Thread: Banks Internal Complaints Procedure, and the FSA/FO complaints route.

Originally Posted by Todge

Looking through the cases on here, many appear to have gone straight to Summons (N1/MCOL) after following the Subject access request/Prelim/lba route.

Admittedly few (none?) get to court, but won't any case that does get heard be prejudiced by our not giving the banks complaints system and the Ombudsman route a fair chance?

Are we not obliged (CPR '98 ) to pursue other means (e.g. Complaint, FSA/FO appeal etc) prior to resorting to legal action?

What if a bank insists on going through this (possibly as a delaying tactic)? What can we do if they take this route?

Surely though, the fact the many banks/credit card companies already do acknowledge that we've 'made a complaint' to them show that we've gone down this route and failed to get resolution.

Certainly in my case both credit card companies I've approached so far have used the phrase "Thank you for your complaint" in their replies to me (one after S.A.R and the other after receiving my 'pre-lim' letter). I've seen similar responses in other Threads too.

Also, although I'm more than happy to be corrected on this, isn't it the complainant's perogative to choose the methodology of following their complaint?