help please (a couple of questions re: making a claim)

helptheden

Hi,
I am in the process of helping my parents reclaim bank charges from naionwide. We have completed the letter stages and have threatened small claims court, Nationide has sent a standard response basically saying that they do not agree and will not refund charges.

I have registered my parents on money claim online and intend to fill in a claims for their nationwide account. I have a couple of questions that I am hoping someone can answer.
1. They have two nationwide accounts (one with charges of £2000 and one with charges of £6500), I expect that these will have to be two seperate claims, I am thinking of doing a small claim court for 2k and maybe use the other option for the larger amount) Iam abit worried about claiming the large amount for the small claim court?.
2. Can someone point me in the direction to a post or website that provides an idiots guide to completing the online claim?
3. Can i pay the court costs with my credit/debit card or does it have to be paid by the claimant?

Thanks in advance....

Beate

1. http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=407082
2. Post 14: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=400981
3. I don't think it makes a difference who pays the costs as long as they get paid!

Haykey1969

The good news is that I have just been successful in claiming my charges back from Nationwide and they gave in at the first hurdle, once my claim was posted to them they did not even lodge a defence.
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabout/claims/index.htm is the county court web site and can answer many of your questions, I found this very useful.

As far as splitting your claim, this may prove a little more difficult. The court will ask both parties which is the most appropriate place for the case to be heard, Small claims or through the county court sitting in it's Chancery capacity. Small claims have a maximum limit of £5,000, if Nationwide know (Which they will do) that you are pursuing them for more than £5,000 they may ask that all claims be dealt with together. As your parents are one Claimant and Nationwide are one respondant your claim could be brought together, and as such I believe it will be over the £5K mark. This will not prevent you from claiming but will have a cost implication. The fact that you are trying to "Play " the system by splitting the claim may not go down too well with the courts. That is assuming the accounts are both joint accounts, if not each of your parents can have a claim based on their own account and split the total that way.

There is nothing to stop you claiming only £5,000 if you so choose. Or pursuing all of the claim through the Ombudsman in the first instance.

Hope this is of help!

helptheden

Thanks for the advice,

I have put in a claim for the first account for £2500 (a/c is in the name of one of my parents). I am a little worried whether I have made a mistake.

I am aware that you can claim for up to 6 years of charges, as my original letters with charges were sent to Nationwide in March/april of this year, a number of charges have since past the 6 year mark, therefore, I removed these from the total claim (to ensure that total included charges within 6 years of the online claim), I also added a couple of charges that have been made since my original request. Does these variations on the total compared to previous correspondence cause a problem?

I am also worried about the consequences if interest has not been calculated up until the claim date (I used the interest calculator figures from my original request to Nationwide (Obviously, as the claim has be made at a later date, the interest would have increased). I am not bothered about getting this additional interest, I am just concerned whether this could damage my claim....

I am also trying to figurre out what to do with the claim for the other account (which is my parents joint account with Nationwide). The total of chages before interest is around £6k. We are thinking about removing some charges to bring the total to £5k in order to use the small claim court. If we were to do this, do we have to provide Nationwide with an update schedule of charges that we are claiming for before making a claim (all previous correspondence has stated the full amount). Can I make a claim for the lower amount even though the previous letters were asking for more?

Any advice would be appreciated....

Thanks