Using the Financial Ombudsman

DH60

Edinburghlass wrote: »

I believe it is 6/8 weeks from your first letter asking for the charges before the FO will take on your case and you may well get an offer from Natwest in the meantime.

It depends on your response from the bank. I took 2 letters (Halifax and Bank of Scotland) into the branch last Thursday May 24 and got a reply within 2 days from both.
They both said that an investigation had been carried out and the outcome was that they were denying both claims as the charges were fair. I phoned the FOS, read the main points of the letter out to the man and he said that it sounded like a final decision to him so he sent me out the claim forms. He also told me that there was no need for the second letter threatening court action.

I called the Halifax yesterday to let them know what I was intending and on the offchance that they might make me an offer. They claimed that I had jumped the gun as they hadn't made a final decision so I called the FOS for a second time to make sure. After reading out the letter to her the woman assured me that the FOS would deal with the case as the Halifax had refused my claim. I then sent the claim forms.

Obviously the banks' responses will vary but for any Halifax/Bos customers who have had a reply beginning with "I have carried out an investigation...." and ending with " I am sorry to advise you I am declining your complaint" the FOS will deal with it now.

Edinburghlass_2

I think it is often worth while to say/write to the bank to say you are also contacting the FO regarding your claim as this may speed up an offer.

MORE-MONEY_2

can anyone tell me how u go throught the ombudsmen to get charges.

trinidadone

you mention charges, are you refering to bank charges or something else? if it relats to charges on your account, have you looked at the stages mentioned by martin in reclaiming your charges?

you need to give more info!!

Stephen_Leak

You do a search for him on the internet and read the relevant pages of his website.

Edinburghlass_2

As you can see from previous posts quite a number of people have claimed via the FO, you can read their FAQ here...

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/faq/answers/bank-charges_a1.html

wmidsgw

Hi

I'm now awaiting a response from Lloyds re: LBA......allowing them 14 days

If I decided to take the Financial Ombudsman option at the end of the 14 days, and the FOs response wasn't favourable to me, I take it that it would be pointless me taking the matter any further ie. through the County Court??

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

sadiejp

i am now at the stage of claiming my 2000 pound via mcol

problem is the 120 pound needed to claim


am a single parent........in ft employment but my funds cannot stretch this far.

I know feel i am going to let this money slip away.

Help Plz

Stephen_Leak

If you don't think that you could successfully handle a court claim, or can't afford the court fees and aren't eligible for fee relief, then the Financial Ombudsman is an alternative. It is free of charge and handles everything for you. However, you cannot refer your claim to the Financial Ombudsman until you have been dealing with the bank for 40 days, and it cannot make the bank pay up or set the level of the settlement like a court. If the Financial Ombudsman is unsuccessful, you can still take the bank to court.

sadiejp

Thanks for the reply have been dealing with this claim for nearly 6 months (yorkshire bank are a hard nut to crack)

How do i go through financial ombudsman

Thanks