Lloyds Bank offer exactly 75% of my calculation

RiverviewNB

Hi,


I submitted a PPI claim to Lloyds Bank which was upheld and they made an offer on July 23rd, 2014.

I have a number of problems with Lloyds and am not getting anywhere with my main problem.


1. Unscrupulous offer practices

Lloyds upheld my claim on 23rd July and sent the letter out 1 day later, 2nd class. They sent a cheque on the same day by first class post, meaning I received the cheque FOUR days before the explanatory offer letter. When I called Lloyds to ask what the cheque (£2853.80) was for, I was told the offer letter had been sent on the same day.

Presumably it is standard practice for Lloyds Bank to entice recipients to cash the cheque before they receive the final offer letter. Has anyone else noticed this?


2. PPI refund mis-calculation

My PPI refund offer was for an amount of £2853.80 which, according to Lloyds' paperwork was for 45 out of 48 PPI payments and is broken down as follows;

Original cost of PPI: £1625.26 (over 48 mths)
PPI refund offered: £1218.86

By my calculations, 45/48 of £1625.26 is £1523.68.

Lloyds have offered me EXACTLY 79.999% of the PPI I paid (which is 75% of the total amount of PPI charged to the loan), not 45/48ths (as per the number of payments made). It appears(in my case at least) that Lloyds may have a practice of offering 80% of the amount that should be paid.

This base PPI figure of £1218.86 gives me a refund, including interest etc of £2853.80, BUT, if my calculations are correct, that the base PPI refund should be £1523.86, the total payable to me should be approximately £3300-3400, some £600 difference.

Am I cynical in thinking that this 20% is being used as commission for the Indian call centre team (ie. I am paying for my own refund!!)?


3. Lack of communication and action

I spoke to Lloyds PPI call centre (sounds like it's based in India) at the end of July 2014. Since then, they have sent me 2 further cheques for the original offer figure, despite me questioning this figure almost every week to 2 weeks since July (it is now Oct 9th). I have refused to cash any of the cheques until I get an answer from them regarding the amount.

The PPI call centre manager has even agreed verbally with my calculation and raised it with the "calculation team" but despite numerous promises of a callback I have yet to receive one.

Their practices are bordering on despicable and quite possibly devious - I am at my wits end now as they appear to be incapable of progressing the issue. Lloyds have even suggested today that I contact the Financial Ombudsman - I did this and they have advised me that complaints to them can take up to 24 months to resolve.


I am very interested to hear if anyone else has had a similar problem with the Lloyds Bank PPI Refund Team, and what, if any, was the outcome.

[Deleted User]

If you remain unhappy with the result of your complaint, you now have the option of referring it to the Ombudsman.

welshgasman

Write a letter to them quoting all these figures you have mentioned in this thread and ask that it be reviewed again.

There is no PPI Refund team as such. It is a multitude of departments/teams all of who 'touch' the case at some point in time. However it is only the Redress team that can review this for you.

Also cashing the cheque in no way means you have accepted the offer, but that is up to you.

There used to be a link for the CEO email address on here somewhere that would expedite matters in situations like these.

Good luck

hall.brian

I'm sure they deduct in tax 20%...this is why your about 600 pounds down..

welshgasman

Yes, they do, but that will be mentioned in the FRL.

All the figures will be on that and if the o/p does not agree with those figures, they are entitled to make a redress enquiry.

The FRLs are all created by humans and unfortunately humans make mistakes, so it could be quite possible that the figures are incorrect despite their best efforts.

RiverviewNB

hall.brian wrote: »

I'm sure they deduct in tax 20%...this is why your about 600 pounds down..

To clarify, the tax you mention was already deducted by Lloyds.

They appear to have invidiously reduced the amount of PPI I paid by exactly 20% BEFORE they continued with their calculations (which added interest etc and subtracted 20% tax).

The 20% TAX was deducted elsewhere and listed in the full breakdown. My issue is that the amount of PPI paid appears to have been reduced by 20% before even starting the calculation process.

welshgasman wrote: »

All the figures will be on that and if the o/p does not agree with those figures, they are entitled to make a redress enquiry...

I have done this, but Lloyds just keep telling me they have forwarded it to the correct dept and someone will call me within a week. This has gone on for 2.5 months now and at no point have they called, emailed or written. They just keep sending cheques for the original amount (although that has stopped now).

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

If you remain unhappy with the result of your complaint, you now have the option of referring it to the Ombudsman.

