I reclaimed LTSB account FEE's and GOT THEM

TheLoopyOne · 1 August 2009 at 10:08PM

Yes, you read that right.
I reclaimed the ordinary account FEE's and got what couldn't be justified back.
This happened a few months ago but my life's been upside down and to be honest I'd forgotten about it.

I didn't use magic, just plain old common sense.
While reviewing my wife's account CHARGES the FEE's stood out as having changed at some point.
Looking a little deeper the account had changed from a GOLD account to a PLATINUM account but it was costing a fortune, especially the time the fee was taken and actually put her into unauthorised OD.............:mad:
So I looked into the various accounts and their merits then wrote the following letter;

Do not use this letter as a template, it must be written to suit your situation !!!!

Mrs. xyz xyz

24th February 2009

The Manager
Lloyds TSB bank
Anytown
Near you
XYZ 123

Dear Sir. Ref: Account number: pay/me/my/money

On or around the 1st January 2006 the above numbered account was “upgraded” from Gold to Platinum on the advice of one of your account advisors who advised me that it would save me money.

I believe that this advice constitutes miss-selling of a financial product since I believe it was not in my best interests and I was not fully informed of the appropriate conditions regarding that advice considering my circumstances.

International mobile phone insurance. I haven’t been abroad for 16 years due to my medical conditions precluding insurance and my phone is added to my Husbands contract with his own insurance.
Air-miles benefits. See above
Worldwide travel insurance. See above.
Airport lounge service. See above.
Airport meet and greet service upgrade. See above
Save my numbers service. My mobile phone is synchronised with my PC on a weekly basis.
Sentinel card protection. My cards and cash are already covered by my home insurance and I don’t go abroad (see above)
AA breakdown cover. I don’t travel alone outside a 30 mile radius of my Husbands work where he has 24hour access to recovery vehicles and when I travel further it’s with my husband who has his own breakdown cover as supplied through his employer.

Overdraft, free interest on the first £250 of a planned overdraft. Worth approximately £66 against account fees paid worth £205

Unless you can satisfactorily justify to me that this account upgrade was fair, reasonable and in my best interests considering my circumstances and account usage I am requesting a full refund of all payments and subsequent interest on these payments that I’ve paid to date. As I also believe I have been deprived of this money I also expect 8% statutory interest, the amount a court would award, to be added to each payment made.

I look forward to a full and prompt response to this letter and for the matter to be concluded within eight weeks or I shall be contacting the Financial Ombudsman to investigate this complaint.

Yours Faithfully

Ok. I didn't get the interest but i did get 2 years of fees back less the amount it had actually saved;
£410 less £132 = £278 REFUND !!!!!

Technically they have already justified how it would save more than what it costs, but when a helpful staff member tells you "it'll save you money" you sign don't you ?
Isn't it upto that same staff member to ensure it would actually save you money ?
In my case I JUSTIFIED why it didn't save me money and challenged them to prove me wrong, and that's probably the only course of action to take.
If you can't, then you won't. Obvious really.

Now dig out those statements again and go over your "privileges" with a fine tooth comb and get your thinking caps on. Justify just one and write off for your FEE's back.
I did.

P.S. Any mention of bridges and living under them will be treated with the contempt they deserve. If any ranking MOD wants proof then I'm only too happy to send them copies of the acknowledgement and refund by whichever means they require.

natweststaffmember · 2 August 2009 at 8:08AM

Straight forward case, the letter was very comprehensive in that it clearly shows that medical conditions prevent a lot of the benefits from being used and therefore was no benefit to you. In fact it is clear that any reasonable person would not have taken it out and therefore a refund was the right thing to do. However, it is unlikely that this will necessarily be in the majority of cases where people have upgraded their accounts.

natweststaffmember · 2 August 2009 at 8:37AM

Can you post up their letter to you?

TheLoopyOne · 2 August 2009 at 1:56PM

natweststaffmember wrote: »

However, it is unlikely that this will necessarily be in the majority of cases where people have upgraded their accounts.

