kingofkings v Halifax

[kingofkings]

I started this claim on November 24th, Send off the SARs Letter, recorded delivery but it was never signed for what so ever. I only realised they had received it when the £10 Cheque I enclosed was taken out of my account on November 30th. I then received a reply to the SAS request with no date on the letter but this letter was letterheaded from HBOSplc and it was from Carlton Street, Halifax, so not sure when I got this, but days later on the 11th of December I received another letter thanking me for my letter for requesting statements etc.. and I would receieve my statements shortly, this one was also letterheaded from HBOS but from Trinity Road, Halifax.

 

Days later, I'm not sure if it's related but I was sent a booklet of the banking code and Halifax's changes and amendments of their banking conditions, the same stuff I had received a months previous with my latest statement, but anyway, moving on.

 

I received my statements in one thick brown envelope on December 18th, I went through them that night and sent off the Preliminary approach for repayment letter for request of re-payment of £743.00 plus £52.43 overdraft interest, so a total of £795.43

 

I sent this letter off on December 19th and it was received by recorded delivery this time on December 21st, I have now received a letter today, (December 29th) a letter from Halifax Customer Relations, dated December 22nd. Which goes as follows.

 

Dear Mr Norton

 

Thank you for you letter, which was received at this office on the 22nd December 2006.

 

I am sorry to learn that you are unhappy with charges applied to your account.

 

We're keen on to deal with your concerns as quickly as possible. A Customer Relations Manager will investiage the points you have raised and you will received a reply shortly, but certainly no later than 4 weeks.

 

You will find enclosed a copy of our leaflet, which tells you how we will handle your complaint.

 

Your concerns will be dealt with as quickly as possible, but to help us deal more efficiently with your enquiry, please quote XXXXXXXXX when writing or telephoning the number at the top of this letter.

 

Now, they received the letter as by recorded delivery on December 21st, so I have given them 14 days to reply to the letter which I sent, but they have just sent me a letter saying it's being dealt with, and could take up to 4 weeks. Their 14 days expire on the 4th of January, but I'm going to give them until the 8th of January 2007, because of Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day.

 

But now i'm stuck a little bit as they've replied to my letter but obviously the 14 days only count towards tem replying and accepting my requested and letting my know a date when I should received payment of the unlawful charges in question. But they've responded within the time period with a complaints letter as above, so where do I go from here, do I wait for reply from them? Or wait until the 14 days is up and send them the Letter Before Action letter?

[CLARABUCKET]

It the standard letter that seems to be being sent out (i recieved mine 3 weeks ago and settled yesterday) stick to your deadline of 14 days that you gave them to reply.

I personally found it so worthwhile giving them a ring the day before i was due to file in court and on the phone they made an offer of £4,311 i called next day to say it was enough and they offered me £5,500.

so please dont give up, lol i think they are very busy!!

Good luck with your claim it will all be fine

claire:)

[kingofkings]

Thanks for the reply. I have no intention of giving up.. These charges are only 2 years in the making and as a result have made me miss payments on other debts that have no run up. So I intend on taking this all the way to get my money owed so I can shut those Credit Card companies up that keep breathing down my neck... Then I shall be doing the say to them

[kingofkings]

Just keeping people updated, I am just about to send off my LBA letter, but yesterday, Monday 08, Jan, 2007 I incurred 2 further charges to my account. Am I right in thinking I cannot add these to this claim and it would of course have to be a new one?

 

If anyone can let me know If i can add those two further charges or not before I send out my LBA, that would be great.

 

Thanks.

[doo]

You can carry on adding on charges up to filing your court action, so yes add them on to your spreadsheet and send the updated one with your lba.

[kingofkings]

These charges won't be taken out of my account until January 15th though, and the £28 unauthorised overdraft fee will not go out of my account until February 28th..

 

So I would be unable to add these to my LBA Letter, is that correct?

 

The only thing is, the £28 Charge would be taken from the account when this claim is over, so I don't know what to do, my LBA is scheduled to be sent off Thursday this week so if anyone can reply and help me out before I send my LBA then that would be great.

[doo]

Don't forget you can add these charges on to your court claim when you file and they will have been taken out of your account by then, the only one that won't is the £28 charge, if you settle with Halifax before filing add that on to the amount you are asking for or ask them to take it off. If you file for court action and the £28 has not been taken you may have to let that one go - but someone else may be able to help you more.

[kingofkings]

Yeh, I don't mind losing £28 if I manage to settle in time with the full amount they owe me already.

