looby and capital one

[loobyloop]

Hi i have been sending all the usual letters to cap one and today finally got a reply, they will refund 625.00 on a 2000.00 claim now im not willing to accept this so do i sign there form and include a letter with it stating that i accept only as part payment and without prejudice and that i will be taking them to court? sorry but its my first time of doing this and dont want to make mistake.

[Budgie]

Re: looby and capital one

Hi Looby,

Please can you let us know a few more details regarding your claim so that we may better advise you.

What stage are you at with the claim, have you sent preliminary letter and or LBA? How is your claim broken down, is the £2000 all charges or charges plus interest.? If it includes interest how did you calculate this?
When were the charges incurred ( which years ) and is the account with them still open, is there a balance on the account?

My own personal view is that you should NOT accept any part payment from them. But I and others will be able to better advise when we know a bit more about your claim.

Best Regards Budgie

[loobyloop]

Re: looby and capital one

sorry just wrote a quick question,right here goes i sent of for statements got them fairly quick added them up came to 1706.00 plus 8% intrest of 468.46 which totals 2174.46 sent first letter no reply sent LBA got a letter this morning offering as a goodwill gesture 584.00 plus 45.00 intrest. It says if i sign it they will consider the complaint dealt with.My account is still open and in arrears by 600.00 and the charges are from 8/2/02 hope this makes it more clearer.

[Budgie]

Re: looby and capital one

[quote from loobyloop] sorry just wrote a quick question,right here goes i sent of for statements got them fairly quick added them up came to 1706.00 plus 8% intrest of 468.46 which totals 2174.46 sent first letter no reply sent LBA got a letter this morning offering as a goodwill gesture 584.00 plus 45.00 intrest. It says if i sign it they will consider the complaint dealt with.My account is still open and in arrears by 600.00 and the charges are from 8/2/02 hope this makes it more clearer.[/quote]

Thanks Looby, much clearer.

OK first thing, it's no coincidence that Capital One are making you a settlement offer that is virtually identical to your outstanding balance. They are trying to make you think "Hey, if I accept the offer I will not owe them anything" and to a lot of people that is probably quite tempting.
I don't suppose they have justified their offer by saying that they are refunding the difference between the amount of each charge and a £12 level charge, that's usually how their first offer works?

I notice you are claiming statutory interest at 8%! Did you use a spreadsheet to calculate this interest and if so which one did you use?
The amount of interest you have claimed seems about right for such a claim but it is obvioulsy dependant on the time period over which all the charges were applied etc. Please PM me a copy of your spreadsheet if you would like me to check it for you !!

Did you consider claiming compound interest at Capital One's contractural rate rather than just claiming the statutory 8% rate ( IE the interest rate and method they would normally use when charging you interest). This would add a much larger, although in my view, fully justifiable amount to the interest portion of your claim. A word of warning here though, it will be more difficult to argue for compound interest if your claim were to proceed to Court and quite a bit more work for you personally to learn about how to claim the interest on this basis etc. I would be happy to give you some help with this if you would like to go for it. But if you are happy just going for the 8% statutory then fine, no problem.

Personally I would write back to them, refusing their derisory offer, state that you will not accept anything other than immediate, full and unconditional settlement of your claim. Also advise them that you will not accept any part payments, however they might make them to you and that you will return to them any such part payments that they might make in future. This is sometimes very difficult to do as they have a habit of crediting partial payments to people's credit card accounts, in fact you might find that they have already done so. I would give them another 14 days to settle your claim in full at which time you will proceed to file your claim in Court for recovery. Somewhere on the LB site I am sure you will find a derisory offer letter which you can adapt for use in this claim.

Hope that is helpful!

Please feel free to come back with any questions you might have.

Rgds Budgie

[loobyloop]

Re: looby and capital one

thanks budgie i will send them the letter refusing and if they dont refund the full amount i will go through court. I think i will only ask for 8% as i dont want to get out of my depth as i am not as knowledgable about these things as you are.I thank you very much for your replies and i will get back to you if i have any more problems or questions if that is ok with you.

[Budgie]

Re: looby and capital one

Hey, no problem Looby, it's your claim and you should handle it exactly as you wish. I am just looking for Legal beagles derisory offer template letter for you to adapt and will post a link here for you as soon as I can find it.

Please feel free to fire any questions you might have as your claim progresses.

I have just filed my own court claim for my Capital One account so am only just a bit ahead of you. Good luck with yours !!

Budgie

[Paule]

Re: looby and capital one

There You Go

Legal Beagles

[Budgie]

Re: looby and capital one

Here's a basic one that I used for my own claim.

Please feel free to adapt it for your own use.


Account No: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


Dear Sir or Madam,

Please see attached copies of our recent correspondence.

Thank you for your letter dated xx/xx/xxxx, received today, xx/xx/xxxx.

I note that you have offered £xxx.xx as a gesture of goodwill, I must inform you that I will not be accepting this offer, which I consider to be derisory.

As outlined in my earlier correspondence I explained that the charges you have applied to my account are contrary to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Further or in the alternative, I believe that your charges are a Penalty. Penalty charges are irrecoverable at common law. The precedent for this was Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor co Ltd [1915] AC 79.along with Murray v. Leisure play [2005] EWCA Civ 963

The £12 mentioned in your letter, dated xx/xx/xxxx, has been set by the Office Of Fair Trading as a figure that was deemed fair and may or may not reflect any actual and or real loss. Should you wish to provide me with a detailed breakdown of your liquidated costs in relation to these charges, and show that they are in fact £12, I will consider your offer.

Although in my letter dated xx/xx/xxxx I informed you that I would start legal proceedings within xx days, as a gesture of goodwill I will give you an extra 7 days to make a full and unconditional refund of the requested amount. Since first writing to you on xx/xx/xxxx interest has continued to accrue on the outstanding amount. So I take this opportunity to submit further revised figures. The total amount I now require you to repay is £xxxx.xx ( £xxx.xx charges plus £xxxx.xx interest – the interest has now been calculated up to xx/xx/xxxx ) Revised spreadsheet is attached.

Should you fail to meet my request within 7 days I will be forced to start legal proceedings; you will receive no further warnings.

Should you wish to discuss this matter my mobile telephone number is xxxxx-xxxxx

Yours Sincerely