Stop Press - View On Oft/bank Announcement

Jester

esmerellda wrote: »

Did you submit a formal application to vary the order for the stay ?

They are a court and they do have to consider applications made to them. So dont chuck in the towell.

Let us know what you have done, what letters/applications you have used and we'll see if there is another step you can still take.

Also timescales on this are important.

Thanks

Esme
xx

I submitted N254 as soon as I knew that the blanket Stays had been given. I followed the guidelines that all of the Cardiff claimants were using over on the HSBC thread on the CAG website. I sent in this application by recorded delivery on 5th August (which almost one month to the day ago). I was informed by the court that the usual fees were being dispensed with in these cases and that I could make the application free of charge.

I even called Cardiff County Court that week to find out what was happening with my application to have the Stay set aside. All I got back from Cardiff County Court was that the Judge was going to be viewing the flood of such applications he had received on a case-by-case basis and that 'they would let me know by post and not to keep calling them about it'.

Obviously, one month down the line, I have not heard anything whatsoever from the court about what is happening. As they do not wish to receive any more calls about these then I can only assume that my application, along with all the others, has not been accepted.

It is irritating to say the least as due to my circumstances I have no money whatsoever to spend on these things any more. I complied with everything that the court asked for (i.e. sending in evidence and court bundles - the court bundle itself was 120 pages in size), all sent in by recorded delivery therefore spending money I did not really have spare to spend. But I did it anyway. The Bank on the other hand (First Direct/HSBC) did not comply with anything ordered by the judge (I've not seen any copies of their defence or any other relevant information) and yet he bent over backwards for them in allowing them to blatantly abuse the whole court process. I even suggested to the Judge in one letter that as the Banks had so blatantly disregarded all of the court process that surely I should receive judgement by default.

I'd keep chasing the court for answers, but unfortunately I feel all that would do is simply antagonise the Judge and turn him against me (which is the last thing I need right now).

As Agnes has suggested earlier, the Courts have simply acted with the Bank's best interest at heart and have not acted fairly or impartially as the law requires them to do (and which is also indelibly marked in numerous statutes of this country).

The Banks have being carte blanche to disregard all claims until the OFT case, but they have NOT been forbidden in continuing to extort money out of us - money which I do not have to be squandered like this.

OK. I'll jump down of my high-horse now as my posting is already much larger than I intended.

Thanks for the reply and encouragement Esmerallda !!

johnnynonails

hi all sorry if this in the wrong thread probably is lol i issued mcol for my n/wide credit card on the 2/8/07 been trying to press judegement since the 30th of august just tried now and its been halted , thought credit card and cats werent affected cheers jill

dwjohnno81

hello all

having just read the oft website it now says that the papers have been served to all parties regarding the test case on bank charges
Newsroom

Press releases 2007


OFT files details of case against unauthorised overdraft charges

126/07 31 August 2007
The OFT has today filed particulars of claim at the High Court on the application of the law in respect of unauthorised overdraft charges, and these documents will be available on the OFT website next week after they have been served on the other parties. The documents relate to the question of whether the fairness test in the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations (UTCCRs) applies to the relevant charges.
The OFT is continuing its financial investigation to determine whether or not unauthorised overdraft charges are fair, based on its view that the fairness test does apply to them. This investigation is due to be completed by the end of the year.
The banks take the view that the charges are not covered by the fairness test in the UTCCRs and the court case at the beginning of 2008 is designed to test this point of law. It will not lead to a judgment as to whether the charges themselves are fair or not. The OFT will decide after the initial judgment what steps to take should it win the test case and conclude from its financial investigation that any of the charges are unfair. The OFT will publish its market study on the current account market in December 2007.

esmerellda

Jester wrote: »

I submitted N254 as soon as I knew that the blanket Stays had been given. I followed the guidelines that all of the Cardiff claimants were using over on the HSBC thread on the CAG website. I sent in this application by recorded delivery on 5th August (which almost one month to the day ago). I was informed by the court that the usual fees were being dispensed with in these cases and that I could make the application free of charge.

