I've just started battling Clydesdale Bank.

Opened a credit card account in 1991 but didn't see the "opt-out box".

Send in a claim for PPI refund but they refused, sending me a cheap photocopy of my original statement.

Always paid off my credit card in full every month for the first 12 years (until 2002).

Then went through a sticky patch having to make minimum payments.

While working abroad, didn't notice the PPI building up and the bank increasing my credit limit to accommodate this debt.

I ended up doubling my credit card debt and having to pay £200/month minimum payment for 8 years (until 2011) .

Having reduced my credit card bill,

I am now trying to reclaim all that money.

First time I sent a claim in, they sent me back a copy of my original credit card statement (retrieved from micro-fiche archive),

showing the PPI opt-out tick box empty.

They use this to justify not giving me a refund.

After the Financial Ombudsman instructed banks to return all PPI funds on accounts where no claim had been made,

I tried to make another claim.

They then sent me back a Final Response letter, saying that since I hadn't complained for 10 years,

and didn't respond to their statement in a May 2003 monthly statement, I must have been happy with the scheme.

Tried requesting a copy of every statement but they said to retrieve a single monthly statement would cost £10.

Have tried requesting a second copy of my credit card statement several times.

First time they said no problem, second time the agent was in tears,

third time they said my account number had changed,

fourth time they said no problem, be there in five days.

Still hasn't been sent out.

Currently in the process of filing a SAR in order to get all my account statements.

Obviously, if they have archived my original credit card agreement in microfiche, they must also have all the other statements.

Having been servicing this debt for the past 10 years had prevented me from performed any personal career development to the extent

I wasn't able to find employment in the UK for a year.

Having found employment abroad,

I am now in Mad Max mode.

so you didn't tick the opt out box?

thus this means it was compulsory surely?

dx

Here's a digital photograph of the bank's photocopy of the check-box in the agreement:

postimage.org/image/ltxvjm5h9/

Though I am sure I ticked the box, but only a true-copy would tell for sure.

I wasn't advised by anyone. The only information was a small black/white leaflet with small print barely readable full of bankerese.

scan the required letters/agreements/sheets - as a picture[jpg] file

don't forget you can use a mobile phone or a digital camera too!!

or

convert existing PC files to PDF [office has an installable print to PDF option]

.

'

BUT......

ENSURE: remove all pers info inc. barcodes etc using paint program

but leave all figures and dates. {DO NOT USE A BIRO OR PEN]

.

goto one of the many free online pdf converter websites

it would be better to upload a multipage pdf if

you have many images too rather than many single pdfs

.

or if you have PDF as an installed printer drive use that

or use word and save as pdf

.

open a new msg box here

hit go advanced below the msg box

hit manage attachments below that box

hit the add files button on the top right

hit select files, navigate to your file on your pc

hit upload files

.

.

dx

Clydesdale are notorious for not complying with SAR's and will do all they can to wriggle out. Complain to the Information Commissioners Office.

There's a thread here with contact details too. It's quite old so some names may have changed but the numbers might help. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?3994-Clydesdale-Bank-Contact-Details

I know one person got a good result after phoning their Compliance Manager, but it was a while ago. I'll see if I can find the details.

Thanks,

I haven't submitted a SAR request.

I did get a copy of my original credit card agreement (all 16 pages!),

though only the last page had anything that had to be ticked and signed.

Unfortunately, another family member threw out the other 15 pages during some housekeeping and the bank isn't being too helpful.

So my only option is do the SAR .

Being out of the country just now makes it tricky in getting the £10 postal order.

get your family to do it

dx

here the box in PDF

thats outrageuos

making you tick a box

to say YOU DONT want PPI.

so by default they charge you.

nice!!

dx

Hi msar, I am in exactly the same boat as you, Had cc since 2002 and have probably paid 10k in ppi to this, roughly £50 p/m they have said because it is over 10 years and I have been happily paying etc etc

They have said the letter is their final response to the complaint and that to contact the ombudsman.

