bank smart and court costs

[gillwall]

Hi everyone
I need to advice please,
last week i received a letter from bank smart regarding some ppi they chased from lloyds for me. This is going back 4 years. The invoice i had to pay was £257.00. I didnt pay it.. and ignored it, silly I know
I wish i new what i know now and that you dont need claims managment companies. Any way last week I had a letter informing me that they are going to take legal action, So I forwarded a cheque for the amount. Seven days later I received another letter stating that they have started Legal action and the amount would be 650.00 court cost etc and interest.
I checked my bank statement and the cheque hadn't been presented, Im assuming its got lost somewhere, so cancelled the cheque and made a payment online for the £257.00. Thinking this was the end of it.
Yesterday received court paper for the amount of £650.00 less the £257.00 I had paid.
Do I have to pay the court costs etc before its been taken to court.. I also paid the £400.00 online, can I claim this back when I file my defense online.
Thank you
Gill x

[EXC]

Re: bank smart and court costs

So just to be clear:

1) Did Bank Smart make a successful claim that resulted in the £257.00 invoice?

2) If so when did you get the PPI refund from Lloyds?

3) Do you have proof that you either issued or canelled the cheque?

4) Could you post up the claim form (or at least the text of it)?

[gillwall]

Re: bank smart and court costs

Hi and thanks for the reply
Yes it was a successful claime
for £553.87, in March 2012
I havnt proof of the check. although i have proof of when i made the two payments on the 117/08/16 at 11:06 for £276.0 and on the 19/08/2016 18:31 of £405.05-court costs.

As i have paid in full do i still file a defense and ask for the court costs to be refunded. I have attached the claime form also.
Thank you
Gill

[Amethyst]

Re: bank smart and court costs

Blimey - 49% fee ? ( £275 fee on a £553 refund)

That sounds extreme even for bank smart.

If you have paid the claim in full you need to inform the court the claim has been settled in full. Did you acknowledge the claim already ? If not log on to MCOL ( password etc should be on bottom right of the court form) and tick paid in full.

However, that's only if you don't want to defend.

To defend you'd need to get a copy of the terms relating to your agreement with Bank Smart and check what the commission should have been, and that they have charged you collection fees in line with their terms.
To defend just the court fees you'd need to evidence that you paid the £275 asked for in that letter a couple weeks back. Did you get an email or bank confirmation when you made the online payment at all ? do you have your bank statement showing the payment was made ?

It would be helpful to see the letters send before the court claim too if poss.

[gillwall]

Re: bank smart and court costs

thank you
I want to defend the court costs as i cant find Bank Smarts t&c, I made the payments through internet banking, faster payments so they would receive payments within 2 hours. i emailed bank smart to inform them these payments had been made and asked for a reply. All i received was the court claim less the payment i made of £275.00. I have evidence on my bank statement when these payments lft my account.
I havnt acknowledge the claim yet.
thank you again
Gill x
Thank you

[Amethyst]

Re: bank smart and court costs

Okay good. Can you post up those letters you had threatening court action please.

I'll dig out bank smarts terms.

[Amethyst]

Re: bank smart and court costs

Here's some terms - http://legalbeagles.info/forums/atta...8&d=1443488095 - not sure when from though.

[gillwall]

Re: bank smart and court costs

Hi and thank you Amethyst
I have attached the letters.
Thank you
Gill x

[gillwall]

Re: bank smart and court costs

Not sure if i uploaded the letters so i have reloaded.
thanks
Gill x

[EXC]

Re: bank smart and court costs

Here's some terms - http://legalbeagles.info/forums/atta...8&d=1443488095 - not sure when from though.

The attached T&Cs (sorry for the poor quality) are from someone who signed up with Bank Smart in June 2011 so as gillwall got her PPI refund in 2012 they could well be the ones applicable to her at the time.

Both T&Cs state the commission as 25% + VAT which means gillwall's PPI claim of 553.87 should have attracted a fee of £166.15 (inc VAT) and not £275.83 as stated in the letters and claim form. It seems she's being over charged by £109.68 for starters.

Both sets of T&Cs have the same sliding scale of 'Collection Charges' that are levied ''if we have to instruct third party collectors to recover our fees from you''.

