Have the banks got 8 weeks to reply?!!!

Purpss

Hi Newbie here. Am using this top site to help claim back over £4000 in charges and interest for me and my hubby to be. This is the reply we got from Nationwide (his account)after sending 2 of the template letters.
Thank you for your recent letter blah blah blah they explain their rational behind their charging policy , more blah blah blah then go on to say its our fault and after careful consideration they are sorry that they can't agree to our charges being refunded and only in exceptional circumstances do they refund and on this occasion they feel that it would be unfair to other members who find themselves in similar situations and whose charges remain.

What about being unfair to us?????? We are taking it straight to the FO as Nationwide very helpfully suggested we should.They also pointed out that we had missed 2 default charges off our list. Thanks Nationwide we'll claim for them as well. Letter of complaint( form from MSE and all docs supporting) sent to FO today.

My account is with Abbey and they have not been as forthcoming , sent the first letter and got no reply so 14 days later sent the next letter.Today is 14th day so thought I'd give them a ring to say HELLO?!? and got told I couldn't speak to anyone in the complaints department as they are inundated with claims for refunds and they will be responding to mine in about 4-8 weeks from now.My question is do I have to wait 8 weeks from now to put in a complaint with the FO or is it 8weeks from the date I sent the first letter as I haven't even had an acknowledgement letter from them???
Sorry for waffling on but thought you'd need whole story to date to respond.
Warmest Regards to all
Purpss

princesskez26

Purpss wrote: »

Hi Newbie here. Am using this top site to help claim back over £4000 in charges and interest for me and my hubby to be. This is the reply we got from Nationwide (his account)after sending 2 of the template letters.
Thank you for your recent letter blah blah blah they explain their rational behind their charging policy , more blah blah blah then go on to say its our fault and after careful consideration they are sorry that they can't agree to our charges being refunded and only in exceptional circumstances do they refund and on this occasion they feel that it would be unfair to other members who find themselves in similar situations and whose charges remain.

What about being unfair to us?????? We are taking it straight to the FO as Nationwide very helpfully suggested we should.They also pointed out that we had missed 2 default charges off our list. Thanks Nationwide we'll claim for them as well. Letter of complaint( form from MSE and all docs supporting) sent to FO today.

My account is with Abbey and they have not been as forthcoming , sent the first letter and got no reply so 14 days later sent the next letter.Today is 14th day so thought I'd give them a ring to say HELLO?!? and got told I couldn't speak to anyone in the complaints department as they are inundated with claims for refunds and they will be responding to mine in about 4-8 weeks from now.My question is do I have to wait 8 weeks from now to put in a complaint with the FO or is it 8weeks from the date I sent the first letter as I haven't even had an acknowledgement letter from them???
Sorry for waffling on but thought you'd need whole story to date to respond.
Warmest Regards to all
Purpss

It is 8 weeks from the date of your first letter to them asking for your charges back then you can complain to the FO.

Good luck

Kez

soniakeen

:mad: hsbc and abbey are both telling me i have to waite 8 weeks for a decision on them paying me out or not.i have sent 2nd letter to abbey they still not replyed yet.now im having to do the same to hsbc.:mad: can any one help me please.i dont know what to do now.if i got to the FO there saying it could take 2-3 months.
hsbc £633.
abbey £2100.
thanks.

princesskez26

soniakeen wrote: »

:mad: hsbc and abbey are both telling me i have to waite 8 weeks for a decision on them paying me out or not.i have sent 2nd letter to abbey they still not replyed yet.now im having to do the same to hsbc.:mad: can any one help me please.i dont know what to do now.if i got to the FO there saying it could take 2-3 months.
hsbc £633.
abbey £2100.
thanks.

You can either wait the 8 weeks out if your patient but even then your not guaranteed to get the full amount your asking offered, some offer 50% some 65%.

If you have sent your LBA (letter before actions) to them and they haven't responded to them you can file your claims at court as that is an option to you. The FO usually take around 8 weeks to get you a settlement offer although many receive offers before this.

Kez

specialk72

I had to wait 8 weeks for abbey then only offered £200 from a claim of £4000.00. Had to take abbey to court it took me 6 months but hey i got my money all bar £500 so hold out and take it all the way.

millow

I am claiming off Natwest myself and have had a money claim recently issued, stick to the timescale on this website and you cant go wrong, do notlet them dictate the time, they owe you, they dont give you time when they slap a charge on you account.Good Luck

donna1071

Thanks for your reply and good luck with your claim.
I will stick to the timetable as you suggest, i was just abit worried that as they said in an email my claim had been verified and an offer letter would be with me within days (although after 3 weeks still not received it) i could no longer put in the money claim, but i guess i can and will do so.

Many thanks again

Purpss

Thanks Kez and well done on your success so far.

Edinburghlass_2

Edinburghlass wrote: »

Under the FSA guidelines the bank has 8 weeks in which to deal with a complaint and they must let the complainant know if they think they can't deal with the complaint within this timescale and give them an approximate date as to when they will have completed their investigation.

If you receive such a letter giving a second "date" as to when they will be dealing with your complaint this is a holding/stalling letter.

By following Martin's step by step guide you give the bank 14 days to respond to your initial letter and if no response you can send out the letter before action on day 15 and give that bank a further 14 days or you will take them to court. If you decide to file court action at either court or via MCOL you can then expect the bank to acknowledge your claim and file a defence and should read Beate's post in the Reclaim Help Thread as to the timescale for this next step.

Should your bank send you a letter giving a definate no to paying your claim or indeed if the bank suggest you take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman you can go straight to the FO alternatively you have to have been dealing with your bank for 6/8 weeks before the FO will take on your complaint.

HOWEVER, personally, I would advise you to read the bank thread relevant to your particular bank, you'll find them all linked in the Reclaim Help Thread, as some of the banks when they say they are dealing with your complaint and will reply in 8 weeks they do in fact do this and will at that stage offer to pay the whole of your claim.

You'll also find in the relevant bank threads just which banks will take it to the wire and won't make any offer nor are open to negotiation.

As the above post but please do read the posts in the thread relevant to your bank as to how other claimants are finding your bank handle claims as NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland do aim to have an offer to you within the 8 weeks.

For Halifax and Bank of Scotland (HBOS) customers please read this thread regarding phoning your bank and getting a re-evaluation of your claim.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=456610&page=15

Roadhog_2

hiya all

sent 1st letter & the bank sent out statements - sent 2nd letter asking for my charges to be paid with interest. they had to reply within 14 days which they did.....

Today i get a letter from them saying the following....

we are currently considering your claim. Given the work involved in assessing your claim we anticipate that we will be in a position to respond within 6 - 7 weeks, but will endeavour to do so sooner if we are able to.

ok thats their letter ......

dosent say its going to give me my money or not - just stalling i guess ?

what do i do next - do i wait the 6 - 7 weeks and agree to their terms or do i respond with my own letter and my own time scale - or do i go straight to step 4 which is the court letter ? I just want to do the right thing here and seem to remember seeing on here that i set the times not the banks ?

plz advice if you can will be very much appreciated - if your a dab hand at this and have helped others on here b4 then please be specific with what i should write as im not to tactful in writting letters.....lol

many thanks to all who respond to this

Roadhog