Also they have too sent the application form, but there is no opt out box for PPI and only a yes for it, and we were advised we couldn't have a cc unless we took it.

Is the ombudsman my only avenue and am I likely to get anywhere/anything - just cancelled the PPI now..

Thanks for the advice. I know how to use OpenOffice and PDF export

Here is the original contract and the response from Clydesdale Bank PPI team.

Some interesting things to notice about the contract for anyone currently in dispute with Clydesdale bank:

At the bottom of the contract, there is mention of the 1984 Data Protection Act and how information will

be stored on a computer. So for them to say that any records before 2005 are not covered by the Data Protection Act is a load of bankerswaffle.

The PPI clause is the only option that requires to be ticked in order to not be applied.

My credit card limit would have been easily covered by my income, so there was no need for PPI.

In turn, you can read their final response where they claim that since I didn't complain about PPI for 10 years, I must have been happy with it. That's because I always paid the oustanding amount every month so there was no PPI to pay, and didn't even know about it. They cite the year 2003, so in effect they admit that they never informed me about this for 12 years.

If you look at the top of the pages, you will see a couple of FAX numbers. This is the microfiche retrieval company sending photocopies extracted by microfiche reader to the bank. I've used those myself. They will have to manually go through thousands of boxes containing dozens of micro-photographs of A4 pages to find every stored page.

Next stage is to file a SAR and retrieve every single transaction for 20 years in order to find out how much I have paid in PPI and compound interest.

Interesting that response is exactly the same as mine expect for the dates - do you think we have a strong case, will the ombudsman force them to offer?

Has anyone been successful getting anything from the Rob-dale bank

first we've heard of this box

but as it looks, the FOS would rule IN your favour

the PPI WAS selected by default

you had to specifically tick a box to UNSUB from it.

a quick call to the FOS tomorrow would confirm it.

dx

I've read other sites where some people did win after playing three-table ping-pong with the Financial Ombudsman and the bank. In one case the bank did pay back the disputed amount on condition the customer didn't talk about the agreement, which seems a bit odd. There's a 75% success rate with the FO. I just hope they can see through the bankerswaffle and rule on our side.

On the good side, "opt-in by default" isn't looked on favorably by the legal industry. Usually you have to mark and sign to confirm.

Great stuff, thanks for taking the time out to reply, let's hope I can get somewhere with this and you can get some closure too.....

Thanks

Alex

Here's an excellent link (page 3):

financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/71/71.htm

Bank instructed person to just signed next to the X's, which of course meant he signed up for PPI. Ombudsman ruled in favour of him as there was evidence of tampering and that he was badly advised.

The Consumer Protection Act is another good reference. Section 2 - Wording should be plain and simple. Having to tick a box to "opt-out" of a scheme is obviously a shabby and sleezy attempt to bait people.

What really has me furious is that I have had to be subsidized by my parents out of their pension all the time I was doing my university studies. They were helping pay the minimum payments of £200/month for four years at least (200 x 12 x 4) which meant they couldn't buy new clothes or even travel to visit friends (some of whom have already died). Also had to use up all my savings from working abroad just to pay the rent. UK banking system just seems to be the financial equivalent of a vacuum bomb. While those banking execs were buying up golf courses, paying themselves bumper bonuses, the rest of us were/are struggling to live from day to day.

Received an acknowledgement letter from the Financial Ombudsman (17th October 2012), but it didn't arrive until today. At least I now have a reference number and know the package didn't get lost.

Received another acknowledgement letter from the Financial Ombudsman (31st October 2012).

Dear MSAR,

your complaint about Clydesdale Bank Plc (trading as Yorkshire Bank).

(Bizarre - I thought Clydesdale Bank were owned by National Australia Bank. Funny think is the only time I have seen Clydesdale bank associated with Yorkshire bank was in my PPI correspondance - that seems rather sketchy).

Thank you for sending use your PPI questionnaire and complaint form. We now have all of

the information that we need from you to set up your case.

