Thread: Abbey close account

Hi,

My partner has just received a letter from Abbey giving her 14 days notice to close her account - some three months after she sued them for her money back.

So, beware - just like the school bully, they will be spitefull to the end.

The best bit of this though, is that they have charged her about 300 quid since December in charges, due to their own cheque taking 6 working days to clear, when my partner was informed that it would be 4 days. Their ATM balance showed that the amount was available to draw on - even though, due to their greed, the cheque hadn't cleared yet.

So, I guess there's going to be another 'Litigation in Progress' entry added very soon.

....and a quick letter to the Ombudsman about how the bank has chosen to close her account due to her standing up for her statutory rights!!

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That's out of order!!

Let us know how you get on.

If it were me i'd write back telling them to stick the account up their

Probably as childish as them but so what

Actually, I INSISTED that they close my account (not a clever move in hindsight) - this is my partners case.

For the information of the group: she did indeed get all her money back - they made an offer of 50% which we politely declined (wasn't that hard - I remember not being able to buy badly needed shoes for my daughter because they had taken a total of £400 from us combined in one month).

They replied with an offer of 100%.

We accepted - there was no mention of closing the account, but to be honest this did suprise me. Why would they want to do business with someone who has just sued them?

However, I (and my partner) sued them because it is our belief that they are acting outside of the law. All we did was excersise our rights a UK citizens (subjects?) and when they refused to operate their business within the bounds of simple contract law, we took our own action.

If everyone who stands up for their rights in this country is allowed to be treated the same way, then God forbid where this country will end up.

I still am adament that this is not lawful in itself - we are FORCED to have a bank account - so their 'cartel' position allows them to act outside the law and when pulled up on it, they cause as much damage as possible.

In this case it's not really an issue - the tiny overdraft my partner has on her account is drawfed by the charges and she has another bank account already set up (spookily, she asked her employer to pay her wages into her new account just last night - maybe she had a premonition!!?).

However, this site is about getting banks to act fairly - this isn't fair at all, and therefore, she will most likely be suing Abbey again for the small amount of charges and making a complaint to the Obudsman.

The Ombudsman will charge the bank (I think £370) in the event of a complaint win or lose.

I suggest anyone that has been sent a letter back from any bank advising them that the charges have been applied fairly and that they can take it further by going to the ombudsman to do so.

The obudsman won't do much, but at least it will cost the banks money - it was after all, their suggestions.

Continue with your claim on your terms/timetable at the same time by all means though.

Eventually, we'll change their standard letters offering an alternative to them acting fairly by going to an official body that won't (or can't don't get me wrong - I think the Ombudsman does a good job and needs to be there - it's just, quite rightly, they won't get drawn into contract disputes) do much about it.

Originally Posted by Robertxc

And anyway, come on Dave, Abbey will certainly be reading all these posts with interest, by now they will have figured out who you are. You didn't really think they would let you keep an account, did you?

At the moment I have only been able to identify Barclaycard, lloydstsb and HSBC as the bank lurkers.

My 'lurker' program isn't that sophisticated just yet, and I've been too busy to 'beef' it up.

Oddly, I phoned Barclaycard yesterday, and once they realised who I was, I got shuffled through to their Head of DPA immediatly. Even the chap I spoke to chuckled when he said "have you been getting these letters off the Internet" and my reply was "yes, I put them there!".

They actually did give her 30 days - that was my mistake.

That is my understanding.

It's probably meant as a deterrent to the banks to p*ss their customers off.

However, hardly anyone uses the Ombudsman so the banks are seemingly free to p*ss off who they want.

Yes the system is open to abuse. Usually though it is the banks that abuse their system to their favour.

I suggest that every time the bank writes a letter saying "Sorry, but no - have a word with the ombudsman if you want", that people do exactly that.

Then they would only be following the advice of the bank itself - hardly an abuse of the system if the bank themselves recommended that route.

I think it's a good idea.

They can hardly claim harrasement OR abuse of service if they recommended the course of action in the first place.

They shouldn't have started on us!