Bank Smart taking me to court…. Again!

[EXC]

The claim is for ‘commission following successful claims management services’. They said they recovered a total of £6000 over the years. They’ve blocked me accessing my online account so I can’t know for sure. It is possible. But the fact that I’ve repeatedly asked them to close my account for years now, and that they already received a judgment in their favor for £2000, how can they now request a further £3,500?.

Don't try and apply logic to anything they do.

If you have evidence that you tried to cancel it might help you. Also if the commission invoice is more than 6 years old and you haven't admitted to being liable for it or paid anything towards it since then it may well be time barred.

[Dina_Ruby]

Claim

[EXC]

Claim

I've had to remove the statement of account as it contained personal info. In future email me any documents at nick@legalbeaglesgroup.com

While you're at it email me the claim form that I deleted a few days ago so I have it for reference.

So did you get the statement of account in response to your CPR request and did you get anything else?

Obviously the question is, did you get the PPI refunds from Black Horse and Citi as indicated and if so how much?

I can see that both PPI claims specify a commission rate of 29% + VAT. The Government imposed a fee cap on PPI CMCs of 20% + VAT effective for PPI claims initiated after 10 July 2018 and FCA had also subsequently taken enforcement action against Bank Smart for breaching it. Given that the dates for the commission invoices on the statement of account are 14/11/2019 and 16/10/2020 it's probable they are overcharging. It's not necessarily an absolute defence to the entire court claim but it is to at least a chunk of it.

Please answer the questions above.

[Dina_Ruby]

Thank you EXC. I’ll send their response to your email.

[EXC]

Thank you EXC. I’ll send their response to your email.

Their response?

[Dina_Ruby]

To the CPR request

[Dina_Ruby]

I remember getting the £5000 cheque. But honestly can’t deny or confirm the rest. I’ve tried looking through my bank statements but can’t find anything.

[EXC]

Ok this is going to take a lot of time to go through. I'll get back to you in the morning.

[EXC]

Having looked at everything these are my thoughts, although I'm flying a bit blind as you still haven't emailed me the court claim despite asking.

You got the following 2 PPI refund offers on 30/12/2019 and 07/11/2019 respectively:

Black Horse £5112.66
Citi £507.21
Total £5619.87

You were charged a commission rate of 29% + VAT which totals an invoice amount of £1995.71.

But I think you should only have been charged 20% + VAT which should be an invoice amount of £1348.76 plus they've added a few hundred quid in debt collection and admin fees.

The statutory interest amount on the claim (about £600) should be a fair bit lower reflecting the lower 20% commission rate.

Now, Bank Smart will argue that the fee capped 20% commission rate doesn't apply as strictly speaking it's for contracts for PPI claims that were entered into after July 2018 and they have your signed letter of authority to make the claims dated June 2017. BUT the FCA takes the view that regardless of previous LOA's and contracts, the 20% fee cap date is from when the PPI claim was initiated (ie when the PPI claim was actually made to the lender).

FCA made that a specific requirement when they took enforcement action against them and the requirements are still in force.


req.PNG

These still appear on FCA's website under 'Requirements' about half way down the page Symmetric Systems Limited (fca.org.uk)

Given that the PPI claims were settled in late 2019, it's doubtful that they were 'initiated' prior to when the fee cap came in (July 2018), some 16 month previously. It doesn't take 16+ months to deal with a PPI claim.


I doubt if you can deny the entire claim on the basis that you tried to cancel previously as you obviously accepted the PPI refunds which were the result of Bank Smart making the claims. But you could get the amount reduced as above. It occurred to me that the bar that has been put in place may be for jurisdictional reasons as you now reside in USA.

[Dina_Ruby]

Thank you so much for taking the time to help. Regarding the claim, I only have screenshots my Sister took of the papers which are hard to read. Is there anywhere I can find a digital copy to send you? Regarding the bar, I’m pretty sure I put my UK address down, maybe should have put US.

[Dina_Ruby]

The UK address is still in my name.

[EXC]

Thank you so much for taking the time to help. Regarding the claim, I only have screenshots my Sister took of the papers which are hard to read. Is there anywhere I can find a digital copy to send you? Regarding the bar, I’m pretty sure I put my UK address down, maybe should have put US.

The image of the court claim is fine. You had posted it up a few days ago but it had to be deleted as it had personal info. I just want to check that the figures on it tally with what I'm assuming they are in my analysis.

If or when the claim progresses, you'll receive an allocation questionnaire which includes a question asking what is the nearest county court to you because as the claimant is a company and you are an individual the claim always gets transferred to the defendant's local court. So I don't really know what happens in your circumstances where it's not practical for you to attend a hearing. It may be that the court decides to hold the hearing 'on paper', meaning the judge will decide the case without any of the parties present. But you'll have to cross that bridge when you come to it.