Tell the new regulator what you think about financial services in the UK

funkyT1972

Not sure if the FCA are in charge of the FOS, but just in case...

The FOS are a joke. I had a problem with my bank last year, whereby they levied charged against an old loan, but never informed me. I only found out when I asked for a statement of account, following receipt of a new credit report. I wrote to the FOS to say that the bank never informed me of these charges and wanted them removing.

They wrote back to say I was out of time. I contested as I had only found out about the charges in the last 12 months. I provided them with all of the correspondence the bank had sent make - virtually nothing - and asked the FOS to get the bank to provide copies of their letters/evidence to me.

The FOS actually said in their responding letter "we cannot believe that the bank did not inform you of these changes, so prove to us that they didn't"!!!

I tried to get a copy of an old credit report from Credit Expert, but they wouldn't even respond. I gave up banging my head against a wall. Maybe that's what they were after???

DNS

When we bought our house in 2005 we took out a 5 year fixed mortgage with Abbey. Everything was fine until they became Santander, then their customer service went swiftly down the pan. If you phoned the call centre you were talked to like an inconvenience and I learned the hard way most of the answers I received were usually wrong, not only were the staff rude, they were poorly trained too.
In 2010, the end of our fixed period, I found on this wonderful site a fabulously low rate variable mortgage with the completely amazing First Direct so began the process of remortgage. It was a close call as to whether we could afford to pay the £3k off the mortgage to be at the minimum LTV to allow us to qualify for the awesome rate. So I checked the repayment figures, I double checked the figures, knowing it would wipe out our savings I triple checked the figures.
On the date agreed of the remortgage I had a call to make the payment amount for the difference - the figure I had in writing from Santander. The amount we had waiting in our account. I could not believe it when I was being asked for nearly £1000 more.
I immediately called Santander who couldn't care less, gave me no explanation, no alternative other than to pay up or they'd keep adding £20 a day the figure in interest. The Santander staff member actually huffed at me.
I went to the bank, withdrew my children's savings paid it into our account and we went through with the remortgage. The whole of the summer holidays that year we couldn't afford to take the children anywhere or buy them any treats, and I fretted for weeks - what if the car goes wrong, what if the washing machine breaks, what if the cat needs the vet!
Under normal circumstances I'd fight them to the death for my £1000 - the truth is I was so relived to see the back of them I didn't care. Dealing with them was so exhausting they could keep it/shove it.
Since then we have moved EVERYTHING to first direct, they are the most wonderful bank, always caring, very knowledgeable and in four months we'd paid our children back
Someone needs to take a good hard look at Santander and the way they treat their customers and how they get away with things like this.

fedupandworried

it irritates me so much if i purchase something online, the bank authorises my payment, the item is not in stock so the company cancel the order then it takes up to 5 days to be able to get my money recredited to my account! i feel i am a victim of financial politics and my money is floating in the ether of space and not back to me!

Lois_Lane

My husband owned a motorbike which he exchanged for a small car. He still had 5 months left on the insurance for the bike, so he contacted the company concerned to get a quote to insure the car instead, however the company wouldn't do this. OH then cancelled the bike policy, expecting to get a refund for the unused period of insurance, and was surprised to be charged money instead - an admin fee of £35 to cancel the policy! He wasn't very pleased, as you can imagine.

LL

Hogg

Hi,
I am disabled and live on benefits, from time to time my account goes into the red. I know the banks have to charge but at £25 a time (Santander) this makes it harder and harder for me to keep in the black as my income is fixed. I think for certain people on low incomes the rate they charge should be reduced by say half. Does any one else agree? Surely it does not cost the bank that much to process the transaction?

matttye

IanO wrote: »

When the fault of car insurance claims is disputed by the drivers involved insurance companies do very little to establish who was to blame. Presumably this is because, for them, it makes no difference as it all averages out over many claims that they deal with.
For the drivers involved this is not the case and their no claims discount can be affected through no fault of their own.
If insurance companies are allowed to attribute (partial) blame to any particular driver, they should first have to demonstrate that the driver was (partially) to blame. i.e. they should not be allowed to, for example, attribute blame on a 50:50 basis simply because they are not able to establish who was to blame.

And there should be an ombudsman to deal with any disputes between the insurance company and the driver that they are insuring.

One of my bosses (a solicitor) made a left hand turn in his car and a moped that was passing a number of cars behind him on the left hand side drove straight into the side of him. My bosses' insurance company initially accepted full responsibility, which is absolutely ludicrous. It's illegal to pass on the left and my boss made a legal left turn, so we were astounded they'd put the blame on him.

It transpired that an independent witness had actually said there were two lanes and my boss was in the right hand lane; he then indicated and turned, cutting across the left lane. THAT made more sense, so we went and took loads of photos showing that the lane didnt split into two until after the junction.

Insurance companies quite clearly don't do their research. If they had looked on Google Maps they'd have seen that my bosses' account was accurate.

This was months ago and whilst they have withdrawn their acceptance of blame, no decision has actually been made about whose fault it was now!

He even got the moped driver to sign something saying it was their fault.

Unbelievable...

The_pc_tech

How about capping the maximum amount of interest that can be charged on any form of lending in the UK at 20% APR so we no longer have figures like 4298% being charged on payday loans and people worried sick when they cant make the repayments when the only reason they took out the loan or credit card might be to feed their kids or to fund an emergency expense.

dalesrider

fedupandworried wrote: »

it irritates me so much if i purchase something online, the bank authorises my payment, the item is not in stock so the company cancel the order then it takes up to 5 days to be able to get my money recredited to my account! i feel i am a victim of financial politics and my money is floating in the ether of space and not back to me!

That is the retailer. They can refund straight away if they want too.
Do a PIN refund in store and its straight back. No reason that a online trans can be actioned the same way.

You alos have to remember that debits do not debit straight away. So given the number of credits against debits. The customer is on a winner.

grumbler

The_pc_tech wrote: »

How about capping the maximum amount of interest that can be charged on any form of lending in the UK at 20% APR so we no longer have figures like 4298% being charged on payday loans and people worried sick when they cant make the repayments when the only reason they took out the loan or credit card might be to feed their kids or to fund an emergency expense.

Why 20%, not 10%? After all payday loans are for the most reliable borrowers that always pay the money back in time and without any chasing. And if no company wants to lend them @20% they will always find some other way to get money to feed their kids.

• Payday loans, the evidence: why we need regulation now…
• Best-buy payday loans – should MSE include them?
• Can you use payday loans to boost your credit rating?
• Fact: borrowing £100 at Wonga’s APR costs more than the US national debt (over $14 trillion) after 7 years!
• Don’t tell MPs I’m against payday loan regulation!
• MP says don’t cap interest rates, cap loan costs
• Should we worry more about 10% interest than 2000% APR loans?

William_Barnes

Make banks proactive about PPI therefore removing the need for CMCs to pester people over the phone. And fine the MOJ for allowing so many CMCs to behave in that way.