 

Thanks for the replies and the help.

[Degs444]

Hi i am new to this process and also claiming from the Halifax (£2000) sending off my statement copies tomorrow with the claim letter, so hopefully we can compare results,

did you send off to your local branch or head office as i am sending to Customer service manager at Leeds ?

Good Luck!!

Degs 444

[kingofkings]

I sent my SAR letter to Halifax's Trinity Road address. Which is where I am sending all letters I am sending to them, as it will go to the right department anyway.

[doo]

If you settle with halifax before you file court claim as I did try to get the £28 - you can only ask, point out that you are saving them court costs and interest. Worked for me.

[kingofkings]

Well I sent my LBA yesterday, and today Halifax have offered me £743.00 which is what I am claiming back, without the further charges added on. I mean I would like to accept this offer as it's what I was previously claiming, and as I calculated the interest wrong, they are not going to be refunding that.

 

I have sent my LBA before this letter arrived today offering me the full amount, minus interest. But stating if I accept, further charges will stand and they reserve the right to close the accept if I do not manage it correctly etc etc..

 

Before I accept, anyone want to advise me of something else? And would Halifax ignore the LBA i sent if I accept this offer?

[doo]

If Halifax have offered all your charges back thats good - but you want all your charges, did you add the extra charges onto your LBA - if you have and the halifax have the new figure why don't you ring them. Tell them you are willing to accept all your charges back and that they have a copy of them sent with your LBA and so the figure is now xxx - then you won't file court action hence no extra costs with interest to halifax.

[doo]

Just searched through my letters and if you are going to ring them try:

Alan Molineux

Review Manager

0121 234 1068

He was extremely nice and helpful, I was due to file my MCOL on 24 Dec but rang him on 22 Dec and he refunded all my charges, got acceptance form down next day - but also during christmas week got a letter to say I had incurred 3 more charges so rang him up and he took them off so I didn't have to pay them. Worth a try if you would like to settle before court action.

[kingofkings]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

 

I didn't add the extra charges in the LBA as they hadn't been taken yet, so I didn't think they are claimable until after they've been taken.

 

So the LBA still states the £743, so I am deciding whether or not to accept it now, as the current offer would settle any outgoing bills I've had to put back because of the 'new' charges. I suppose it's a bit of a catch 22, accept the offer, and just lose £90 of the charges to be taken on Monday, or to continue and try and claim the further £90 back, but then that would mean I'd be waiting longer..

 

Since I have the form to send back for acceptance in my hand right now, it and since it's for the full amount I wouldn't need to proceed further, only for the sake of £90, of which I would be using to file a claim anyway, even though I would eventually get the claim costs back anyways but it's just the matter of sitting it out a further 28 days..

 

It's a hard decision to make lol.

[doo]

Well why don't you ring Alan Molineux on Monday morning saying you will accept the offer of £743 as long as they stop the £90 charges going out of your account (or if it is too late for that add the £90 onto the 743). I know the charges go out on monday but that will happen monday evening, so they may be able to stop them. Point out this will still save them court costs and interest - may be worth a try - if no good post your letter after this, they will still have it by Tuesday, even if you post it now no-one will deal with it till Monday. If you can't get an agreement with them re: the £90 you may be able to negotiate £60.

[kingofkings]

Ok, thanks for the reply, after reading my letter, I have a different review manager, so maybe it would be best to contact the one who is dealing with my account. So I think I should phone my Review Manager who is dealing with my account and see if I can get that £90 charge removed.

[hillards]

Usually best to call the person named on your offer letter, although any of them seem happy enough to talk to you if you have their phone numbers. Just give them the reference number and explain what you'd like them to do.

 

If you were to go to court then you can add on any further charges up to the date you file your claim, so all you are doing here is updating your claim with a revised schedule of charges. You would do that if you were sending a rejection letter etc.

 

They have the figures to hand for your account, they know what the real total is before you even start doing spreadsheets and sending those to them. It's not like you're asking for something you're not entitled to.

[Didge]

There's also the option of not signing the Halifax's acceptance form, but composing your own acceptance letter that doesn't tie you to thinking you cannot claim future charges;

 

Courtesy of Michael Browne

 

Date

Dear Whoever

Ref: Your Offer of Settlement

 

Account: xxxxxxxx

Sort Code xx-xx-xx

Claim No: XXXXX in XXXX County Court (you won't need this bit)

 

I acknowledge receipt of your letter date xx/xx/xx and your settlement offer of £XXX

 

I accept your offer as full and final settlement only for this claim of bank charges made on my account between xx/xx/xx and xx/xx/xx(dates of first and last charge)

 

I accept this offer without prejudice and I reserve the right to make any further claims should you apply future charges that may be considered unlawful under common law or in violation of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 or Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

 

I will be willing to withdraw my claim upon receipt of unconditional full settlement of my claim.

