Raising complaint with FOS 9 days outside 6 month limit?!

Stefastef

Apologies if this has already been covered somewhere before, but much googling and searching hasn't come up with anything useful for me.

I'll try and keep it simple (but it is still quite long I'm afraid), so I'll list what I have done and what has happened:

May/June 2006 - I applied for a credit card with my bank, Lloyds TSB, at the a month after turning 18, whilst a full time student at college, working a part time job that contracted me to a minimum of around 12 hours a week at something like £5.35ish an hour. They gave me a limit of £2500.

February 2007 - In another naive move to get access to more money I open a student account with Lloyds, giving me access to a large interest free overdraft. To open this I provided proof of my university application and acceptance of a place at the university I'm studying at. So at this point Lloyds should be fully aware that I was at the time and planning to be in full time education for at least the following 4 years.

March 2007 - I took out a loan with Lloyds in branch to pay off my credit card, which had been maxed out for some time already thanks to my youthful ignorance and stupidity at the time. The bank advised me to take out the loan to make repayment more manageable than the minimum payments I was making on the credit card. This was all sorted out in my local branch. I was offered PPI on this naturally, it was promoted to me as a good idea and all I was effectively told was that it was an extra amount each month that would cover my loan payments in the event of becoming too ill to work or losing my job. No mention of any exceptions to this or indeed any further detail about it were made. From what I had been told it seemed like a good idea, so I accepted. At this point I was still studying at college, I had just gotten a new job working part time around 30 hours a week at £6.45 an hour, on an initial 6 month probationary period.

August 2007 - I effectively get sacked by not having a permanent contract offered to me at my job, so out of the window goes the plan of staying in the company and transferring to a store near where I study. I make a claim on my PPI policy which is immediately rejected as probationary periods are excluded by the policy.

So from this point it became pretty clear that I'd been signed up for £25 a month for 5 years to something that I could never use, subsequently learning that full time education basically is an automatic exclusion, and all the work I have subsequently had has been temporary/contract, again not covered by the policy.

So roll on the court judgements last year and the banks withdrawal from fighting it.

May 2011 - I post the FOS form to Lloyds, subsequently realising that I hadn't put enough detail in it.

August 2011 - I receive a letter from Lloyds telling me a straight no. Letter is dated 9th August 2011, tells me they have reached their decision after reviewing all their files and information submitted by, points raised in my complaint form and my 'suitability' for PPI based on my circumstances. It says that it will be closed if I do not respond, and the usual FOS referral paragraph at the end giving me 6 months. There is no signature on the letter, despite there being the space for one between the 'Yours Sincerely' and the persons name, not particularly professional or encouraging that they took my claim remotely seriously. So, realising I should have provided more detail, though at no point did they ask me for any further information except to telephone me once to ask if I had any pre-existing medical conditions (to which I told them of my Asthma and Hayfever), I wrote them a letter outlining how I was not satisfied with their response and providing the details I've mentioned above and my conclusions on this. This letter was sent on the 24th August 2011 sent via Royal Mail signed for/recorded delivery through my local post office. I tracked it and it was confirmed that it had been delivered, though I do not have the receipt or tracking number any more. I received no response from Lloyds at all.

February 18th 2012 - I call the FOS to get the ball rolling again, which is where I realise the letter from Lloyds had been sent in August, just outside the 6 month window, after thinking it was September and I still had a month or so to crack on with it. FOS are sending me forms, but I have to provide a cover note to convince them of exceptional circumstances to take it on, at which point Lloyds could object and stop the whole thing in its tracks.

To me it looks like I'm screwed and Lloyds have gotten away with stealing yet more money from me.

Without going in to too much detail, the only 'excuses' that come to mind for being 9 days late are a not particularly nice return to university after a year out working back in September 2011, the on-going issues with getting the correct funding for this since then which has been a constant source of frustration and stress due to the financial implications of it as well as the time taken to deal with this so far, and a number of other personal, family and academic issues which have left me pretty depressed over the last 5 months (not sought any kind of medical attention, so no formal 'proof' as it were).

Some of the work I have been doing lately involves working 12 hour shifts Monday - Saturday running over the FOS telephone office hours.

I was also waiting around for 2 months to see if Lloyds were going to bother replying to me, by which point the above were dominating my time.

So to stop me whinging on any further with my boo hoo sob story, what can/should I do at this point? What is likely to happen?

Any helpful information and advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Stefan.

magpiecottage

You can try - but none of what you said seems likely to persuade FOS that you have "exceptional circumstances" should the firm wish to timebar.