I even called Cardiff County Court that week to find out what was happening with my application to have the Stay set aside. All I got back from Cardiff County Court was that the Judge was going to be viewing the flood of such applications he had received on a case-by-case basis and that 'they would let me know by post and not to keep calling them about it'.

Obviously, one month down the line, I have not heard anything whatsoever from the court about what is happening. As they do not wish to receive any more calls about these then I can only assume that my application, along with all the others, has not been accepted.

It is irritating to say the least as due to my circumstances I have no money whatsoever to spend on these things any more. I complied with everything that the court asked for (i.e. sending in evidence and court bundles - the court bundle itself was 120 pages in size), all sent in by recorded delivery therefore spending money I did not really have spare to spend. But I did it anyway. The Bank on the other hand (First Direct/HSBC) did not comply with anything ordered by the judge (I've not seen any copies of their defence or any other relevant information) and yet he bent over backwards for them in allowing them to blatantly abuse the whole court process. I even suggested to the Judge in one letter that as the Banks had so blatantly disregarded all of the court process that surely I should receive judgement by default.

I'd keep chasing the court for answers, but unfortunately I feel all that would do is simply antagonise the Judge and turn him against me (which is the last thing I need right now).

As Agnes has suggested earlier, the Courts have simply acted with the Bank's best interest at heart and have not acted fairly or impartially as the law requires them to do (and which is also indelibly marked in numerous statutes of this country).

The Banks have being carte blanche to disregard all claims until the OFT case, but they have NOT been forbidden in continuing to extort money out of us - money which I do not have to be squandered like this.

OK. I'll jump down of my high-horse now as my posting is already much larger than I intended.

Thanks for the reply and encouragement Esmerallda !!

Hey

Just to let you know I have read and will be getting back to you a bit later this evening....give the court a buzz in the meantime and just ask if the application for your claim has been looked at- tell them theres a change in your personal circumstances and you understand you are at liberty to reapply - and see what they say - post what they say up here

Esme
xxx

chrissieo

Not sure if this is the right thread, but I wrote to my MP, Patrick Hall MP - Bedford, as soon as the announcement was made re the OFT.

I received a second reply from him last week which is offering his support.

He would like to contact someone from MSE & CAG so if one of the MODs could PM me with contact details for MSE.

Full letter has been posted on the MP thread on CAG site.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/108984-list-all-mps-written-3.html#post1111784

Chrissie

newnoo

Conor, what you have stated about the end of free banking might be true, i agree it will probably happen, the banks need to gain the money back some how. But what you fail to understand is that charging people who go overdrawn was never a fair alternative to reap profits. Just because they can no longer take money from the vulnerable, or stupid as you seem to think of them, they might have to start charging everyone who has an account. Well, personally i feel that if they HAVE to charge us for using our accounts, surely this is more fair than the current system. At the moment i would imagine that people who are getting charged the most are people who are struggling with debt and bills and also low earners who find the charges amount to a large % of their weekly take home, and end up in a spiral of more and more charges.
As for your views on Martin, yes he has had a lot of media attention over this, so what. Unfortunately i think you will be one of many narrow minded people who blame him for the banks change in tactics!

Conor wrote: »

Well, it's going to go one of two ways:

1) The banks win. Those who got their money will be happy. The rest will whinge and whine on here for months about it. Life carries on as before.

And now the one that worries me the most...

2) The banks lose. Those people who were clearly informed of the charges when they opened their account and were reminded by the prominent and widely available literature available in branch get REWARDED for their financial incompetence. And here's the rub. What do you think will happen? Kiss free banking goodbye. It'll be back to the bad old days - I wonder how many of you remember those? For those of us who have business accounts, we don't have to remember. We get the bill every quarter.

I have a business bank account. Most of the transactions are free, i.e the automated ones and BACS/DD, but the rest I pay for. Now my business account, charge wise, is quite a low activity one but despite that, I rack up around £40 a year in charges.

