Problems With Citifinancial - help needed!

Dawn_Winn

Hello folks,

Please see below text of my letter to CitiFinancial which will explain the long story. Do I have any rights over this? They've sat on my account so they can sting me for interest and I'm not having it. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated - I don't have the extra money to cover my new settlement figure (and will have to extend my overdraft to cover it) and I'd like to get it back as soon as I can. Cheers!

I received my first redemption statement from you, dated the 20th May 2004, and promptly sent off a cheque for £5639.90 to redeem my account on the 24th May – please see copy of letter enclosed. My £98.00 overpayment was also promptly refunded to me and put into my bank account on the 2nd June – please see copy of my bank statement enclosed.

I arranged for a £5700.00 loan with my bank to cover the settlement figure and on the 24th May had notification from them that I had secured the loan. My bank then increased my overdraft facility to £6300.00 to cover the cheque I sent to you whilst the paperwork was being finalised. The bank then credited £5700.00 to my account on the 28th May and the overdraft facility of £6300.00 on top of my balance was still available and did not expire until 8th June.

I waited and waited for your company to cash the cheque from my account and telephoned you on around the 16th June to ask your customer service representative why the £5639.90 had not been taken from my account. She went on to tell me that on the 2nd June the cheque had been returned to my bank and from speaking to another representative today I understand that there is a note on my account that tells you that on the 11th June this cheque was returned as there were insufficient funds in my account. As you can see from my bank statement and from the explanation above this was not the case.

I found it very annoying at the time that someone from your company did not get in touch with me to tell me that this had happened between the 2nd June and when I rang your customer service department on around the 16th June. When this was explained to me on the telephone I did complain and one of your representatives told me that they would request another redemption statement and that they would mark it as urgent and hopefully no more interest would be charged to the balance as it would go through very quickly. I also told them that I did not agree with paying any extra interest on the balance from the 2nd June on account of your company not getting in touch to let me know that the cheque had been returned. They sympathised with me and told me to compare the figures when the new redemption statement arrived and then get in touch to see if any extra interest could be taken off the balance.

I understood that because this was marked as urgent, and because the original redemption statement only took a matter of days to be sent out to me, that the next redemption statement would be with me within days. However, after ringing back nearly every 3 days or so, and being told on numerous occasions that the redemption statement would be with me within 48 hours, I have only received it from you today – Tuesday 20th July – one month later. The statement is also dated 16th July which means it has also taken 4 days to get to me after it was issued.

After looking at the settlement figure it is £217.42 more than my original figure which I find shocking. I understand that £20 of the ‘Additional Charges’ is for a direct debit return from December 2003 which I am aware of – this happened when I was changing over from direct debit to standing order payments and was pointed out to me on my original statement. However, £94.00 of this is charges for late payment I have incurred from 2nd June until today. Obviously I cancelled my standing order after I sent the original cheque to you on the 24th May and thought that your Sales and Collections department would be aware from the notes on my account what was going on in terms of the attempt at settling my account. This is not the case – no one within your company seems to communicate with each other. I received a phone call from Lee Jeffries in your Sales and Collections department last week asking me why my account was in arrears and I explained the story to him. He was very helpful and gave me his number to ring him back if I had any problems. However, I have still been charged £94.00 for being in arrears which I would like removed from my settlement figure given the circumstances.

I understand that the remaining £123.42 will be for additional interest charged to my account since the first redemption statement was issued. As I mentioned previously I do not wish to pay any extra interest on my settlement figure from 2nd June when the cheque was returned to my bank and no one from your company got in touch to tell me this. I was completely left in the dark and sat around thinking that it was taking some time to be taken from my account due to the paperwork your company had to finalise.

I enclose a cheque for the full amount of my final settlement figure as I want this account closed and the whole thing over and done with. However, your customer service representative has told me to write to you today to explain the story with a hope to having some of the additional charges refunded after the Redemptions Manager told her that there is nothing she can do. I have also spoken to Lee Jeffries today, in your Sales and Collections department to inform him that I am paying the full settlement figure in full today so no additional charges are added to my account.

Please find a copy of the original letter and my bank statement enclosed and I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible with a view to having the additional charges of £217.42 refunded.

Kind regards

[Deleted User]

If your bank statement clearly shows the funds were available - yet the cheque was refused due to inadequate fnds - this needs to be taken up with your bank.

The only other thing that may have upset your arrangements was the fact that the period you are talking about also incorporates a Bank Holiday - and this extra day can make all the difference if you are working to a tight schedule when it comes to clearing cheques and funds into accounts.

The main thing is to take this up with the Bank. They put the funds into your account then did not allow them to be utilised. Why?

The loan company have no obligation to contact you about dud cheques -they must get loads - but common sense and a sense of customer service would dictate otherwise. As you have found out - it is to their advantage financially not to contact you.

It seems to me that the Bank are possibly at fault here - and if so - they should pay the extra interest incurred.

You need to write a complaint to the Bank - to go thru their complaints procedure - which make be lengthy. You may end up having to refer the matter to the Ombudsman.

Meanwhile - it would be in your own interest to get the loan company to freeze any further interest on your account and explain to them you are demanding an inquiry by the Bank to see what has gone wrong.

GET EVERYTHING FROM HERE ON IN - IN WRITING.

Record (in writing) what is said in phone calls - times/dates and names of people you speak to. Make sure they know you are doing this - and if they refuse to co-operate, make that part of your complaint too.

This applies both to the Bank and the loan company.

Don't be tempted to be rude or aggressive.

If the loan company refuse to freeze the remaining interest - go to you local CAB - where they may be able to persuade them - pending the result of the complaint to the bank.

For good measure - if the loan company have a complaints procedure - then go thru that too.