Won claim using Finacial Ombudsman

[laurajayne]

Hi all,

 

Just thought I'd let you know of my recent victory using the Financial Ombudsman as opposed to court. This route was free bar the postage to send off my complaint! Financial Ombudsman Service They now have bank charges reclaim help on their front pages

 

As a result, £1239 of charges has been refunded to my account! Yippee!

 

Good Luck

[sohoscribbler]

Congratulations! How long did it take?

[laurajayne]

From start to finsh, just over a month, so not that long. Think it all depends on your bank though

 

Just sent off SARs to Alliance and Leicester and Barclays...so heres hoping lol

[tifo]

on their website they state 6 - 9 MONTHS!

 

thats a very long time, but i think banks generally have to make a decision in 8 weeks, so i would guess the above 6 weeks is about right.

 

i may take this route and then court if the banks do not pay up in full.

 

theres a lot of good information about complaining and bank charges on the website, so its worth a look.

[tifo]

spoke to Financial Ombudsman today.

 

they said they are not looking at any cases now until the OFT report soon. Then they will be able to decide what is a reasonable charge. So if i send my complaint in now, it will go in a pile to be looked at after the report.

 

They also said it takes a long time and no way can they do anything in 6 - 8 weeks. Many many months as they have 1000s of complaints to look at!

[progenic7]

Hi Laurajayne,

 

going down that route were you able to reclaim the contractual interest, costs and fee's ect ?

[tifo]

i would think the Ombudsman will only get back the charges for you, and not any interest.

[Welsh Claimant]

I wrote the first letter to my bank questionning mortgage redepmption penalties, and they have responded that they do not believe that we have a case, and for our information, "we are not members of the Financial Services Ombudsman."

 

Does this mean that we cannot pursue the case through the Ombudsman?

[tifo]

any bank that is a member of the Financial Services Authority is covered within the Financial Ombudsman.

 

however, because they are a government body, they can look at any financial problem between a consumer and a company.

 

so the bank is taking the p***

[laurajayne]

i would think the Ombudsman will only get back the charges for you, and not any interest.

 

Correct, I wasn't paid any statutory interest on the amount...I'm just pleased to have my charges back