Am I too late to go to the Ombudsman?

andybirch

Long story short, I took 8 loans out with Halifax during the 90's and early 00's. All dealings were in branch and I don't remember being asked whether I needed to take out PPI to cover repayments. At the time I had a decent public sector job with sickness and redundancy pay accrued. I got to feel that I needed to take out the insurance to get the loan agreed as I'd had it before and it would look odd if I didn't take it out now.


so I finally decided to see if I could make a claim. Halifax rejected it as they couldn't get further information from me as they didn't have up to date telephone numbers.


Since then I've moved house and just came across the rejection letter. it's dated 22/08/13 - 6 mths ago exactly. Am I too late to appeal to the ombudsman? What do people think my chances of success are?


Regards,




Andy.

sun73

Send an email to FOS urgently, today if possible, its still the 22nd Feb, ask if they can register your complaint as being in time. If its too late were there any strong reasons, other than move house, why you did not refer it to FOS earlier?

quaybab

2nd to sun73 suggestion, send it to the contact email address on http://financial-ombudsman.org.uk/contact/index.html which generates an immediate auto-response. Send as much info as you can. If you don't get the acknowledgement, ring first thing on Monday you are not out of time if you sort today.
This will comply with FCA (DISP) rule 2.8.2(1).

Can't advise you on success.

magpiecottage

Better still, if possible, fax to 020 7964 1001.

You have until midnight.

Having said that the statements you have made to not suggest misselling.

quaybab

There is absolutely no point in using fax with the FOS as they don't have any fax machines. They use Zetafax server to route faxes sent and convert them to email. With fax, you get no immediate acknowledgement it was received, just acknowledgement it was sent.

magpiecottage wrote: »

Better still, if possible, fax to 020 7964 1001.

magpiecottage

quaybab wrote: »

There is absolutely no point in using fax with the FOS as they don't have any fax machines. They use Zetafax server to route faxes sent and convert them to email. With fax, you get no immediate acknowledgement it was received, just acknowledgement it was sent.

Incorrect for two reasons. The first is that the number is a geographical one. The second is that a receipt will be issued confirming its arrival. FOS would accept that as proof of receipt by a firm and would therefore have some difficulty arguing that it should operate to a different standard.