Aqua Reward Credit Card - 3% cashback up to £100/year

plunt

I think every FOS complaint that goes in favor of the customer means a small fine for the company, not to mention legal expenses and so on. Granted its not cahs in your pocket but still good to show them how they need to treat customers

Jakg

Aquamania wrote: »

Why did Aqua pay you £100 when the FOS only awarded you £25 in compensation??? :huh:
(or possibly £50 total if you could show that Aqua did not pay the initial £25 they told the ombudsman they had paid you)

They offered me £25, but it turned out they'd got the amount Aqua had offered me and what they thought I should of been offered confused. FOS actually meant £100 not the £25 Aqua offered.

Aquamania

Jakg wrote: »

They offered me £25, but it turned out they'd got the amount Aqua had offered me and what they thought I should of been offered confused. FOS actually meant £100 not the £25 Aqua offered.

The FOS usually discuss the proposed resolution with you (and probably the financial institution)
- that would be the time to dispute that the initial £25 they claimed they had paid you, and if agreed, would probably have resulted in an amended FOS decision to offer you £50 in compensation.

Anyway, the FOS always then put the eventual proposed resolution in writing and ask the consumer to sign an agreement to accept it in full and final settlement. If the FOS meant £100 compo, that is surely what the resolution proposed by the ombudsman would have said.

Then (once it has been accepted by the consumer) the financial institution are given that final resolution and told to abide by it.

Aquamania

plunt wrote: »

I think every FOS complaint that goes in favor of the customer means a small fine for the company, not to mention legal expenses and so on. Granted its not cahs in your pocket but still good to show them how they need to treat customers

It's not a small fee. At least £500 if not more.

But each company gets a number of 'free complaints' per year before the charge starts to apply.
(Very simple complaints and those of a vexacious nature, etc are also excluded)

Whilst I cannot be certain, from my discussions with the Ombudsman Service, I got the impression New Day are still within their 'free quota'.
But at least I used up one of their 'get out of jail free' cards for this year.

Aquamania

Aquamania wrote: »

I thought I would take the opportunity to update on where this got to.

So in mid-May I filed a complaint with the ombudsman.

I got a response mid June from the FOS confirming they had received my complaint and stating it could be up to 12 weeks before I hear from them again.

Well the FOS called me beginning of this month, saying they were now investigating the complaint and we went through the details. It all sounded very promising now the FOS had picked up the case. They said it sounded like a complete fiasco.

Well the FOS called earlier this week saying they have managed to get Aqua to agree to pay me the credit on the account.

Er,... was that it??? :eek:

I asked about maybe some compensation for trouble and inconvenience caused in view of 'the complete fiasco' the FOS earlier called it. The FOS actually mentioned the possibility of some small compensation in their initial call.

So they went away again, and have now come back with an offer of £50 :T
... but Aqua say I will have to wait possibly 6 weeks for the money...

I asked if they (the FOS) thought that waiting 6 weeks was reasonable, and they said it was not their role to comment or otherwise arbitrate over how long restitution takes.

So it looks like I might get another £50 come end of September.
Is that a coincidence that that would also be the time cashback would have been paid anyway according to the original anniversary date?

Anyway, I'll keep you posted if/when I ever see any money.

This company is absolutely unbelieveable.

As you may remember, part of my complaint to the ombudsman involved the fact that Aqua gave me a goodwill credit on an account that should have been closed, and so I was unable to access it.

The ombudsman agreed with me that this had to be refunded and made an award in my favour. The ombudsman eventually agreed to 4 weeks for Aqua to get the awarded amount (which I agreed to) to me by cheque. Aqua originally requested up to 6 weeks.
I could have had it immediately by FP, but didn't want to give them my bank details (again!)

I was only thinking yesterday, this time was almost up (actually will be next week)

Today I get another monthly statement adding the compo about a week ago as a credit to my account. An account that is supposed to be closed (at least that is what they convinced the ombudsman). An account I cannot (or in any event, will not) ever use again.

Sorry Mr Ombudsman, I know you closed this case believing everything to have been sorted out, but a letter is on the way to you asking you to re-open it and get me the money you said you believed was reasonable in the circumstances and to which I agreed (and I understand from your correspondence Aqua told you they also agreed with the suggested award even before I had accepted it).

donslosers

I complained - in January this year- and eventually escalated the complaint to the FSO in April.

Case resolved 10 September, awarded £100 compensation for Aqua's delays, poor service etc, etc.

Received a letter from Aqua 8 days later asking me to 'phone them with bank details for payment of compensation and lo and behold! back onto the same old treadmill of false information.