Could you explain that a bit more please ?
Technically my wife did upgrade her account, we don't know when or how since she simply doesn't remember very much that's happened over the last two years.
How many other people actually realise what you've said about "this account was the wrong account" (paraphrased) applies to them too ?
"you can't reclaim fees" is a mantra you see plastered all over reclaim websites, maybe people should step back and actually look at what those fees are paying for.........
(Lots of padded out junk in the majority of cases)

I'll try to post up the reply later, I'll have to type it unless I can find the camera lead.

natweststaffmember · 2 August 2009 at 2:06PM

TheLoopyOne wrote: »

Could you explain that a bit more please ?
Technically my wife did upgrade her account, we don't know when or how since she simply doesn't remember very much that's happened over the last two years.
How many other people actually realise what you've said about "this account was the wrong account" (paraphrased) applies to them too ?
"you can't reclaim fees" is a mantra you see plastered all over reclaim websites, maybe people should step back and actually look at what those fees are paying for.........
(Lots of padded out junk in the majority of cases)

I'll try to post up the reply later, I'll have to type it unless I can find the camera lead.

There are reasons why the mantra of not reclaiming the account fees.
(1) They may well find that they are eligible for most of the benefits
(2) They have no thought to query them before
(3) You cannot demonstrate that even though you have the benefits you won't use them.

In your case, there is clear medical evidence which indicates that you will never use the main parts of the benefit ie travel related benefits and so therefore the bank have refunded, from what I can gather, 2 years worth of fees but not the first 6 months, is that right(more or less)? I would say that it is reasonable to assume that if the FOS had looked at the case that they would have judged it the same because clearly there was no assessment as to whether you could benefit enough from the package involved and that you clearly didn't reap the rewards apart from roughly £66.00(which now answers my question of how they worked out the refund).

TheLoopyOne · 2 August 2009 at 2:27PM

That's a bit clearer.
In answer to your query, she was charged 24 fees (2 years). All of which we were refunded less the amount those fee's had actually saved us (£66 pa)

I wouldn't "fall for it" but by otherwise intelligent "A" level achieving wife did, possibly because with hindsight she shouldn't have been making any finacial decisions at that time.
I assume that she essentially believed what she was told by a LTSB staff member, "it would save her money" without actually checking how that assumption was arrived at.

natweststaffmember · 2 August 2009 at 2:57PM

TheLoopyOne wrote: »

That's a bit clearer.
In answer to your query, she was charged 24 fees (2 years). All of which we were refunded less the amount those fee's had actually saved us (£66 pa)

I wouldn't "fall for it" but by otherwise intelligent "A" level achieving wife did, possibly because with hindsight she shouldn't have been making any finacial decisions at that time.
I assume that she essentially believed what she was told by a LTSB staff member, "it would save her money" without actually checking how that assumption was arrived at.

I'll be blunt with you and say that there maybe a case on those that can prove going through their benefits that because of specific reasons that it would be impossible for them to use certain benefits of what is called a "packaged account"(or bells and whistles account as I call it. That means that they can clearly show that they benefit very minutely to the benefits provided. In your case I think your letter is fantastic because it clearly gives the benefits and why you didn't benefit from it.
I think each individual should look at their account and should go through it with a fine tooth comb and use your letter as a guide as to how to put together a letter.
I take my hat off to you. Had you come on the forum and said "can i claim these fees back" I would have said no. However, perhaps my approach may be slightly varied based on this thread.

TheLoopyOne · 2 August 2009 at 3:09PM

As someone who's been a player in "the game" so to speak I take that as a huge compliment :T

I have to admit i didn't think I stood a chance in hell but for the price of an evenings work and a stamp it was worth a go, if only to cause LTSB some hassle

As it is it was possibly the easiest £48 per hour I've ever earnt.:j

I reclaimed LTSB account FEE's and GOT THEM

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