Overpaid old credit card debt, can I claim 'damages'?

Muppet_Oracle

Hi,
I had an old credit card debt which I had defaulted on many years ago, and it was bought by CapQuest. I eventually entered a repayment agreement with them, paying off at £110 per month by standing order, to stop interest being added to the original debt. The debt was cleared in full last January (2019), but I didn't realise this, and didn't receive any annual statements from them or a closing statement, so the standing order remained open and paying. I recently received a letter from them stating I had over paid by £2329, and that I should stop any further payments and contact them for a refund.
I did this, and asked them why I hadn't been notified and payments still collected for over 18 months, and they admitted that no letters had been sent to me about it and no annual statement had been sent since 2017.
They of course apologised and said they will send a cheque refund for the overpayment, I queried about a claim for them taking too much money, and they offered a payment of £50. I tentatively accepted, and have since received cheques for the two amounts. I haven't yet banked either (only got them today), but was wondering if I have any right to a bigger claim for extra 'hardship' caused or extra damages?
What do you guys think, should I accept the £50 or demand more, and if more, how much?
Thanks in advance
Clive

bradders1983

How much interest would you have gained on that £2329 in the past 18 months? Would be less than £50, so I would take it tbh.

Mingarryman

You have already agreed to accept the £50.

Ebe_Scrooge

You would have a claim for any financial loss you'd incurred.  If, for instance, you could prove that you'd lost the opportunity to make £100 in interest, then you could well have a valid claim.  In reality, there's no way you'd have earned anything like £50 in interest, so I'd grab the £50 whilst it's offered if I were you.

<edit - cross-posted with Bradders who has said pretty much the same thing :-)>

Yahoo_Mail

If you paid by standing order, payments were not collected, they were pushed by you (or your bank).  It was your responsibility to stop the SO, CapQuest couldn't have done anything about it anyway.

You're at least as much to blame for this as they are so I'd be more than happy for the free £50.

Sandtree

Damages are awarded for things like breach of contract or negligence etc.

You paid by standing order and so they had no control over stopping the money coming in... if it had been a DD the matter would have been different. On the flip side you have caused them a headache and cost by continuing to make payments to them which someone has had to sort out, get a cheque written up and sent out to you... so arguably your error of not cancelling it has probably cost them more than its cost you.

On the other suggestion... the interest wouldnt be 18 months on £2329 as it accrued at £110 a month and so for the first month the balance was £0, the 2nd month it was £110, 3rd month £220 etc.

They could have helped by sending a letter confirming it was paid off but if that had gone AWOL or you forgot about it etc then the same situation would have persisted. I’d argue a cheque for £2379 in the current circumstances is probably very appreciated and you should more think of it as a lesson about the risks of standing orders! 

Muppet_Oracle

Ok, some interesting ideas about whose fault it was!! Just to clarify, I set this as a standing order rather than a Direct Debit so I could be in control. Loan/CC companies have a duty to send out an annual statement, they didn't do this for the past 2 years, so yes I let things slip by not keeping track of it, but equally they should have sent statements and known far sooner than 18 months later that the debt had been cleared. They admitted on the phone that they actually hadn't sent any information since 2017.
I'll accept the £50, you are correct in that I wouldn't have made more than that in interest, I just wanted to check to see if I may have some claim against them. And yes, £2379 is very helpful at the moment, as I am self employed and received absolutely no help or grants during lockdown, and continue to receive no assistance even though my business suffered. 
Some of you seem very quick to judge!

SuperAllyB

Muppet_Oracle said:

Ok, some interesting ideas about whose fault it was!! Just to clarify, I set this as a standing order rather than a Direct Debit so I could be in control. Loan/CC companies have a duty to send out an annual statement, they didn't do this for the past 2 years, so yes I let things slip by not keeping track of it, but equally they should have sent statements and known far sooner than 18 months later that the debt had been cleared. They admitted on the phone that they actually hadn't sent any information since 2017.
I'll accept the £50, you are correct in that I wouldn't have made more than that in interest, I just wanted to check to see if I may have some claim against them. And yes, £2379 is very helpful at the moment, as I am self employed and received absolutely no help or grants during lockdown, and continue to receive no assistance even though my business suffered. 
Some of you seem very quick to judge!

Not judging, merely playing devil's advocate but if you set up the SO to be more in control and interest had been frozen then surely you could.have worked out for yourself when the debt would have been paid off, especially if the payment was causing hardship.

Having said that it doesn't excuse the lack of annual statements but £50 compensation isn't too bad.

Sandtree

Muppet_Oracle said:

Ok, some interesting ideas about whose fault it was!! Just to clarify, I set this as a standing order rather than a Direct Debit so I could be in control.
<snip> 
Some of you seem very quick to judge!

If you were the one in control why do you think they owe you damages for you not applying that control?

When you are up close and personal with an issue it can be difficult to see the bigger picture/other side’s point of view. These forums are good to act as a sounding board and that is mainly because strangers have an easier time seeing other perspectives as its not emotive for them.

There are those that come on here and say things that do receive very strong opinions (a recent one being someone saying a lender gave them a loan to escape their abusive partner and do they now have a case to get the loan cancelled because it was unaffordable so irresponsible lending) but even if you feel people are being judgemental or snappy... do you really care what a bunch of strangers on a forum think? Take what you want from their views and ignore the rest.

Yahoo_Mail

Muppet_Oracle said:

Ok, some interesting ideas about whose fault it was!! Just to clarify, I set this as a standing order rather than a Direct Debit so I could be in control. Loan/CC companies have a duty to send out an annual statement, they didn't do this for the past 2 years, so yes I let things slip by not keeping track of it, but equally they should have sent statements and known far sooner than 18 months later that the debt had been cleared. They admitted on the phone that they actually hadn't sent any information since 2017.
I'll accept the £50, you are correct in that I wouldn't have made more than that in interest, I just wanted to check to see if I may have some claim against them. And yes, £2379 is very helpful at the moment, as I am self employed and received absolutely no help or grants during lockdown, and continue to receive no assistance even though my business suffered. 
Some of you seem very quick to judge!

Sounds like you're happy to be in control when it works for you, and happy to throw responsibility onto someone else when it doesn't.

At the end of the day, especially when you were "in control" why were you not keeping a record on how long was left on your repayments?  A simple sum, or even easier a simple question to whoever you were speaking to would have told you how long the repayments were going to go on for and you'd have been able to end the SO owing nothing.  Even IF they'd sent you annual statements there was still an 11/12 chance that you'd overpay anyway.

Take the £50.  It's £50 more than you should get.

societys_child

Hmm, have I got this wright?

@Muppet . . .

You got into debt, took "control", it's all gone wrong, but someone elses fault, and you want "compo"

Is that correct?