Lloyds Packaged Account SUCCESS after only 4 days - £2,700 !!!

sjw64

Hi

I thought I would share this amazing success re-claiming charges for a packaged account I had with Lloyd's.

Last Friday night after a few glass's of wine I filled in the details required via Martins website http://www.resolver.co.uk/

On Tuesday night Lloyds called me to say that they are looking into this and will call within the next 24hrs.

Tonight (Wed) they called me to confirm that they will refunding me with £2,698.71p worth of charges incl 8% interest.

I knew I had been paying between £8 - £10 per month into an account in return for various perks mainly insurance related stuff. This account was originally a free one and at some point automatically transferred itself into a 'paid one' that I just assumed that I had no choice but to stick with. It didn't help having an overdraft that I couldn't pay off, therefore could not close the account.

The charges went back from Aug 2001 until late 2014

Happy Christmas :money:

Lisa0812

Your post made me have a go with my Select account. Filled in the resolver form yesterday afternoon. This afternoon a nice man phoned and took details and said he would call back by 8pm. He actually called back about half an hour ago and said I was getting £1889.71 put into my account within the next two working days.


Thanks sjw64 for your post and to moneysavingexpert forums and resolver for all the info. x

sjw64

See it works. Come on folks get stuck in!

The money I got went into my bank this afternoon. Its one week since I filled in the stuff on resolver

ChuckMountain

I complained to Lloyds though I wrote a letter based on one of the template about my AVA with them, should have probably tried Resolver. The first had several reasons, and then a second one with more detailed counter arguments.

They are writing back a second time to reject my case so I will be taking up with the Ombudsman as am not happy still with a number of points, though haven't seen the letter fully yet.

I appreciate that all cases are different but I do wonder why some seem to be more easily refunded and others not.

My main points without going into too many details were back in 2000 when I was but a freshly married man I was only really given the option of upgrading my single account to a joint Gold Account. Then through various upgrades eventually ended up on a Premier Account paying a £25 fee each month. I subsequently have asked about removing the benefits and going to a fee free account, however I was told at various times that I would to have to close the account. Having only one account at the time that was not an option. So I was stuck with the account or thought I was. I have had the account for 40 years so whilst I appreciate it you can setup a new one was feeling some strange loyalty and like the fact my bank account is only really 5 digits long.

I also challenged on the suitability of the account and that I didn't require quite a lot of the insurances, I had new cars for example.

The bank was able to provide some information on when I was changed accounts but they indicated it was at my doing, once over the Internet and the Premier was done in branch apparently though they have no record of what was said or done. I should not have qualified for the Premier according to the website archive.

I appreciate that its a long time ago and the bank only have to retain records for 6 years.

I have complained a number of times but by phone about wanting to go to fee free and unhappy about this fee and the service I was getting but only recently have been able to do so.

They have no record of these complaints though in the 2nd letter I did provide 2 names of people I spoke to. The complaints advisor said if they had a record of this then they would have refunded me on this basis alone. Convenient

Also the information they have on me is in accurate for example the date I opened the account is stated as Sept 1993, which was when I converted it to a student account, it had been open much longer as can be seen from the short account code.

I will dig through my notes (I found the two names in my work book as I use the left page for personal notes) but is there anywhere I should focus on when I complain to the ombudsman.

Is it worth doing a data subject access request?

Did the two cases get a letter with any more information than yes we agree? Did I go too detailed and a vaguer case is better?

Thanks for any help

[Deleted User]

Knowing the names of two Bank staff you apparently verbally complained to some time back is not proof that you actually made a complaint, nor a reason why your current complaint should be upheld.

The OP of this thread appears to have been very lucky in that their complaint was upheld without any investigation, as evidenced by the very swift turnaround. Unfortunately, Banks do sometimes pay out immediately without any fuss -usually but not always on smaller amounts. Your complaint does not appear to fall into this category and it's hardly something you can additionally complain about not least because it happened to some random person reporting on the internet.

However, while none of your issues point to a guaranteed successful FOS referral, it's probably still worth referring your complaint to the Ombudsman as you may still get lucky.

ChuckMountain

Thanks for the response and reading some other posts it does seem like some people get lucky. Though mine was turned around in a similar time scale with an investigation supposedly though from what I can tell that was only an electronic check so maybe they did have different circumstances though it does seem a bit pot luck.

I am not going to use the example of because x got it I should also get it.

My main compliant was based on the main Martin list was 1) Wrongly told, 3) Mis-led, and mainly 6) where I tried to cancel it. A bit of 4 and 7 though the latter was to do with a credit card.

The bank disagrees with my points though can provide no evidence in the case of 6 or what was said in the sales process 1 and 3. It said I should have received a welcome pack but no evidence of that. Some of the information quoted they were not aware of even though I have it on a web archive.

On the other hand I have verbally complained a number of times, hindsight is great as I should have written in but various things including the birth of first child got in the way.

As mine is an older case and the bank does not have any records, I have some notes in my notebook listing the names but probably only the date. Short of taking a photo and also disproving some of the other statements that the complaint handler made in the letter like when the bank account was opened t made not sure what else to do.

Reading some of the Ombudsman cases on current accounts then I guess its a fine line as they have found in favour where the bank cannot provide records but mine are notes in a book at best.