We reserve the right to charge a fee per invoice (in addition to our original invoice) if we have to instruct third party collectors to recover our fees from you. The fee charged will be based on a scale as follows: Invoice Value: £0 - £99.99 = Collection Fee: £10; Invoice Value £100 - £249.99 = Collection Fee: £25; Invoice Value £250- £749.99 = Collection Fee: £40; Invoice Value: £750 + = Collection Fee: £75.

So that means she's being over charged £25 for the collection fee, and that's assuming that Bank Smart actually instructed a third party debt collector. Question for gillwall: did you ever get any letters from a debt collector? They usually use MIL Collections.

In addition the T&Cs that Amethyst posted (but not in the attached T&Cs) they charge a further £10:

8) Any Third Party may charge you up to ten pounds for the provision of statements and if they are unable to deduct this from your account we may pay it on your behalf and invoice you for the same amount.

The attached T&Cs also put the administration fee for issuing the court claim at £150:

2.15)
Without prejudice to any other right or remedy it may have, if you fail to pay the Company on the due date for payment the Company may:
2.15.2) forward to a third party recovery company at a further cost per invoice [ie the sliding scale charges]
2.15.3) issue court proceedings for the recovery of the debt plus £150 administration and all appicable cost and interest

[Amethyst]

Re: bank smart and court costs

Thanks EXC

Just looking at those pre-action letters. Gillwall - what dates did you email them and make the payment to them.

I know they will argue you didn't pay the full £325.83 so they were entitled to file a court claim as you still owed about £50 ( which is just the debt collection fee) - but I'm not sure court would see it that way.


( sorry copied pasted from OCR PDF so wonky)


Dated 4th August
If vou rnake payment within 7 days of this letter. the amount we will accept is £325.83 in full and final settlement of this debt.


16th August
Original Invoice Debt: LZ7S.B3
TotalDebt Collection Fee: f50.00
Statutory Interest: t lI5.21
Legal and Administration Fees: f,l80.00
Court Fee: f,60.00
TOTAL Court Claim: f68t04



18th August
Salarceac-ofls 18[6--- f 6R1.04
Payments received: f. -276.00
RemainingAccount balance: f, 405.04

[gillwall]

Re: bank smart and court costs

Hi and thanks for the replies EXC and Amythist.
I emailed them on the 17/08 confirming a payment had been made to them 11:06 a.m. for the £275.83 which had left my account
Also emailed them on the 19/08 at18:37 to confirm a payment in full had left my account at 18:31 on the 19/08

thanks
Gill x

- - - Updated - - -

Hi and thanks for the replies EXC and Amythist.
I emailed them on the 17/08 confirming a payment had been made to them 11:06 a.m. for the £275.83 which had left my account
Also emailed them on the 19/08 at18:37 to confirm a payment in full had left my account at 18:31 on the 19/08

thanks
Gill x

[EXC]

Re: bank smart and court costs

Ok thanks.

Soooo...

04 Aug - letter demanding £325.83 in 7 days or they'll issue a claim.
16 Aug - letter advising that they'd issued the claim for £681.04.
17 Aug - payment made for £275.83
17 Aug - claim issued for £681.04.
18 Aug - letter acknowledging the payment of £276
19 Aug - payment made for £405.05.

I know they will argue you didn't pay the full £325.83 so they were entitled to file a court claim as you still owed about £50 ( which is just the debt collection fee) - but I'm not sure court would see it that way.

I think we could argue that as both the commission fee and debt collection fee were overstated and should have been a combined total of £191.15 (when they were demanding £325.83) and she had paid £275.83, they actually owed her £84.68 at the point they issued the claim.

[EXC]

Re: bank smart and court costs

I checked my bank statement and the cheque hadn't been presented, Im assuming its got lost somewhere, so cancelled the cheque

Do you have anything from the bank about cancelling the cheque and if not can you get it? It would be good to demonstrate that you attempted to pay prior to the claim being issued.

Also did you ever get any letters from a debt collector regarding the debt?

[Amethyst]

Re: bank smart and court costs

And what date was the claim issued? ahh ignore me - 17th August.