What formula do the banks use?

steveh66_2

Hello everyone

still a relatively newbie poster, so here goes. I'm currently claiming from HSBC and Alliance and Leicester, and have previously received a full settlement before Court from Smile. HSBC have filed their defence and a nudge letter has been sent to their solicitors, so fingers crossed they settle before the Court date. I haven't yet reached the MCOL stage with A&L as I can't afford the fee just yet, but six letters in total have received the same response: no refund.

Now, while different companies are of course going to react differently to our claims, what puzzles me is the disparate pattern the same bank seems to use with different claimaints. For example, my wife and brother have both made claims with NatWest, and while they settled before a MCOL claim was made for my wife, they've just lreturned their latest refusal to my brother, despite both of them allowing the same time Natwest requested in their initial letters to investigate their 'complaints', and both having similar sized claims.

Similarly, a friend and I both have claims with HSBC, and while they've lodged their defence to my claim, they've recently settled my friend's claim in full (he made his MCOL application then they got back to him before the deadline for their acknowledgement). Now, we've similar sized claims, pay in similar sized amounts each month, have broadly similar lengths of time with the bank (a few years), and he, like I, has claims against other institutions. So what formula do the banks use to decide when to settle, or go all the way to Court? Is it really just a lottery? Any sort of pattern that might emerge might or might not be of use to individual claimants, but at the very least any insight or opinion might help clarify the situation a bit!

Let's all keep up the good fight!!

Stephen_Leak

The 8 weeks to reply is set by the Financial Ombudsman.

The only "patterns" I've seen is that Lloyds TSB use £750 and Abbey use 65% for their current "buy off" offers/payments. The credit card companies tend to offer the difference between the current £12 charge and any older and higher charges.

It is, of course, also feasible that the bank's solicitors may decide to defend claims from claimants whose local county court has a known "anti-claimant" judge (ie. Lloyds TSB/Birmingham) or Hull, at least until just recently.