CFO drained my account RBS say its allowed - help

[Spiral123]

Hi,

Last week Capital Finance One took £175 out of my account from a loan going back to April 2011,

which I was unable to pay fully back at the time.

 

Stupidly I applied for a loan a few weeks back which must have been a sister company

and they then proceeded to attempt to empty my account.

 

I have been in contact with my bank Ulster/RBS who have been useless,

quoting that in your terms & conditions on original loan you would agreed to them using your debit card if passed to them from 3rd parties.

 

I did not send any letters to my bank unfortunately to cancel continuous authorisation payments,

 

is there any hope for me getting this money back as the bank are fobbing me off with telling me to take it up with CFO,

 

which will be a waste of a phone call, as it is nothing to do with them.

[dx100uk]

own thread created

 

dx

[dx100uk]

We have been telling people to put a letter into their bank instructing them not to make any payments under any circumstances to these companie

http://whatconsumer.co.uk/visa-debit-chargeback/- it works!

 

banks MUST follow written intructions from their customers !

This fsa guide has now been updated:

 

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/consumer_...ghts_guide.pdf

 

Here's the text:

 

Cancelling a regular

card payment:

 

When you give your credit or debit card

details to a company and authorise

them to take regular payments from

your account, such as for a gym

membership or magazine subscription,

it is known as a ‘recurring transaction’

or ‘continuous payment authority’.

These are often confused with direct

debits, but do not offer the same

guarantee if the amount or date of the

payment changes.

In most cases, regular payments can

be cancelled by telling the company

taking the payments. However, you

have the right to cancel them directly

with your bank or card issuer by telling

it that you have stopped permission for

the payments. Your bank or card issuer

must then stop them – it has no right to

insist that you agree this first with the

company taking the payments.

Be aware, though, that you will still be

responsible for paying any money that

you owe.

see: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?336569-How-to-remove-a-lender-s-continuous-payment-authority(2-Viewing)-nbsp

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/consumerinformation/product_news/banking/know_your_rights/solving/index.shtml

dx

[Spiral123]

Another prolonged call with RBS/UB, basically taking side of PD company despite me quoting FAS guidlines re unauthorised transactions.

[renegadeimp]

Write a formal complaint to the CEO. Never call them as you are dealing with minimum wage desk jockeys who havent been trained in the correct legislation.

[Ell-enn]

What was the name of the other company you applied to?

 

Did you actually get a loan from the new company?

[Spiral123]

Can't recall but was turned down anyhow.

 

Letter being drafted to customer relations branch.

[Ell-enn]

Did you receive a text on your mobile phone suggesting you apply to this other company? (this is how they lure you into giving your new details)

 

If you did not give CFO your new card details then they have obtained them fraudulently and you should be talking to the bank fraud team.

[renegadeimp]

Tbh thats pretty shady anyway. Having to provide your full bank/card details before you are even accepted for a loan.

[Spiral123]

Letters off to Complaints Dept & their CEO as follows:

 

Hopefully will get a better response than from the fraud/Chargeback & Investigations people I rang up, feckin useless they were, taking the loan company's side:

 

 

 

xxxxxxxxxxx UlsterBank

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ComplaintHandling Centre (CC.CEO Jim Brown)

 

xxxxxxx

 

xxxxxxxx

 

11th September 2012

 

 

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

I am writing to complain about the complete lack of assistance provided to me by your customer service team over the past 72 hours.

 

S/C: xxxxxxx A/C No: xxxxxxx

 

Branch: xxxxxxxx

 

Having checked my account balance on Friday 31st August 2012, I noticed 5 unauthorised transactions which were placed to my account totalling £175.00 by a company “Capital Finance One”. I called the chargeback service 0870 number and was put through to the disputed transactions team. They informed me that I should, in the first instance, contact the company responsible for the transaction and call them back once I had furtherinformation.

 

There is an outstanding loan I have with them which I am disputing, going back to May 2011. I have never at any time since this dispute authorised this company to take any payments from my debit card, and assuch these 5 transactions are fraudulent.

 

I have spoken to several members of the your disputed transactions team today and have now been told that because the company, Capital Finance One, is a financial institution, Ulster Bank cannot initiate the chargeback system orrefund the payments, which I understand to be against FAS guidelines. (I have lodged a complaint today with Neil in complaints section of investigations).

 

I have checked my legal position and have been advised that because I have disputed the payments, U B should have stopped and refunded the payments immediately. In fact, I also believe that U B should have declined the payments immediately given that the payments were of a repetitive nature in such a short space of time. I also understand that according to the Financial Services Authority Guidance for Banking customers, the following applies. Please not my comments are annotated in Bold.

 

"Your bank must refund an unauthorised transaction. Money can only betaken from your account if you have authorised the transaction or your bank canprove you were at fault.

 

I did not authorise the payments

 

Contact your bank immediately if you notice a payment out of your account thatyou did not authorise. If you are sure that you did not authorise the payment you can claim a refund.

 

I contacted you as soon as I became aware of the problem.

 

However, your bank does not have to refund you if you do not tell it about the payment until 13 months or more after the date it left your account.

Not applicable."

