Help with BLUE INDEX claim

tysoup

I cant remember if they did, I remember being surprised when I saw they charges on my account. I remember 0.5% to open being mentioned but I didnt know that each trade was for £10,000 therefore incurring a fee of £50 to open and another £50 to close.I'll check all the documentation they sent me.

Regardless of whether they claim I should have know the fees or not the number and size of trades placed was disproportionate to the size of the account.

tysoup

ps thanks mroller. Its taken 2 weeks but finally someones suggested I might have some sort of claim

I have written to the FSA and await their reply.

dunstonh

I have written to the FSA and await their reply.

Who will forward your letter to Blue Index. The FSA do not investigate complaints.

cheerfulcat

tysoup wrote: »

ps thanks mroller. Its taken 2 weeks but finally someones suggested I might have some sort of claim

I have written to the FSA and await their reply.

I suggested this ten days ago...

mroller

I have in front of me an FSA handbook that explains the regulations regarding conduct of business:

"1. a person must not communicate a financial promotion unless he is an authorized person or the content was approved by an authorized person."

This is the 1st point to investigate, are blue index or the person who called you approved?

"2. a direct financial promotion must not relate to an unregulated collective investment scheme, a derivative or a warrant unless the firm has evidence to suggest that the investment may be suitable to the person to whom the promotion is communicated"

Here you must determine if they complied with this rule or not, did you fill in any form saying that you are an intermediate investor or private one (ie non financially literate)?


"3.re warrants and derivatives, the firm should provide the private customer with the appropriate notice, and require the private customer to acknowledge in writing the acceptance of its content"

this rule applies to private customers only.

"4.a firm must ensure that its charges to a private customer are fair and not excessive"
"No excessive means the charges compares to similar products, must not constitute and abuse of trust and be fully disclosed"

Again, this is for private customers.
did they say they would charge you 0.5%? 0.5% of what? the amount you invested (2500£) or your total exposure to the market (10K£ per position)? they might have mislead you here in which case you can ask for the 700£ of charges back at least

There are other complex rules about acting in the best interest of the client...

Regarding complaints, you must send your 1st complaint to Blue Index itself. They must acknowledge receipt within 5days and deal with it within 8 weeks. If you are not happy you must take it to the financial Ombudsman service within 6 months.

The FSA doesn't deal with complaints indeed as dunstonh said but they can investigate a business and impose sanctions if necessary. May be they will start one thanks to you (you could have included the link provided by cheerfulcat earlier in your email).


What this company is doing is really shocking, once they get their hands on the client's money they just open some random positons to pocket the commission.

It might be the case that Igindex is benefiting from this scheme as well. These spreadbetting companies do not even bother hedging clients' bets on the market as most people lose at this game, the money you have lost has probably been shared by Blue index and Igindex.

michael_Bricks

So they told you the costs, probably wrote to you and confirmed them, ask for your permission on every trade (presumably they went over the specific trade size etc at the time) and you are saying that they did too many trades relative to the account?

Here's an idea, when they rang you with a trade idea that you think might not be up to scratch, SAY ''NO THANKS'' rather than 'OK' and if the trade goes wrong, complaining to the FSA!!!

I have about 500 valid complaints to make about various spreadbetting firms if you ahve a case! Be fair to these firms, they are like every broker in the world, they charge commission on every deal whether they make you money or not, I'd honestly be interested to hear how you get on, I don't rerally see what this company has done wrong UNLESS they did the deals without consulting you - if this happened, then I totally see where you are coming from by the way.