Santander or MBNA for PPI refund?

tifo

I've reclaimed PPI from 3 Santander credit cards (1 Abbey and 2 A&L).

All 3 cards were later administered by MBNA but for the first few years by Abbey and A&L. Only the Abbey was sent to MBNA as A&L were closed before.

MBNA have repaid all premiums they charged after they started to administrate the Abbey card. The A&L were never sent to them.

I've sent a request for each of the 3 cards to Santander asking them to refund premiums Abbey or A&L charged BEFORE MBNA started administrating either cards.

Santander have refused my claims on the basis that they hold no information for the accounts and that I should claim from MBNA to whom ALL info was sent when the relevant administrative agreement was made. But only my Abbey card was ever sent to MBNA and the A&L cards were not.

MBNA say they are not liable for any premiums before the administrative agreement (and I can see their point) on the Abbey card and the A&L cards were never sent to them anyway.

So I don't seem to have anyone to claim from! In total, on all 3 cards, premiums and interest total around £4k.

tifo

following advice from their legal department, MBNA have said that even though they took over the accounts and they were sent all account data (it was a legal assignment I assume) they are not liable for the PPI because it wasn't sold by them and they didn't accept 'that' liability.

As I understand it, MBNA were legally assigned the accounts and enjoyed rights and benefits but don't want the obligations and duties (much like DCAs).

Santander in turn won't take my complaint as they have no data to refer to (it was all sent to MBNA).

So nobody will pay me!

financial_ombudsman_representative

Hi tifo.

I work for the financial ombudsman - the free service set up by law with the power to sort out problems between consumers and financial businesses. Working out who is responsible for the sale of a PPI policy can sometimes be difficult - if you are unsure who to contact, the ombudsman service might be able to help point you in the right direction. You can contact us on 0300 123 9 123. It's worth having the dates you opened each of the accounts to hand - as this will be helpful when working out which business might be responsible.

Thanks

Phillipa

tifo

financial_ombudsman_representative wrote: »

Working out who is responsible for the sale of a PPI policy can sometimes be difficult - if you are unsure who to contact, the ombudsman service might be able to help point you in the right direction.

Thanks for your reply Phillipa.

I appreciate the FOS can help and I have used them in the past. But my concerns are that:

(1) they take too long (my last PPI complaint took 2.5 years before the bank made an offer) and

(2) the decision can be unfair (I have had many, some with the same adjudicator and ombudsman and same decision even though they were for different banks).

My preferred route is now court. I am not happy with the FOS for the reasons given above. In particular, they seem to ignore relevant laws when needed even though the resulting decision is clearly not "fair and reasonable". Because of this, I have lost thousands in refunds which I should have received since there were no debt owed in each case, to any creditor.

I currently have an ongoing complaint in which relevant laws have been ignored (the law states matters clearly) and another one where I have been waiting nearly a year in 'fast track' whilst the delay is causing considerable hardship for all the family. Whilst the hardship got the complaint fast tracked, a whole year or more does not seem 'fast' to me. The adjudicator decision was in my favour (twice) but the firm wants an ombudsman review.

I am sorry if my comments don't seem right but this is my experience of the FOS.