Banking Ombudsman

Wolfhound

Hi, has anyone complained to the Banking Ombudsman about Cash ISA's.
Is it worth doing ? Thanks.

turbobob

There's no such thing as the Banking Ombudsman, it's been replaced by the Financial Ombudsman Service now. If you have a complaint you have to complain to the company concerned first. Then if you are dissatisfied with the response (or after 8 weeks if no final response issued..) you can go to FOS.

What is the complaint out of interest?

Wolfhound

I've already been through the complaints procedure with Lloyds TSB. Of course it turns out that it was my stupid fault for opening an ISA with them in the first place :rotfl:

I don't know why i'm laughing though, never in my life have I come across such an incompetent shower :mad:
I visited my local branch 3rd April and filled out all the forms to transfer my Abbey ISA to Lloyds TSB. Until last week, that money was still sitting in my Abbey account. (At least I knew were it was, unlike some people )

turbobob

OK, what was the outcome of the complaint with Lloyds? Did they admit any culpability or did they say it was Abbey's fault?

Hungerdunger

Just following from turbobob's question, I believe the new provider has an obligation to request a transfer from the old provider within 28 days of your application. You will need to establish whether they did this. If they did then the fault may lie with Abbey; otherwise you may have a case of compensation from Lloyds. Just be grateful you weren't trying to transfer an ISA into Nationwide!

Ian_W

Hungerdunger wrote: »

Just be grateful you weren't trying to transfer an ISA into Nationwide!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:
Perhaps you missed THIS 51 pages thread, much of which is about transfer problems with LTSB.
Don't know if LTSB is better or worse than NW - but both have been pretty bad for some folks! :mad:

Wolfhound

They just said in their letter that they don't agree with my complaint
and that they have been advised by their ISA department that interest will be backdated from when my account is closed with Abbey (last week).
As I said before, it looks like it's my fault for opening an ISA with them.

I will visit my local branch during the week. I just seem to be bounced
from one idiot to another with this lot :mad:

redcar_2

Complain to FSO as it costs Lloyds about £3-400 for each complaint IIRC.

Thats giving me a warmer glow than the Lloyds 'customer recovery' dept at the moment!

dunstonh

£400 is the current charge for FOS complaints. However, the company can appeal to the FOS that the complaint was frivolous and get the fee waived. This is to avoid troublemakers creating an unnecessary drain on resources.

That said, I seem to recall figures that showed it is rarely waived even when the consumer is so obviously in the wrong.

YorkshireBoy

dunstonh wrote: »

£400 is the current charge for FOS complaints.

That *was* the case fee (for the fourth case per year upwards) up until April this year. It's now £450.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/QG1.pdf

pompompo

This is all very interesting. Today, I finally girded my strength and went into the Lloyds branch which hadn't managed yet to transfer isa funds from other providers as requested back in April this year. The manager of the branch denied ever seeing my original complaint written in May and handed into the branch. She claimed that I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone in the Lloyds Isa team. Not true, I later discovered. You can ring 0800 015 0060 and talk to some quite 'human' people. She claimed that they had requested the money from the other banks, wouldn't give me evidence of this. Again, when I talked to the ISA team, they said no there was no record of two of the requests. So today, I took another hand delivered letter of complaint in and requested a receipt. She wouldn't give a receipt, but took a photocopy and stamped that with the bank stamp. She wouldn't sign it. The ISA help lot say they will sort it out. At what point does one go to the FOS? Should I wait for their internal complaint procedure to work through? I am not glad that other people have the same problems as me, but at least it makes me feel less like a mad person....