PBA Claim for relative, Unusual

AndyCF · 14 February 2017 at 12:13PM

I'll try to explain this as best as I can.

A couple of years ago I successfully claimed my own PBA/PPI back (unfortunately I used a company to do it but I know better now)

However it was brought to my attention that is is possible to reclaim for a relative. Now to cut it short, they passed away in Dec 2012 and left everything to me as I was their full time carer and I lived with them anyway.

The solicitor dealing with their will / estate is no longer trading and its very difficult to locate all the paperwork however I have managed to see I can obtain a copy of the Probate and Will to prove this from the .gov site for a nominal £10 fee.

What I want to attempt to claim for is the fact that my relative was more or less (as far as I can tell) "setup" with a Lloyds TSB 'Platinum' account around 2001 or 2002, the exact date I cannot be sure of, I'm going to assume this happened when they received a POW lump sump as previous to that they would not of had anywhere e like sufficient funds for said account.

I do not have any account specifics apart from the account number and details of another 'savings' account unfortunately. The 'last printout' ie a statement was with the solicitor who has ceased trading.

I do know he was charged for this account however, a monthly fee. I'm not sure how much, looking online it seems to be £17 but something actually tells me he was charged £20 for this. I could be wrong however but I'm reasonably sure it was Platinum account.

Now looking as best as I can this was not suitable for them for several reasons, I'll list it as best as I can:

1. The 'health or travel insurance' , apart from them being about on the age limit they would of been excluded due to having a heart attack in the mid-80's

2. Some kind of mobile phone cover, but he did not have any mobile device.

3. Some kind of credit card cover, but again he never in his life had a credit card (not even a 'chip/pin card' only ever had a 'hole in the wall cashpoint card)

There may be other items too but that's as far as I've got as I'm unable to locate a suitable "benefits of this account" type information for that time period.

Watching the show a week or three ago I see its possible to make a claim for this as it appears valid to be able to claim for deceased relatives and I am reasonably confident I can prove I am entitled as I recall I took the paperworks (death cert etc) to the bank at the time of his passing, end of Dec 2012.

I would just like to know if there *anything to lose* by firing a letter to Lloyds TSB ? And if so which one now they are split ? If its any help the branch he was with is now a TSB branch not Lloyds.

Secondly would it matter too much if I was mistaken and it was not a Platinum account and a different one ? It was one of the 'higher' ones though as said "POW payout" was 10K

I realise this is potentially running late

however it was as I mention only a couple of weeks ago I realised that this was actually possible...

I'd be very grateful for any advice please...

dunstonh · 14 February 2017 at 12:36PM

What I want to attempt to claim for is the fact that my relative was more or less (as far as I can tell) "setup" with a Lloyds TSB 'Platinum' account around 2001 or 2002, the exact date I cannot be sure of, I'm going to assume this happened when they received a POW lump sump as previous to that they would not of had anywhere e like sufficient funds for said account.

Were you present at that meeting to be able to be able to make that sort of allegation?

The executor of the estate can make complaints but they are more limited to factual information rather than allegations of what may or may not be said at meetings or events that they were not party to.

I would just like to know if there *anything to lose* by firing a letter to Lloyds TSB ? And if so which one now they are split ? If its any help the branch he was with is now a TSB branch not Lloyds.

To Lloyds.

Secondly would it matter too much if I was mistaken and it was not a Platinum account and a different one ? It was one of the 'higher' ones though as said "POW payout" was 10K

You appear to be complaining on the basis of that account. if it isnt that account and you start naming the benefits of that account then you are going to damage the complaint.

AndyCF · 14 February 2017 at 4:11PM

Thank you for your prompt and helpful reply.

I may of phrased part of my initial post badly, sorry.

By "setup" I did not mean "stitched up" , I meant "set up" as in "supplied with" , if that makes sense ?

I hope so.

The charges certainly appeared a long time ago and there's no way he would of been eligible for that type of account before he received said POW payout.

I think perhaps instead of saying "Platinum" I may be best just saying something along the lines of "A premium/paid account" or such.

I guess I will have to see what is said. I suppose the worst is "no" , I've just not done this before so as its not quite a standard one as such I was slightly confused as to where to start with it.

-taff · 14 February 2017 at 4:51PM

Just phone them and complain, you will probably need to provide proof you can complain on his behalf.
Just say waht you've said above, he had no use for any of the supposed benefits.

Nasqueron · 14 February 2017 at 5:17PM

Quite possible also they will time-bar it given he died in 2012 and it's over the 3 years you'd be given to raise a complaint from knowing about the problem i.e. inheriting his stuff I assumed you'd have cancelled the accounts etc so would have known he had the paid for account. Not to say they will of course but just be aware.

Focus on the benefits being of no use rather than considering it an unfair charge or an expensive one - it's quite possible he wanted it, if you weren't party to the conversation in the bank you can't say otherwise.

AndyCF · 14 February 2017 at 6:29PM

Thank you both.

No, I was not party to him 'obtaining' ( ? ) said account status at that time but it seems that none of the benefits that were offered (at least as far as I can ascertain) would of been any use to him... He was quite happy with a regular account and a 'cash machine' card, he did not have a 'chip/pin/switch' type card it was a simple 'hole in the wall only' card.

I realise the time is quite a while although he did manage his own account as such.

I'm awaiting a copy of the Probate and Will from the .gov site anyway which may be ten days or so I would estimate.

Regarding 'cancellation' well it was about 2 days 'after' I took a certificate to the local branch to inform them of it as they were closed prior to this (weekends eh) and the nice man at the counter took a copy of the certificate, he did not want to keep it even though I had obtained several, thinking they bank would want one "on file" and left it at that, I do not recall the specific conversation but obviously the accounts were "frozen" at that moment in time, until such as their contents were transferred over to myself a few months later via the solicitor etc.

I think I will await said paperworks from the .gov site (as mentioned within about ten days) and then proceed with a letter as I'm not very good on the phone

Thank you all.

I will naturally update this thread with any relevant information once I've 'started the ball rolling' so to speak.

AndyCF · 15 February 2017 at 9:58AM

Occurred to me I won't be able to use the tool to 'build' a letter as I do not have enough specific information so I will have to write a manual letter out (not a big issue) once I've looked at a few templates for inspiration.

As mentioned previously I'll update this thread with my 'progress'

Worst case is they will say "no, go away" I guess, and it can only really improve from that... That is my positive way of looking at this anyway.

AndyCF · 6 November 2017 at 11:09AM

I wanted to update this topic with the results as such, even though it has been a while.

Summary is I ended up contacting the bank twice and they did look into it however their letter to me had two almost discrepancies in it. One such example being it said they could only check six years of records, but in the same paragraph stated they had looked from 2001 to 2013, now 2013 - 2001 is greater than 6 for one thing.

I want to be honest here, if any monies returned were under say £50 , for instance if the fee was only paid a couple of times over the years I would of simply given that straight to a charity (yes really)

Anyway I decided to speak to the Ombudsman to have them take a quick look at the letter / case, rather than speak again to the bank. I provided them with all the details they requested.

They were relatively quick with this and sent me a lovely detailed letter, there was nothing actually due back to due to the account being over the account fee payment level as such.

The only minor issue I had here was simply if the bank had gone into the same detail level instead of skimping on the details, there would of been no need to involve the Ombudsman and I would of drawn a line under it there and then.

Anyway it is all resolved now, nothing was due back. Praise to the Ombudsman for their clear explanation about it all.

PBA Claim for relative, Unusual

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