As for the Ombudsman, well, from what I read (esp on their own FB page) they appear to be pretty useless. I spoke to them on the phone today and they pretty much dissuaded me from even bothering to complain, as though they're so snowed under they just want me to go away.

[Deleted User]

welshgasman wrote: »

All the figures will be on that and if the o/p does not agree with those figures, they are entitled to make a redress enquiry.

Indeed, the OP should certainly be sure the Bank genuinely dispute his calculations before referring the case to the Ombudsman. Better to get a full rundown of their calculations rather than end up with egg on his face eighteen months later.

As you said, nothing wrong with cashing the cheque for the disputed amount either-a successful FOS adjudication would instruct the Bank to pay an additional amount.

RiverviewNB wrote: »

As for the Ombudsman, well, from what I read (esp on their own FB page) they appear to be pretty useless.

Certainly, they will be "useless" if you complain about "Unscrupulous offer practices" and if you make allegations about " this 20% being used as commission for the Indian call centre team". Otherwise they are the final arbiter in disputes between financial institutions and their customers.

hall.brian wrote: »

I'm sure they deduct in tax 20%...this is why your about 600 pounds down..

I promise you this will not be the reason for the apparent miscalculation. Only the interest element of the redress is subject to tax.

addedvaluebob

welshgasman wrote: »

There is no PPI Refund team as such. It is a multitude of departments/teams all of who 'touch' the case at some point in time. However it is only the Redress team that can review this for you.

The PPI refund team all work in a couple of big offices in Leeds there is no multitude of departments. Case is logged when complaint received, assigned to a case handler, reviewed and input into a calculator as appropriate and offer or rejection letter sent. Last Lloyds PPI complaint handler I spoke to said they have 40 minutes to process the entire case from picking it up to writing the letter.

All you can do is wait for their next response and keep an eye on the date for referral to FOS to make sure you don't lose the right to refer it if required. Also check the wording of the offer letter to see if they have offset regular premiums within the offer

welshgasman

RiverviewNB wrote: »

They appear to have invidiously reduced the amount of PPI I paid by exactly 20% BEFORE they continued with their calculations (which added interest etc and subtracted 20% tax).

You are reading far more into this than there really is. If the amount is incorrect that will be an error on the part of the case handler, not some nefarious attempt to part you from what is owed. If anything they would go the other way.

RiverviewNB wrote: »

They just keep sending cheques for the original amount (although that has stopped now).

Well that in itself shows a level on incompetence. I hope they were stopping the previous cheques before reissuing another one.

As has been mentioned, they have 40 mins to complete a case. The whole system is a production line with getting the cases through from one dept to another as fast as possible. The people that check the payments are correct before they go out of the door get 6 mins per case whether the case is joint or sole. The people that produce the data for the cheques get just over 2 mins per case again whether that is a joint payment or sole. It obviously takes longer to check another FRL is correct, but they don't see that.

You do that day in day out and there are bound to be mistakes, however they are very small in relation to the number of cases processed, so they are not that bothered about them.

You will hardly ever hear of anyone coming on here and saying 'Bank so and so paid me £xxx within 28 days'.

I'm not defending them, god forbid, just trying to explain what it is like and how it can occur.

The reason for the delay is just probably a backlog of re review cases.

Writing a letter is far better than just calling and talking to Manila, where I believe the call centre is based. You are also quite entitled to request some D&I for this, should they be at fault.

RiverviewNB

Hi everyone,

Thank you for taking the time to comment so far. I would just like to clarify a couple of points;

1. My comment about unscrupulous practices referred to their sending out the offer letter 2nd class and settlement cheque 1st class on the same day meaning that I received the cheque before the offer. Incompetent, stupid or both?

2. I have the FULL breakdown of the figures and Lloyds have reduced the amount of PPI I paid by exactly 20% (without any explanation) and then continued with their calculations. Despite 6 phone calls I have onlymanaged to get thispoint across once, and since then no further action has been taken. I am getting nowhere despite having had a cheque 3 mths ago- every call Centre conversation results in a "no, the dept doesn't takes calls but we will pass this on" ... And then nothing happens.

Frustrated? Yup!

welshgasman

Re 1, that would likely be the first option.

Re 2. That is why I suggested a letter. Then you can make ALL the points you have made in this thread and there is NO chance of something getting lost in translation.

Your choice. Also bear in mind that if and when they do a recalc, you will get additional interest for all this time since the original FRL.

I also mentioned that you can request a D&I (distress & inconvenience) payment for all the trouble they have put you through.