Financial Ombudsmen complaint?

psychopathbabble

Good morning, I wonder if anyone can help me or advise how to complain to financial ombudsman?

My husband spent a year abroad at university around 10-12 years ago and his mum was put on the account as a third party mandate, meaning she could get access to send money to him.

On his return to the UK, he requested she be removed.

Last year it came to light that she hadn't actually been removed at all. She had downloaded the RBS banking app to her iphone and all of his accounts showed up.

He called them and wrote a letter, it wasn't done, so he called again, asked to lodge a formal complaint and wrote another letter.

It still wasn't done, and the short story is that he has written 4 or 5 letters, called them several times and asked each time to lodge a formal complaint.

On saturday, it turned out she still has access to 2 of his accounts on her app. None of the formal complaints have been lodged, let alone investigated or resolved.

We are lucky that it is his mum and he has a very good relationship with her. If not, it could have had serious consequences. It is a total joke that none of his complaints have been lodged, and he is still being asked to write further letters to get her removed.

Now we would like to take it further as it is a serious breach of data protection and potentially left him open to have all of his money stolen!

Could anyone please tell me the next steps? We have tried to resolve the situation with the bank, we have actually moved his savings out to another account now too. But he is fed up, and wants to take this further.

Thank you.

ETA: Apparently she is no longer listed as a third party mandate on the accounts but still has the access on the app!

bigadaj

Poor service from the bank but given the fact that the original intention was for the person to be added to the account then there has been little impact and no loss.

If he has recorded the formal complaint then if that has not been addressed then he can go straight to the fos.

I wouldn't expect a lot out of this, just a small payment for nuisance.

If he's that unhappy with rbs then end his relationship, there's a lot of money to be made from switching current accounts after all and I'm not aware that rbs group offer a lot on most of their accounts compared to their competitors.

Yorkshire_Pud

Shouldn't his mum also request she be removed as it is a 'joint' account and the money is in fact hers as much as his technically otherwise she could not have made payments in the past.

Two signatures required?

Not really potentially open to fraud as in the eyes of the bank its his mums money too!?

Some confusion in liaising with the bank? How can mum access the account via the App has she got the password?

Up to you if you go to the Ombudsman but I can't see a big payout and they might send it to his mum;)

eskbanker

psychopathbabble wrote: »

He called them and wrote a letter, it wasn't done, so he called again, asked to lodge a formal complaint and wrote another letter.

It still wasn't done, and the short story is that he has written 4 or 5 letters, called them several times and asked each time to lodge a formal complaint.

On saturday, it turned out she still has access to 2 of his accounts on her app. None of the formal complaints have been lodged, let alone investigated or resolved.

Seems odd that repeated attempts to get a complaint logged haven't succeeded - has he followed the formal complaint process published at http://personal.rbs.co.uk/personal/support-centre/how-to-complain.html, i.e. are his calls and letters directed to the numbers/addresses specified there?

Thrugelmir

Yorkshire_Pud wrote: »

Shouldn't his mum also request she be removed as it is a 'joint' account and the money is in fact hers as much as his technically otherwise she could not have made payments in the past.

Two signatures required?

Not really potentially open to fraud as in the eyes of the bank its his mums money too!?

Some confusion in liaising with the bank? How can mum access the account via the App has she got the password?

Up to you if you go to the Ombudsman but I can't see a big payout and they might send it to his mum;)

Agree. As what's a third party mandate? Surely it was made a joint account in which case the account holder themselves has to apply. If the account is overdrawn then the bank would decline the request until such time as the account was brought into credit.

psychopathbabble

No, it's not a joint account in the slightest. It is just something that means the bank were allowed to speak to her regarding the accounts. It's a completely different thing to a joint account.

psychopathbabble

No she doesn't have the password for his online banking, so it's somehow connected to her name on the app even though she isn't joint on his account or knows his login details, so they are definitely appearing under her name alone.

Yorkshire_Pud

psychopathbabble wrote: »

No, it's not a joint account in the slightest. It is just something that means the bank were allowed to speak to her regarding the accounts. It's a completely different thing to a joint account.

Well I've learnt something, I've heard of Power of Attorney and looked up Third Party Mandate and can see he could authorise his mum to administer his accounts in a way he specified. So not a joint account and I apologise for my error.

Still find it hard to believe it could not be resolved amicably and speedily face to face with RBS. They have to allow you to make a complaint. It doesn't add up.

RBS have a Complaints procedure just follow it, if they don't respond or give a decision within 8 weeks or you don't agree their decision you can go to the Ombudsman. Sabre rattling loses out to a measured approach I find, I've made several complaints and never needed to go to the Ombudsman!

psychopathbabble

Thanks

He actually called the FO this afternoon and they are going to write to the bank etc. He has tried to resolve it through the bank complaint procedure to no effect so time to take it further. We aren't particularly looking for compensation but this should have been easily resolved when he first requested it. Luckily for us it's not someone we have a bad relationship with.

agrinnall

Yorkshire_Pud wrote: »

Still find it hard to believe it could not be resolved amicably and speedily face to face with RBS. They have to allow you to make a complaint. It doesn't add up.

Who do you think he would be able to resolve it with face to face? I doubt if this is something that can be handled by a branch, and the people who can do it will not be customer facing - the best he can hope for is that the complaint is formally acknowledged and the person allocated to it calls him.

As it is it sounds like things have already moved on to the FOS so they will hopefully persuade RBS to deal with the complaint properly.

Yorkshire_Pud

agrinnall wrote: »

Who do you think he would be able to resolve it with face to face? I doubt if this is something that can be handled by a branch, and the people who can do it will not be customer facing - the best he can hope for is that the complaint is formally acknowledged and the person allocated to it calls him.

As it is it sounds like things have already moved on to the FOS so they will hopefully persuade RBS to deal with the complaint properly.

Are you 100% sure?

I've managed to resolve issues with bank staff including a 'Relationship Manager' but maybe I have just been lucky. I think it is something that could be handled by a branch just as setting up a Third Party Mandate in the first place can be.