Your complaint reference number is XXXX-XXXX/XXXX Please quote this whenever you

contact us.

what happens next

We will deal with your complaint as soon as we can, but it may take some time before we

can tell you what we think. (Sounds just like the Clydesdale Bank's new slogan --- "always thinking"). I don't want to know what you are thinking. I want to you make a final decision.

We handle complaints in the order that they arrive, and at the moment yours is waiting to

be investigated by our case-handling team. Because a large number of people are asking

us to look into their PPI complaints, we aim to give you an outcome within 12 months. But if

your case is particularly complicated or an ombudsman has to make a decision, it could

take longer.

Either way, we will contact you within six months with an update. In the meantime, if your

circumstances change significantly, please let us know. We might consider prioritising your

case if:

O you are in serious financial difficulty

O you are seriously ill

O you are threatened with legal action about your complaint

O Clydesdale Bank contacts you with an offer

Yours sincerely

Charmaine Adjetey

Case Assessor

direct line 0800 121 6222

direct fax 020 7964 1001

email [email protected]

Just for good measure, they add on two pages of the consumer factsheet on the financial ombudsman

Some time ago I sent a request to the bank asking to tell me what my total PPI contributions were. Thought they would keep track of these things like they would account balances, and send me a total amount: Finally got a reply after all this time:

[ATTACH]39418[/ATTACH]

It took them all that time to tell me that the interest rate was 0.078% per month, and it seems they have caught on to the Data Protection Act by asking for a £10 fee.

It confirms what I suspected, and that PPI doubled my credit card debt from £4600 in May 2002 to £8300 by January 2003.

That's a set of eight PPI payments:

May 2002 £359,

Jun 2002 £386

Jul 2002 £417

Aug 2002 £450

Sep 2002 £484

Oct 2002 £522

Nov 2002 £563

Dec 2002 £600

After that the PPI was cancelled, but for the next nine years, I was only able to make minimum payments of £200/month.

Just received the results of my SAR today. Specifically requested all statements from 2001 to present day (2012), but only received the statements from November 2006 to December 2012.

But they confirm at least that I was paying £55 in PPI every month from 2006 to 2008 (I know this goes all the way back to 2002).

Under the Data Protection Act, aren't I supposed to get every piece of information and not just the six years that financial institutions are supposed to keep data for?

why nothing pre jan 07

do they say?

dx

There is no explanation. A whole bundle (1 inch thick of statements) came in the post today. Just the following cover page:

Data Protection Act 1998 - Data Subject Access Request

We refer to your recent request for information under the above Act and now enclose the relevant information.

Martin Kean

Retail Services

-----

I'm just filling in the spreadsheet just now. Both December 2007 and November 2007 are missing, but they did provide me with December 2006 and November 2006 instead

pers i'd write back and say where is the data pre dd/mm/yyy unless the 40 days are not up yet?

dx

The 40 days are up. My SAR request was received 9th November 2012.

The copies were sent out 30th November 2012. Took some time to get through the post. Some statements have been duplicated while as well.

Have sent the bank an E-mail today. If the bank doesn't provide me with the statements, the next stage is a complaint to the ICO.

I believe the bank is trying to reduce their PPI liability by trying to forget about the earlier years. Up to 2007, the spreadsheet calculator gives me 1800 pounds. For each preceding year, the total interest on each ££55 payment goes up by £7. From 2002, a PPI payment of £55 provides £45 of interest. Those earlier years add up to £7000.

Yes you should get it all but they might try saying they're not required to keep anything longer than 6 years. They'll probably try and say you can't claim anything from over 6 years ago. They'll do all they can to make life difficult and put you off claiming. Don't let them!!

Contacted the Financial Ombudsman today, as I have already registered a case back in October. Financial Ombudsman contacted the bank 10th December and are still waiting for a reply, which they hope to receive by January 10th, next year. Currently writing a complaint to the ICO.

I know they have records going all the way back to 1991 as they were able to produce an original copy of my CCA.