Am I making things too complicated and just submit an online case to the Ombudsman ?

Nasqueron

ChuckMountain wrote: »

Thanks for the response and reading some other posts it does seem like some people get lucky. Though mine was turned around in a similar time scale with an investigation supposedly though from what I can tell that was only an electronic check so maybe they did have different circumstances though it does seem a bit pot luck.

I am not going to use the example of because x got it I should also get it.

My main compliant was based on the main Martin list was 1) Wrongly told, 3) Mis-led, and mainly 6) where I tried to cancel it. A bit of 4 and 7 though the latter was to do with a credit card.

The bank disagrees with my points though can provide no evidence in the case of 6 or what was said in the sales process 1 and 3. It said I should have received a welcome pack but no evidence of that. Some of the information quoted they were not aware of even though I have it on a web archive.

On the other hand I have verbally complained a number of times, hindsight is great as I should have written in but various things including the birth of first child got in the way.

As mine is an older case and the bank does not have any records, I have some notes in my notebook listing the names but probably only the date. Short of taking a photo and also disproving some of the other statements that the complaint handler made in the letter like when the bank account was opened t made not sure what else to do.

Reading some of the Ombudsman cases on current accounts then I guess its a fine line as they have found in favour where the bank cannot provide records but mine are notes in a book at best.

Am I making things too complicated and just submit an online case to the Ombudsman ?

Generally you have to wait 8 weeks before you can bump to the FOC

Your problem is you seem to be mixing up the burden of proof

"
The bank disagrees with my points though can provide no evidence in the case of 6 or what was said in the sales process 1 and 3. It said I should have received a welcome pack but no evidence of that."

You are making the accusation - it is up to you to provide proof of the above, not the bank to disprove you - same principle as me saying you owe me £100 and you having to show you don't.

ChuckMountain

Nasqueron wrote: »

Generally you have to wait 8 weeks before you can bump to the FOC

Your problem is you seem to be mixing up the burden of proof

"
The bank disagrees with my points though can provide no evidence in the case of 6 or what was said in the sales process 1 and 3. It said I should have received a welcome pack but no evidence of that."

You are making the accusation - it is up to you to provide proof of the above, not the bank to disprove you - same principle as me saying you owe me £100 and you having to show you don't.

Thanks, its 8 weeks for them to respond to my complaint before I can go to FOS or their final letter which is in the post to me so I can go now to the FOS. (?)

I was looking at the cases on here

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/112/112-packaged-accounts.html

and fall into a combination of them and probably that's why its complicated and might have been worth going with one or the other complaint rather than all of them. (and trying to summarise on here )

I appreciate that it might be deemed as the banks word against mine in the case of me being unhappy\wanting to downgrade but even if I had written to them and they had no record either due to loss, not recording or just not being able the record to find it then I am not going to be able to prove that it occurred. I have my own personal notes at what point do they weigh in favour of me ?

[Deleted User]

ChuckMountain wrote: »

Thanks, its 8 weeks for them to respond to my complaint before I can go to FOS or their final letter which is in the post to me so I can go now to the FOS. (?)

It's not eight weeks before you can go to FOS unless you haven't received a response from the Bank. If the Bank rejects prior to this period then of course you can refer.

ChuckMountain wrote: »

The bank disagrees with my points though can provide no evidence in the case of 6 or what was said in the sales process 1 and 3.

The bank don't have to provide such evidence; You are the one who is making accusations of wrong-doing not the bank.

ChuckMountain wrote: »

I appreciate that it might be deemed as the banks word against mine I have my own personal notes at what point do they weigh in favour of me ?

Your personal notes are not evidence you can produce to somehow "prove" what was said and by whom. If they were admissible, anyone could write "notes" and say they were written at the time!

However, as I've already pointed out, your case is weak hearsay- but don't let that stop you from referring to the Ombudsman as you may still get lucky. Do note that you are likely to be waiting many months for a result of any kind.

ChuckMountain

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Your personal notes are not evidence you can produce to somehow "prove" what was said and by whom. If they were admissible, anyone could write "notes" and say they were written at the time.
As I've already pointed out, your case is weak hearsay but don't let that stop you from referring to the Ombudsman as you may still get lucky. Do note that you are likely to be waiting many months for a result of any kind.

I appreciate the feedback and understand the timescales involved and will be referring to Ombudsman. I wanted to make sure I had not missed anything as the Ombudsman has found in favour of people where the bank does not have a record of certain things but appreciate in case on its merits.

The annoying thing for me is even with recorded delivery I still couldn't guarantee what the contents of a letter were just that something was delivered so without a 3rd party witness to any conversation letter or verbal its very hard to prove. I don't know if Vodafone would have a copy of each time I phoned the bank either would that help?

Is there anything I should focus on to improve my chances?

[Deleted User]

ChuckMountain wrote: »

so without a 3rd party witness to any conversation letter or verbal its very hard to prove.

Even a "third party witness" wouldn't be proof, only more evidence.

You can provide no evidence for your accusations and the Bank have rejected on that basis. It's not unlikely, therefore, that FOS will side with the Bank in your case. However, the Bank may decide in the fullness of time to uphold your complaint rather than pay the FOS fee. FOS does provide the Bank with that opportunity,and it's your only real chance with such a weak case. Only time will tell.