Financial Ombudsman and Santander

Yikes_051

I recently went overdrawn on my account by £63.98 and was charged £120 by Santander- a charge which appears to be blatant profiteering and disproportionate. When I contacted Santander to discuss this, I was offered a a reduction of £35 because, and I quote, "I'm a good customer and I'm rarely overdrawn!" As they were unable to consider any further reduction, I requested details for the Financial Ombudsman Service. Extraordinarily, the person I was talking to had not heard of the Ombudsman, and they even asked me to spell it for them.

I was eventually given a phone number which I called. I was told that following the recent court ruling, the Ombudsman was no longer able to help in these cases and that banks could charge whatever they wanted as long as they notified customers in advance. Extraordinary. It seems that consumers no longer have any protection against unscrupulous banks.

the_insider

Have you made a formal complaint to the bank asking for them to refund the charge based on your previous account conduct? Why did you feel that the reduction was not appropriate? £60+ is quite a lot to go overdrawn, do you have an agreed overdraft at all?

Premier_2

Yikes_051 wrote: »

I recently went overdrawn on my account by £63.98 and was charged £120 by Santander- a charge which appears to be blatant profiteering and disproportionate. When I contacted Santander to discuss this, I was offered a a reduction of £35 because, and I quote, "I'm a good customer and I'm rarely overdrawn!" As they were unable to consider any further reduction, I requested details for the Financial Ombudsman Service. Extraordinarily, the person I was talking to had not heard of the Ombudsman, and they even asked me to spell it for them.

I was eventually given a phone number which I called. I was told that following the recent court ruling, the Ombudsman was no longer able to help in these cases and that banks could charge whatever they wanted as long as they notified customers in advance. Extraordinary. It seems that consumers no longer have any protection against unscrupulous banks.

Oh dear, it sounds like you got a right dimwit.

Here's the contact details of the FOS
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/contact/index.html

However, you will need to have completed the official complaints procedure of Santander before the FOS will consider any complaint.
http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?appID=abbey.internet.Abbeycom&c=Page&canal=CABBEYCOM&cid=1210607032841&leng=en_GB&pagename=Abbeycom%2FPage%2FWC_ACOM_TemplateA2

Here's what the FOS have to say regarding bank charges complaints

The Financial Ombudsman Service – and courts across the country – put individual complaints about unauthorised overdraft charges on hold, while waiting for an important legal "test case".
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) also agreed that banks could suspend their work on complaints about these charges, until the "test case" decision was made.
The Supreme Court issued its decision on the "test case" [summary in PDF format] on 25 November 2009. The Court made a unanimous ruling on the issues on which the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) had sought a decision.
The Court ruled that the fairness of unauthorised overdraft charges could not be challenged on the basis proposed by the OFT. The OFT has since announced that it will not make a further legal challenge on any new grounds.
The ombudsman has to take the law into account when we decide cases. This is why the Supreme Court's ruling is very important in our work on bank charges.
So we have considered the Supreme Court's decision – and its implications – very carefully. Our view is that the legal ruling means we will not generally be able to help with cases that involve "template" or "standard letter" complaints about unauthorised overdraft charges.
But in keeping with our usual approach to complaints that are referred to us, we will review each case individually – to see whether there are any one-off circumstances that may apply. For example, we would expect current-account providers to deal positively and sympathetically with a consumer in financial hardship – including where bank charges had added to their difficulties.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/faq/bank-charges.html

But if you think the bank has acted unfairly, or unscrupulously as you put it, you always have the option of disputing the matter in court

smokingduck

Hello all

This is my first post, so hope this works! I have been complaining to the financial ombudsman about Santander also. However the ombudsman have written back saying they think I am complaining about the legality of the charges, and they don't think they can help because of the Supreme Court ruling.

However they have misinterpreted my letter. I am actually trying to complain under the 'disproportionate' criterion that Martin cites (I was only overdrawn by ~£2 for less than 24 hours). However I cannot find a reference to 'disproportionate charges' on the FOS website. Can anyone help?

zppp

smokingduck wrote: »

Hello all

This is my first post, so hope this works! I have been complaining to the financial ombudsman about Santander also. However the ombudsman have written back saying they think I am complaining about the legality of the charges, and they don't think they can help because of the Supreme Court ruling.

However they have misinterpreted my letter. I am actually trying to complain under the 'disproportionate' criterion that Martin cites (I was only overdrawn by ~£2 for less than 24 hours). However I cannot find a reference to 'disproportionate charges' on the FOS website. Can anyone help?

Disproportionate is interchangble with unfair. The only way you can argue with the financial ombudsman at the moment is on the basis of financial hardship. This would be priotirity arrers such as rent/mortgge arrears, crown debt arrears and arrears in utilities. Or a change of circumstances such as redundancy.

Premier_2

smokingduck wrote: »

Hello all

This is my first post, so hope this works! I have been complaining to the financial ombudsman about Santander also. However the ombudsman have written back saying they think I am complaining about the legality of the charges, and they don't think they can help because of the Supreme Court ruling.

However they have misinterpreted my letter. I am actually trying to complain under the 'disproportionate' criterion that Martin cites (I was only overdrawn by ~£2 for less than 24 hours). However I cannot find a reference to 'disproportionate charges' on the FOS website. Can anyone help?

That's a very good question!

The only reference to disproportionate bank charges on the FOS website I can find is here:

... [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Lenders must take into account whether the customer has other debts that need to be repaid, and they should not ask for repayments that are disproportionate to those agreed by other creditors. If the lender holds the current account into which the customer’s wages are paid, it must not abuse its position by taking all the money that comes in... [/SIZE][/FONT]

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/39/financial-difficulty-debits-39.htm

But obviously that is somewhat different to the way the MSE article describes the 'disproportionate' effect of bank charges.

smokingduck

Thanks zppp and Premier, that makes sense. Guess I'll have to abandon that claim then! Was worth a try though

fgking

I have been saving with ABBEY cash ISA for 12 years. I have a large sum of money saved. The last time I visited the branch was at the end of 2009 and the account was attracting 3.2 % interest. I did not invest any money in 2010/11 nor did I visit the branch. To my horror I have just received the latest statement from Santander and the interest rate was calculated at 1.1, over 2% drop overnight without any warnings. I have raised the complaint with Santander about not informing me of the interest drop and alerting me to new ISA account with better rates. I was told that they don't have to inform their customers and variable rates can change anytime. I am also making a complaint to Financial Ombudsman.

dunstonh

over 2% drop overnight without any warnings

Apart from the usual areas they publish their interest rates.

I have raised the complaint with Santander about not informing me of the interest drop and alerting me to new ISA account with better rates.

Not that they have to inform you of new accounts and you certainly havent made any effort.

I am also making a complaint to Financial Ombudsman.

Who will refuse to deal with your complaint until you have had the outcome from Santander. As there is no rule breach here, you would expect the FOS to rule in favour of Santander.