Called them only to be told I had to go through their security process - no longer have an account with you, I said, you wrote to me and said so. I've destroyed all the information. Can't accept any information from you as you've failed security, says Aqua.

Have now had to send details by post...not holding my breath until they pay out but obviously the complaints to the Ombudsman have not encouraged them to improve their communication systems!

Aquamania

donslosers wrote: »

I complained - in January this year- and eventually escalated the complaint to the FSO in April.

Case resolved 10 September, awarded £100 compensation for Aqua's delays, poor service etc, etc.

Received a letter from Aqua 8 days later asking me to 'phone them with bank details for payment of compensation and lo and behold! back onto the same old treadmill of false information.

Called them only to be told I had to go through their security process - no longer have an account with you, I said, you wrote to me and said so. I've destroyed all the information. Can't accept any information from you as you've failed security, says Aqua.

Have now had to send details by post...not holding my breath until they pay out but obviously the complaints to the Ombudsman have not encouraged them to improve their communication systems!

:huh:

How can you fail security?

(A bit silly to have destroyed all information if you went as far as complaining to the FOS, and haven't yet been paid the settlement)

Anyway, even if you don't know the original card account number, they can trace your account from your address/postcode.

For security, all they request is your full name, postcode, first line of your address, date of birth and home telephone number.

Even if you've moved recently, surely you remember where you did live/old telephone number (they'll even give you a hint if you struggle with the phone number) ... and as a creditor, you probably should have advised them of any change of address if you were interested in getting money owed.

Anyway, when I called them and they told me they have not closed anyone's account. All they have done is suspended the accounts of those that didn't apply for a new account.
That means the account is still there. Payments by card will not be accepted (hence the statements showing Available to spend £0.00) but the account is still open and will allow payments to the account and statements/online still show a credit limit. (hence presumably why it's still showing on many people's CRA files)

They told me they would not be closing accounts until all were completely paid off.
I said if someone decides to pay just the minimum monthly payment, that could be years, even decades from now :eek:
They didn't have an answer to that.

Worse still, they assured the ombudsman in my case the account was closed.

(Most people will still have access to their online account too, unless you requested that to be closed, in which case they may have taken away your access to it.)

Uplink

Aquamania wrote: »

They told me they would not be closing accounts until all were completely paid off.
I said if someone decides to pay just the minimum monthly payment, that could be years, even decades from now :eek:

That's expressed in the contract (standard thing to put in CC contracts?). Your card can be closed, and you cannot spend anymore, but you can continue paying your debt off as usual.

Aquamania wrote: »

They didn't have an answer to that.

Just to show how well trained they are. They should have told you what I wrote above.

But do you think they actually close accounts that have been paid off? I have this feeling they will need prodding.

Aquamania

Uplink wrote: »

That's expressed in the contract (standard thing to put in CC contracts?). Your card can be closed, and you cannot spend anymore, but you can continue paying your debt off as usual.


Just to show how well trained they are. They should have told you what I wrote above.

But do you think they actually close accounts that have been paid off? I have this feeling they will need prodding.

Which term of the Aqua contract are you referring to exactly?

Term 21 I think is the one they used. But it doesn't say anything about time to pay the debt as usual. It just says you have to pay everything that is owed.
Except in exceptional circumstances, it says they will give 2 months notice (which they did).
In fact it was the notice they gave that did allow you the option to pay off the amount as usual, or even apply for a new account (which seems to have turned out to be the same account, but with reduced cashback)

Anyway, I think you totally misunderstood me. Have you read my other posts in this thread? If you had, you would have realised I don't owe Aqua anything. In fact they owe me money! Money the FOS has told them to pay me. And the FOS became involved, at least in part, because of an existing credit on the account they applied as compensation after the account was suspended and I had paid off all that was owed, telling me the credit could only go towards my account and could not be paid to me in cash.
The FOS did not agree and so told them to pay me this money plus some compo. And what have they now done? To address the complaint of not paying me the credit on the account, they have credited it with some more money, contrary to what the FOS told them to do! :mad:

But what Aqua now tell me is that they won't close my account until all the the accounts that were not renewed late 2013/early 2014 have been fully paid off. Prod as much as you like. All you get from this lot is a pack of lies. They even told the FOS they had closed my account, but have now admitted to me they have not done so.

Roger1

FWIW I called Aqua last week about something else. I also told them that CRAs were reporting I had two open Aqua accounts.

After a bit of toing and froing and in response to my request, they said that they would cancel the old account (£0 balance) and that this would be done in the sweep at the beginning of next month.