wrote: »

You can claim the interest accrued on the unlawful penalty charges, but it is not an easy task to do. There are quite a few people claiming for contractual interest, but it does increase the complexity of the case considerably (not to mention the complexity of the calculation involved).

This isn't a recommended course of action for people who are just following templates and don't really know what they are doing.

Just to be clear, are you saying that people shouldn't claim any interest, or only the statutory interest? If not any, why do you say it is difficult - there is a calculator available and a spreadsheet is very easy for anyone who understands them (and I'm sure there are spreadsheet templates available)?

I think this is an example of the sort of thing that causes people to keep posting anew. They see various answers to questions - often contradictory - but may find them ambiguous and feel that they'd be better off stating exactly what happened in their own case.

Kurt_Hamster

The 8% statutory interest is a non-compounding interest awarded by the court.

Contractual interest is a compounding interest rate equal to the interest rate the banks are themselves charging.

The 8% is easy to work out as it is a standard, non-changing interest rate worked out on the number of days the charge was levied.

The contractual interest is much more complicated as to be successful it has to match the banks interest rates but only on the charges themselves. If you make a mistake in the maths it can be used to strike out the case.

Additionally the 8% is not automatic, it has to be requested. You also can't ask the bank for the 8% prior to going to court, whereas you cn ask them for the CI (on the odd chance you've actually figured out the accurate amount).

Stephen_Leak

Zedicus wrote: »

I'm a bit confused by this.

Are you saying that if the bank are prepared to pay back the charges when asked there is no way you can get the interest that has accrued on the money they've taken?

I can't honestly see why you can't claim whatever you like.

You see, the problem I see is that if the bank say; "Yes, we'll pay you back the penalties only", and you took them to court, you would be taking them to court for an amount they'd agreed to pay. Which could be a problem.

Are you absolutely sure of what you are saying, because it does not make sense to me (although I'm not a legal expert so that doesn't mean much )?

It is confusing, because there are two types of interest involved.

I'll use my last CC late payment charge as an example. I paid 1 day late. For that day, I was borrowing the total of my bill from the CCC. I got charged interest on this. They have every right to charge me interest on this until I pay it back. I can't claim this back.

However, the £12 charge is unlawful. I can claim this back. As I have been "unlawfully deprived" of the use of this money, I can also claim the so-called "statutory" 8% per year interest on this charge from the date it was raised until now.

Zedicus

Kurt_Hamster wrote: »

Additionally the 8% is not automatic, it has to be requested. You also can't ask the bank for the 8% prior to going to court, whereas you cn ask them for the CI (on the odd chance you've actually figured out the accurate amount).

So are you agreeing that if the bank decide to pay back the penalty charges you have no way of getting the statutory interest?

Not wishing to be rude, but are you a legal professional? Because what you are saying implies that in order to get statutory interest in a case where the bank agrees to repay the penalties you'd need to take them to court for an amount they'd already agreed to pay.

And when you say "You can't ask the bank for the 8% prior to going to court", on what are you basing that statement? What is to stop you asking the bank for anything you think fair?