Further, it states:

"Your bank must only refuse a refund for an unauthorised transaction if:

it can prove you authorised the transaction – though your bank cannot simplysay that use of your password, card and PIN conclusively proves you authoriseda payment; or

it can prove you are at fault because you acted fraudulently or, because youdeliberately, or with gross negligence, failed to protect the details of yourcard, PIN or password in a way that allowed the transaction."

And Finally:

 

"The bank must make the refund immediately unless it has evidence that oneof the above reasons applies.

 

Your bank may ask you to answer some questions and fill out a form confirmingwhat has happened, but it cannot delay your refund while it waits for you toreturn the form. If the bank has evidence that one of the above reasons forrefusing a refund applies, it may investigate before making a refund but mustlook into it as quickly as possible.

If your bank rejects your claim for a refund it should explain why.

The fact that the person taking these payments is a financial body is not anacceptable reponse, and would not pass tests by the regulator

If the transaction was on a credit card, the refund may not happen immediately.But the card issuer cannot charge interest or ask for repayment of the amountunless it can prove that you are liable to pay."

 

 

 

 

Accordingly, I therefore instruct you to:

 

 

1. Refund the unauthorised payments immediately, pending investigation.

 

 

I would appreciate it if this could be actioned expeditiously, preferably today, as these funds taken from my account are for essential living expenses. Should you wish to discuss this with me further,please do not hesitate to contact me on xxxx xxxxxxxxxx, with a relevant telephone number I can contact and discuss the matter further.

 

If I am not satisified with the outcome I will have no option to place a formal complaint with the financial ombudsman, in which a £500 investigation fee will be charged to your company, regardless if thecomplaint is upheld or not.

 

 

 

Yours faithfully

 

 

 

Spiral 123

Edited September 11, 2012 by Spiral123

[Ell-enn]

Did you receive a text on your mobile phone suggesting you apply to this other company? (this is how they lure you into giving your new details)

 

If you did not give CFO your new card details then they have obtained them fraudulently and you should be talking to the bank fraud team.

 

Can you answer this please - we are trying to put together a picture of how CFO are operating - in effect they are using other companies as a debt collecting tool and are enticing poeple who owe them money by sending texts to get them to apply to the companies which will pass your bank details to them. We need to establish as many cases of this as possible in order to take it further.

[Spiral123]

Checked my email Ell-enn, it appears to have come from CFO lending.

[Ell-enn]

Checked my email Ell-enn, it appears to have come from CFO lending.

 

So is it CFO Lending you applied to for a new loan? Capital Finance One changed their name to CFO Lending!

[Spiral123]

Yep, seems to be, should have clicked with me CFO, but has been that long, failed to register. Still the only reason was to get their hands on my debit card details. Fighting this till the end.

[Ell-enn]

You effectively applied to the same company that you owe money to from a previous loan so they used your new details to get the money. You would have no chance fighting CFO for the money back, but you should certainly pursue with your bank for a refund.

[Spiral123]

O yeah it's the bank I am after for chargeback on unauthorised payments, not CFO, wouldn't waste a phone call on that shower.

[Spiral123]

:-xRang Bank today, told my complaint has been logged and someone will be in touch within 5 working days, this will probably be aletter to acknowledge receipt of complaint. This could be long drawn out I fear.

[renegadeimp]

See what happens with the complaint. If nothing comes of it, send a direct letter/email to the CEO of the bank. If you still dont get anywhere, then you can send a LBA. However, if you do this, make sure you are ready and willing to follow it through as banks get issued legal threats all the time and are ready to defend.

[Spiral123]

Had a phone call from Ulster/RBS Bank this morning regarding complaint I lodged. Basically they have checked with CFO and as there is an outstanding loan with them, (which I dont disagree with - it's the exorbitant charges that they levy is why I refused to pay all of it back in the first place.) they cannot do a chargeback in this case and the fact that in my terms & conditions of the loan said that CFO could debit my account if they recieved these card details from a third party. He also claimed that he has checked this position with the Ombudsman and the FSA and they have told him that they are right in this case!

 

Now, are the bank able to check with the Ombudsman/FSA in a dispute like this before stalemate? I think these guys are chancers and are hoping I will just take the word for it and go away. Any ideas on my next move or is this worth fighting for?

[renegadeimp]

Yoh must write to the ceo and exhaust the banks complaints system. Make sure to ask for a final response. Then you can take it to the fos andfsa.

[Spiral123]

Will do Renegageimp. Do you think they are try to pull the wool over my eyes? It clearly states on FSA:

 

"The fact that the person taking these payments is a financial body is not anacceptable reponse, and would not pass tests by the regulator".

So if FSA told them that they are in the right then they are going against their own guidelines!

[renegadeimp]

Your bank is breaking the law. Plain and simple.

[Spiral123]

Thanks, that's what I thought. When I recieve response letter from them, will highlight FSA points again to them and forward a copy to CEO Jim Brown and ask for a final response.

[Nao]

The Financial Services Authority told Money Box it had a clear interpretation of the directive regarding the cancellation of payments by bank customers: "Customers have the right to stop any payment leaving their account. No distinction whatsoever has been made for pay-day lenders or indeed any other group.

 

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19598492

[Spiral123]

Thanks Nao, will include that im final letter to them.