Compensation

stevenm35

I have been made an offer of compensation by my bank of £75.00. Without going into detail, they admitted an admin error in writing, and I have over twelve months written four letters and approached the FOS then finally written to my MP, only now have they made any effort. Should I accept this or reject it and demand more? Are there any examples of how much banks pay out when they provide poor service?

opinions4u

Without going in to detail, you can't expect an objective answer to your question.

Obukit

If you don't want to tell us the details, do you feel £75 is fair compensation for the time, money, and, if applicable, stress and inconvenience the bank's mistake put you through? If so accept it, if not write back explaining why you don't think it's a fair amount.

If you want to know general levels of compensation, the Financial Ombudsmen publish case studies with details of compensation awarded that you could use as a benchmark for arguing a fair level of compensation with your bank.

leviathan

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=617387

^^ My experiences. See if your hassle tallys.

They offered me much less than that but I refused and they asked me what I felt was justified.
I still use them as my main bank.

stevenm35

Probably, I cut the post short because it would have dragged on, so here goes. I recieved a charge on my account due to going overdrawn. I was convinced that I should not have been over my limit as I had checked the internet earlier. I called the automated banking service and found the internet and the telephone service did not match. I called the bank and had the charge reversed. Since I have been charged so many times ( in Excess of £600) I decided to complain as I think many of the charges are due to being overdrawn for small ammounts for short periods. I wrote but only recieved a standard response about bank charges. I wrote again, and again recieved a standard response. When I wrote a third time I was called by the bank and a gentleman explained there had been a fix written for a fault and it was rectified and I had had my charge reversed so I had no reason to complain. I recieved a letter from the bank soon after although this said there had been an administrative error on my account. I was not happy with this so I took my complaint to the FOS. I recieved numerous letters telling me the complaint was being processed etc etc. After around eight months the FOS called me and said that my complaint would have to be held under the bank charges complaints 'umbrella' or be discarded as they were unable to pursue it. I told them the charge was a side issue and I was more concerned about a bank which had admin errors or needed a fix to repair its internet service. I decided to write to my MP and see if that got me anywhere. I recieved a phone call from my bank very soon after my MP letter was posted explaining that a full investigation would take place. Around a week later I recieved a letter offering me £75 compensation. I wrote back saying this was unacceptable considering the length of time this had been going on, letters id written etc etc and in addition i wanted compensating for the poor service. I told them I wanted £500. I recieved another letter offering me £200. Now I know this is a nice amount of money but there is no explaination of this error or the fix. I think they are just trying to pay me off and get rid of me. They have charged me so heavily, I want my share back. I dont know really whether to acccept this or to pursue them further. Sorry about the long post!

cottager

stevenm35 wrote: »

I called the automated banking service and found the internet and the telephone service did not match.

Sorry, cannot contribute to the thread otherwise, but on this point alone I believe this may be the case sometimes, although I never quite got to the bottom of the reason why, and perhaps different banks vary. My experience is of OH's business account (with an o/draft facility, which could be relevant), but I'd guess the same probably applies to any current account.

I went into the branch to make quite a large CHAPS payment, having previously checked the balance online and made an immediate (internal) transfer from a reserve account to cover it so as not to exceed the o/draft limit. Before leaving for the bank, the transfer was showing plus other amounts also clearing into or going out of the account that day (customers' card payments in, DDs out etc). With the transfer, the available balance online was sufficient to cover the CHAPS payment + the fee, and then some... we'd TF'd about a £1000 or so extra, to be sure the o/draft wasn't exceeded plus a little leeway for the next day.

At the bank the CS desk people always have to take ID for CHAPS and go off and get the payment authorised 'upstairs', and on this occasion she happened to mention it involved our business manager signing it off as OK because the payment would take us over the o/draft limit by a small amount, a matter of 100 quid or something... but it was fine, no problem. I couldn't understand this, as it certainly did not take us over the limit according to the available balance checked beforehand.

She said yes, this was entirely possible, because whatever they could see did not include all the transactions applicable to the account that day. So for some reason, back then at least (a year or so ago, maybe a bit more), they were not seeing the same available balance which we could. Why? -- search me, but that's what they said!

So if that's the case, I can also see how the telephone service might differ from the online balance too, as in your experience... I don't know, as we never use the telephone service.