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Sandra's daughter v Topshop store card

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  • Sandra's daughter v Topshop store card

    Hi all,

    I'm new to posting on this forum.

    One of my 2010 goals is to reclaim charges on my Topshop store card. I thought I would start a thread on my case and if anyone has any knowledge on store card charges reclaming, particularly concerning Topshop/GE Money/Santander Card Services, that they would like to share then it is gratefully appreciated.

    I took out the card in September 2000. At this time it was run by GE Money.

    I received a default notice on the account in November 2004 and a CCJ on the account in April 2005 for £614.58.

    The debt was then passed onto Aktiv Kapital. They accepted a partial settlement of £574.58 (£40 less than the CCJ) in October 2007. I have paperwork from them confirming this partial settlement.

    I wrote a prelim letter to Santander Card Services (who now run the Topshop card) on Wednesday, December 9, 2009.

    The letter read:

    Credit Data Management Team
    Santander Card Services
    PO Box 700
    Leeds
    LS99 2BD

    Dear Sir or Madam,

    RE: Topshop Card account xxxx

    I am writing to request that you repay all the late payment charges and returned direct debit charges that have been applied to my account.

    I do not believe the charges reflect the true cost to GE Capital Bank Limited/Santander Cards UK Limited and are unfair and disproportionate. I am therefore requesting a refund based on the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

    This is supported by the Office of Fair Trading’s April 2006 statement into credit card charges which noted that the level of charges at the time, and prior to that period, were unfair.

    The charges total £222.00. Plus, as I believe I have been unlawfully deprived of this money, I have calculated £116.08 interest at the statutory rate, the amount the court will award.

    I therefore ask that you repay me the full amount of £338.08. I have attached a full schedule of the charges and interest with this document.

    I look forward to a full response to this letter within 14 days.


    I included a schedule of charges with simple interest of 8%.

    Now, I know the charges date back more than six years so I am aware there may be some issue regarding the Limitation Act but I thought I would worry about this if and when Santander Card Services brought it up!

    However, I have had no response to this prelim letter. So I intend to send them an LBA.

    I have drafted an LBA as follows:

    Dear Sir or Madam,
    RE: Topshop Card account xxxx

    I refer to default charges applied to my account amounting to £222 plus interest at the statutory rate (which totalled £116.08 as at Weds, Dec 9, 2009 - the date of my previous letter to you) which I have requested you pay back.

    I wrote to you on Wednesday, December 9, 2009, making the original request for a payment in settlement of my claim. As I have not heard from you, I am writing to inform you I intend to claim the full amount I have requested you pay back together with interest up to the date of judgment and court fees in proceedings through the county court.

    This is based on the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations as I believe these default charges are unfair and not proportionate to your costs and that therefore the court will rule in my favour. As I am sure you are aware, the Office of Fair Trading also stated in its April 2006 statement into credit card charges that it considers charges are at a higher level than is legally fair - this report did not deem £12 to be an acceptable charge.

    Please find attached an updated schedule of the charges on my account with this document.

    I look forward to a full response to this letter within 14 days, otherwise I will commence court proceedings to reclaim my money.


    I will include an updated schedule of charges with simple interest of 8% with my LBA.

    I wondered if anyone else had taken on Topshop/GE Money/Santander Card Services and what was your experience?

    Do they normally ignore prelim letters? Do they normally respond to LBAs? Is my LBA satisfactory? I'll admit my prelim and LBA are based on templates form the MSE website. It is through MSE that I found Legal Beagles.

    I look forward to any comments. This is my first post on the site so please be gentle! :beagle:

  • #2
    Re: Sandra's daughter v Topshop store card

    Hi Sandra's Daughter and welcome to Legal Beagles.

    Well done on making the decision to go ahead and claim back these charges.

    Card companies rarely respond to preliminary letters, but each one operates differently.

    Nothibg wrong with either your prelim or LBA letters although as you haven;t yet sent the LBA I would propose to just beef it up a little.

    Am working on an updated draft for you now and will post it up in a few minutes.

    Regards Budgie

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Sandra's daughter v Topshop store card

      Proposed LBA draft


      Dear Sir or Madam,

      RE: Topshop Card account xxxx

      I refer to my request dated 9th December 2009 for repayment of the default charges applied to my account amounting to £222 plus compensatory interest of £116.08, making a total of £338.08.

      As you have failed to respond to my earlier request I am writing to inform you I intend to claim the full amount I have requested, including compensatory interest up to the date of judgment or earlier settlement together with court fees in proceedings through the county court.

      The charges you have levied from my account for breaches of contract by way of exceeding my agreed credit limit, late payment, card misuse, etc. are unlawful. It is my belief that these charges bear no relation to the costs to which you were put as a result of my contractual breaches. This being the case, the charges levied from my account amount to contractual penalties which are irrecoverable at common law. Even if there is a clause in the terms & conditions of the account that states that penalty charges become payable for breaches of contract, such a term would be Invalid under Sections 5 through 8 of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.
      The Office of Fair Trading also stated in its April 2006 statement into credit card charges that it considers charges are set at a higher level than is legally fair - this report did not deem £12 to be an acceptable charge.

      Please find attached an updated schedule of the charges on my account.

      I look forward to a full response to this letter within 14 days, otherwise I will commence court proceedings without any further notification.



      Notes : Would be interesting if you could enter your charges into the Legal Beagles Statutory interest spreadsheet just to check the compensatory interest figure. Legal Beagles

      Also, I have deliberatly not mentioned the pre six years aspect of some of your charges. We can combat any reply from them if they choose to reply on that basis and we will include arguments in any resultant court claim anyway.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Sandra's daughter v Topshop store card

        Hello Budgie,

        Thank you very much for taking a look at my letters and also for beefing up my LBA.

