Card company to defend charges in court

rockdj99uk

My wife is being taken to court for a credit card debt. She admittied just over £4000 but disputes £968 which is the charges over a 6 year period.

She went to court Monday and the Claimant asked for an adjournment as they were not ready. The judge was obviously not happy but eventually agreed awarding my wife £50 loss of earnings as she took a days annual leave. Anyway whilst in court the Judge urged the Claimant to just settle as all costs would be borne by them as they weren't ready but they refused. Their defence consists of saying that the charges now cost more than they charge and that they are not penalty charges but payment for a service.

One of the things that was mentioned by the Judge was a Part 20 Claim and my wife was told it was something she should look at. She was also given 2 weeks to submit a revised defence which has to be in by the 23rd July. Now I believe after doing some digging is that a part 20 claim is a counterclaim.

So I would like to know how she goes about putting in a Part 20 Claim as the card company have said they definitely will not relinquish the charges and will be in court in 6 weeks. If she can hit them for all charges plus interest plus anything else then it would be a bit of a bonus. The credit card is issued by a company called Close Brothers.

Any help would be much appreciated.

natweststaffmember

bump on this one because i think some of the wiser guys may have missed this.

LozBingley

Thanks natweststaffmember

Your wife needs to put in a counter claim for the charges in much the same way we are claiming our charges back.

You'll need to put a court bundle together as detailed below and try for interest on the grounds that they have already charged interest at a far higher rate than the statuary 8%

Part 20 form
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/HMCSCourtFinder/GetForm.do?court_forms_id=445

Court Bundle
1. All Correspondence to and from the bank (& solicitors)
2. Latest Schedule of Charges (list of charges)
3. Bank Statements (showing the charges)

from this point on you can download the 40 pages of information from...
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...6&d=1174895919

4. Relevant Case Law Summary
5. Early Day motion from the House of Parliament <-link
6. Dunlop v New Garage (case summary)
7. UTCCR 1999 (The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999)<O:p</O:p
8. UCTA 1977 (Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977)
9. SOGA 1982 (Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982)
10. OFT Statement Summary (OFT Summary <-link)<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

rockdj99uk

Thank you for your help. I think this is what we'll do. I assume we only still admit the £4000 and not the full debt.

LozBingley

rockdj99uk wrote: »

Thank you for your help. I think this is what we'll do. I assume we only still admit the £4000 and not the full debt.

I presume you say its the full amount less your counter claim which now might be less than £4,000 once you've added on the interest

rockdj99uk

Yes. The total after accounting for interest is now £3855. That's with interest at the card companies APR on the charges plus 8% s.69 interest also added on top.