Ombudsman: What is a final response?

olly300

slopemaster wrote: »

When I do finally get it back there'll have to be an argument about interest too I guess, if it does drag on. As this account pays 5% on £2500 and nothing after that. Well I had £2500 in there, but then I sent a payment of £1000 which was supposed to go in, and back out again. But then they blocked the account so it was stuck in there and I'll be getting no interest on it

If you are taking them to court then you add on the interest to the amount you are claiming for at the beginning.

So if the ombudsman is not sorting the issue out then start a small claim but you need to send a "Letter Before Action" to the bank first telling them that you will be claiming your money, the interest at x% and other costs from them.

PNPSUKNET

the problem here, have they blocked it to comply with money laudering regulations? If so think the fos will be a none starter.

zppp

PNPSUKNET wrote: »

the problem here, have they blocked it to comply with money laudering regulations? If so think the fos will be a none starter.

Neither would the court.

PNPSUKNET

Are you on the BOE moneylaudering register? Something from your other posts suggests I was along the right paths

slopemaster

PNPSUKNET wrote: »

Are you on the BOE moneylaudering register?

Not AFAIK.
Santander will not say why they suddenly demanded all this impossible ID, and of course if they did suspect money laundering they would not say.
But I think it is actually just incompetence - that they suddenly realised they had not seen ID before opening the account.
And I think possible my OH is being confused with someone else of same name - but Santander will not say.

there is nothing funny on our credit files.
I have done a data protection SAR to find out the reasons for the account being blocked, so will hold off any threat of court action until I have the response to that.

zppp

slopemaster wrote: »

I have done a data protection SAR to find out the reasons for the account being blocked, so will hold off any threat of court action until I have the response to that.

If it has anything to do with fraud detection and suspicion, it is unlikely they will divulge this to you ever. This is because of the rules under POCA they have to follow.

Milarky

zppp wrote: »

If it has anything to do with fraud detection and suspicion, it is unlikely they will divulge this to you ever. This is because of the rules under POCA they have to follow.

Thanks to this site, you learn something everyday:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proceeds_of_Crime_Act_2002#Part_7

Unlike certain other jurisdictions, UK money laundering law is not limited to the proceeds of serious crimes, nor are there any monetary limits, nor is there any necessity for there to be a money laundering design or purpose to an action for it to amount to a money laundering offence. Technically therefore an individual who steals even a paper clip in the UK commits a money laundering offence (possession of the stolen paper clip) in addition to the predicate offence (of theft of the paper clip)

Madness!

dunstonh

The response to the letter direct from me was just a fobbing off letter, and it was from the first-tier complaints people. It said, basically, tough, but you can escalate this to central complaints. This was even tho I had written to the central complaints address.

I should perhaps rephrase then and say it shouldnt make any difference and in most cases it wont as all the FOS do is forward your complaint to the complaints team at the firm. It sounds like in your case that they were trying to filter the complaints first (which they shouldnt really be doing). So, the letter sent direct got hit by this filter whereas the FOS forwarded it to the official complaints team. Most firms wont operate a filtering system like that. If the FSA found out they were filtering complaints they could get into serious trouble. Although there may be a caveat to that which could explain it. Local complaints allow for some discussion to occur first but if you have marked it formal complaint or its clear that your issue is a regulated complaint issue then it should go straight to the complaints team. If your complaint is not about a regulated issue then they can try to resolve it locally. Your complaint is one that could have been handled locally and that may explain why you got a difference.