        I worked out that interest at the statutory rate totalled £116.08 as of Weds, Dec 9, 2009, when I sent my prelim letter to Topshop.

        This figure would have increased by now of course, so I will calculate the updated statutory interest before I send off my LBA.

        I'll update this thread with any reponse.

        Fingers crossed I get an offer!

        :beagle:

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Sandra's daughter v Topshop store card

          Unfortunatly I don't think you'll get any charges back. They're all detailed in the terms and conditions of the origional credit agreement.

          Also the banks recently won a case in the supreem court regarding overdraft charges which are deffinatly unfair as they exaserbate the customer problem.

          However late fees are not payable immediatly on an account. The are simply added to the balance.

          Here is a BBC link for the overdraft case article
          http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8376906.stm

          Also I work for santander and can assure you that if you didn't get a reply then we didn't recieve your letter. Every piece of mail recieved is scanned and uploaded onto our IT system so it is viewable business wide. Then someone else has the job of going through the letters and replying. If your mail was scanned then it'll show on account. call up and ask, they'll be able to see if mail was recieved.

          Also, just noticed your letters do not show your account number, I hope this is on purpose for security. But if you forgot to put that on then that will be why. We need your account number.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Sandra's daughter v Topshop store card

            To begin with mohawk, this thread is a store card reclaim of charges, which, as you know, your employers are paying back money unfairly added to accounts. I'm glad though that you agree the current account overdraft fees are unfair and you'll get involved with the fight against them.

            Store and credit card charges are considered highly unfair under the UTCCR, as well as being disproportionate penalties, by the OFT. The industry has already been forced to reduce its fees down to around £12, although this is still too high, and Sandras daughter will get a full refund plus interest from this card.

            And I think we would be pretty darn stupid if we all put our account numbers across a public forum.

            Originally posted by Sandras Letter

            Credit Data Management Team
            Santander Card Services
            PO Box 700
            Leeds
            LS99 2BD


            Dear Sir or Madam,

            RE: Topshop Card account xxxx

            I am writing to request that you repay all the late payment charges and returned direct debit charges that have been applied to my account.


            Hardly anyone has received a Santander/Abbey response yet regarding the test case btw, they are just starting to be received this week.
            #staysafestayhome

            Any support I provide is offered without liability, if you are unsure please seek professional legal guidance.

            Received a Court Claim? Read >>>>> First Steps

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Sandra's daughter v Topshop store card

              Hello!

              GOOD NEWS UPDATE...well, kind of!

              I received a letter back from Topshop/Santander and they have offered to pay me back the grand sum of £18! It's not much considering I was asking for £222 in charges plus around another £100 in compensatory interest - but at the same time I'm happy to have had an acknowledgment from them in the first place.

              I will try and scan and upload their letter tomorrow so you can have a comprehensive read of what Santander says in my case - it may help others trying to claim back charges against Topshop/Santander.

              But briefly - their three page letter offers to pay me £18 as this is the difference between the current £12 credit/store card charge level which, as they put it, the OFT have agreed is fair, and the £18 I was charged on three occasions in the past six years.

              They refuse to pay back any of the other charges I have asked for as they are more than six years old (they date back to 2001).

              Also, they have separately posted me a cheque for the afore-mentioned £18. I guess they're hoping I will cash said cheque and that will be the end of the matter.

              But I am going to write to them and refuse their offer and push for the full amount I have asked for. Any help in refuting their "you can't claim back charges more than six years old" argument would be gratefully received.

              Also, any advice as to whether I should cash the cheque but in my letter say I am only accepting this as part payment OR not cash the cheque and return it to them with my letter?

              Also, should I mark all of my future letters to them "without prejudice" so it has no effect on potential future court hearings?

              And finally, how do I post a "thanks" on this forum? The help I have had so far has been very beneficial and I would like to thank the members who have given me advice so far.

              Kind regards, off to bed now but will be back tomorrow!

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Sandra's daughter v Topshop store card

                Me again!

                A few days later than planned but I've now attached my "here's £18, now push off" letter from Santander.

                In this letter Santander refer to a letter their dated Jan 18. I never got this letter. The letter I have attached is the first correspondence I ever had from Santander regarding my charges.

                I've also attached my schedule of charges that I sent them, with simple interest of 8%.

                I am planning on sending Santander another LBA giving them 14 days to respond. I want to:

                - Refute their "you can't claim back charges more than six years old" argument;

                - Draw their attention to the five charges on my account in 04/05, so within the six year period they say I can claim charges back, yet they've only offered to refund me for three of these charges;

                - State I am only accepting their £18 refund as part payment and am going to pursue them for the full amount in the courts.

                Before I write my LBA I'd be very grateful if any advice on:

                1 - Whether it's a good idea for me to say that if they are missing statements for my account that I can send them copies? (I've never been so happy that I'm a hoarder as it meant I had all my statements going to back to 2001!)

                2 - Has anyone successfully claimed back charges that are more than six years old? If so, how did you go about it?

                3 – At the end of their letter Santander say if I want to take the matter further I CAN’T go to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) as the last charge was applied to the account Jan 2005? I don’t believe this is right, do you? I thought FOS could investigate store card complaints. Santander are trying to fob me off with the Finance and Leasing Assn which as far as I’m aware is a trade assn for the lending industry so I don’t imagine they’re going to consider complaints impartially.

                Any advice gratefully received.

                Thanks!
                SD

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Sandra's daughter v Topshop store card

                  Bumpety bump

                  Comment

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