 

I am also not prepared to agree to any confidentially clauses you try to impose, unless of course your client wishes to make an offer of due consideration in addition to the amount of £xxxxx, in order to be afforded this privilege by myself.

 

I trust that you will find this arrangement acceptable.

 

Yours Sincerely

Just another option:)

[kingofkings]

Hi, I called my review manager, and she accepted they would also refund me the £90, and a new acceptance letter will be sent out to me.. So got a result.

[doo]

So pleased you got a good result, now you don't have to worry about filing court action, hope money hits your account quickly.....well done.

[kingofkings]

So do I, got my the letter I have to sign and re-send back, but they didn't send a pre-paid envelope this time, so gonna have the pay the postage, but ah well it doesn't matter.

 

I used the other one as I had signed it and sealed it in advance just incase they didnt add the £90, but never the less.

 

Also in the letter they've over turned the £28 unauthrised overdraft fee, due to be taken on February 28th, even though I got the automatic letter telling me it would be taken today as well, same date as well. I hope there isn't two charges of £28 going out that day as it did state in my charges letter i'd be charged £28th on February 28th, and I got another letter today (16th) dated January 15th saying £28 would be taken, I hope they mean only one charge and hopefully it's that one that's be reversed.

 

I hope that all made sense.

 

If a mod is looking at this, and would like to move this thread and rename the title to **WON** then they can do, although I will send a PM when the money is in my account.

[kingofkings]

There's also the option of not signing the Halifax's acceptance form, but composing your own acceptance letter that doesn't tie you to thinking you cannot claim future charges;

 

Courtesy of Michael Browne

 

Date

Dear Whoever

Ref: Your Offer of Settlement

 

Account: xxxxxxxx

Sort Code xx-xx-xx

Claim No: XXXXX in XXXX County Court (you won't need this bit)

 

I acknowledge receipt of your letter date xx/xx/xx and your settlement offer of £XXX

 

I accept your offer as full and final settlement only for this claim of bank charges made on my account between xx/xx/xx and xx/xx/xx(dates of first and last charge)

 

I accept this offer without prejudice and I reserve the right to make any further claims should you apply future charges that may be considered unlawful under common law or in violation of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 or Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

 

I will be willing to withdraw my claim upon receipt of unconditional full settlement of my claim.

 

I am also not prepared to agree to any confidentially clauses you try to impose, unless of course your client wishes to make an offer of due consideration in addition to the amount of £xxxxx, in order to be afforded this privilege by myself.

 

I trust that you will find this arrangement acceptable.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

 

Just another option:)

 

Me again, Just reading the letter you quoted, at the bottom it says 'unless of course your client wishes' .. as I'm just deadling with a Halifax Review Manager and not one of Halifax's Legal Team, I suppose I wouldn't add that, if I were to use that letter.

[doo]

Adam, maybe ring your review manager re:£28 and get that sorted just to make sure - once your claim has been finalised it will be harder to get it back.

[kingofkings]

Hi, I have done a copy of the letter that was quoted above and change the last bit, do you think this would be acceptable? And would be accepted, instead of signing the agreement they sent me where is says I am unable to claim any furture charges.

 

Here is the letter

 

 

Wednesday, 17 January 2007

Dear Diane Peter

Ref: xxxxxxxxxx

 

Roll Number: xxxxxxxxxx

Account: xxxxxxxxxx

Sort Code: xx-xx-xx

I acknowledge receipt of your letter date xx/xx/xx and your settlement offer of £833

I accept your offer as full and final settlement only for this claim of bank charges made on my account between 11/10/04 and 15/01/ 07

I accept this offer without prejudice and I reserve the right to make any further claims should you apply future charges that may be considered unlawful under common law or in violation of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 or Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

I will be willing to withdraw my claim upon receipt of unconditional full settlement of my claim.

I am also not prepared to agree to any confidentially clauses you try to impose, unless of course you wish to make an offer of due consideration in addition to the amount of £833, in order to be afforded this privilege by myself.

I trust that you will find this arrangement acceptable.

Yours Sincerely