Going on the activity in my current account and basing it on the charges for the business account, I'm looking at over £100 a year in charges on ym current account - more if they don't do free automated transactions. So for everyone in the UK unless you have a constant average balance of over £1000, and are getting the top paying interest rates, the charges will wipe out any interest you get.

Because of the way society has now gone with wages and benefits being payed by BACS, paying bills by DD, paying for shopping with debit cards, the ability to be paid in cash, pay your bills with paying in books at the GPO and just have an account to pay the mortgage have long gone. Like it or not, we're in a society where you "HAVE" to have a bank account. It's no longer a choice and the banks know this. With a potential £10Billon hit, you can be guaranteed they'll look at charging per transaction again and we'll have no choice than to accept it.

Personally I don't think Martin either thought the consequences through fully or "conveniently neglected to mention the flip side" because telling people what they want to hear gets him his 5 minutes on TV, something which this bank charges thing has got him a lot of, but saying "it may all go South and every person with a bank account will suffer" doesn't win popularity contests.

Martin may be looking clever on TV at the moment and making the "woman from the BBA look stupid" which some of you sheeple seem to think is the best thing since the coming of Christ but I wonder if he'll be so happy about the publicity if the banks lose, the charges start appearing and people figure out who to blame?

I hope the banks win. If you've any sense, you will too.

agnes_2

Jester wrote: »

Unfortunately, it is purely down to the court involved. I claimed financial hardship as I am currently unemployed and on benefits.

My case was one of the 500 claims that was supposed to have been heard at Cardiff County Court on the 14th August, but all the claims were stayed. I put in my objection to the Stay and asked the judge to overturn it on the basis of my financial hardship. Cardiff County Court did not even give me the courtesy of a reply one way or the other.

For anyone who is having financial hardship (like I am), then it is certainly worth trying to get the Stay overturned. However, if you are in that position and one of those that is being dealt with by Cardiff County Court then don't bother. Judge Hickinbottom is simply NOT INTERESTED !!

Hello jester, I was one of the Cardiff Carve UP !! 14th and took my application and objections in. heard nothing.!!

Jester

Agnes wrote: »

Hello jester, I was one of the Cardiff Carve UP !! 14th and took my application and objections in. heard nothing.!!

Hi Agnes,

I spoke to Cardiff County Court this afternoon to find out what is happening in my application to have the Stay set aside on grounds of financial hardship.

Cardiff CC informed me that the Judge has not looked at ANY of the applications !!

They also informed me that they expect the Judge to make a decision within the next week, but then they told me that exact same line back in the middle of August.

I made my application to have the Stay removed on 5th August. That is over a month ago and yet he has not deemed to look at applications received even that far back. I know that you and countless many others will also have made such applications from that time onward. But I can tell you now that he hasn't read them let alone come to a decision.

I think this is deplorable action on the part of the Court if I am honest !!

Stokey125

Jester wrote: »

Hi Agnes,

I spoke to Cardiff County Court this afternoon to find out what is happening in my application to have the Stay set aside on grounds of financial hardship.

Cardiff CC informed me that the Judge has not looked at ANY of the applications !!

They also informed me that they expect the Judge to make a decision within the next week, but then they told me that exact same line back in the middle of August.

I made my application to have the Stay removed on 5th August. That is over a month ago and yet he has not deemed to look at applications received even that far back. I know that you and countless many others will also have made such applications from that time onward. But I can tell you now that he hasn't read them let alone come to a decision.

I think this is deplorable action on the part of the Court if I am honest !!

I suspect the reason that he has not looked at them is because he has been on holiday. Traditionally August and September are referred to the Long Vacation during this time Judges go off on thier holidays. While not all judges go away during this period the senior resident judges are likely to do so and matters of this nature would remain for thier return.

smutley_2

You are joking, jester, forgive my pun (and Angnes, do I know you from somewhere??).... I was one of the Cardiff 14th August crowd - was told last week that Judge Hendicott was back from his hols Monday this week and would be addressing all the stays .... Judge Hickingbottom is due back on th 17th.. so lets hope they get their act together and send us their decision!