Mis-sold packaged accounts - Ombudsman will side with bank

kernowmagic

Forget trying to reclaim your pacakged account fees especially if you are with Lloyds, Halifax, RBS.
I was mis-sold my account and forced to change by the manager of my local Halifax in 2010 and was told that I had no choice as all accounts were going to be moved over.

Having seen recently on the MSE and TV program Martin harping on about them being mis-sold I made my own complaint via the Resolver website and Halifax didnt even reply to me. I escalated my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and contrary to what Martin says on his forum the Ombudsman sided totally with the bank stating that I would have been given the highlights of the account and it was for me to decide.... rubbish I was told I had no choice.

None of the benefits are of use to me as I neve go abroard and Im deaf so I cant use the mobile phone additionally I always had breakdown cover with my car insurance as that was the cheapest and often free. Even with all this information the Ombudsman still said "it is my belief that even if you didnt use the benefits some or all of them would have had some use for you" HOW!!!!

So if you hear Martin getting all excited about reclaiming and that if you fail there is always the Financial Ombudsman service.... forget it... they wont side with you!

dunstonh

Mis-sold packaged accounts - Ombudsman will side with bank

Statistically, its around 13% of cases the FOS will rule in your favour. There are good reasons for this though.

I escalated my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and contrary to what Martin says on his forum the Ombudsman sided totally with the bank stating that I would have been given the highlights of the account and it was for me to decide.... rubbish I was told I had no choice.

Martin does over egg the packaged bank accounts issue to make it sound more like the scale of PPI but it is not.

I was at a FOS meeting last year and they said that, as a product, they have absolutely no issue with packaged bank accounts and it is very common in retail to package things and it is a legitimate way to retail. So, you don't really have a product failure like you do with many types of PPI.

None of the benefits are of use to me as I neve go abroard and Im deaf so I cant use the mobile phone additionally I always had breakdown cover with my car insurance as that was the cheapest and often free. Even with all this information the Ombudsman still said "it is my belief that even if you didnt use the benefits some or all of them would have had some use for you" HOW!!!!

A packaged bank account is a package of items. Some may not be useful. Others will be. Just because some are not useful, does not make it mis-sold. You basically have to show that the majority would not have been of benefit.

and that if you fail there is always the Financial Ombudsman service.... forget it... they wont side with you!

The FOS is an independent arbiter of complaints. It does not take sides. It makes a judgement on the available information.

One of the major reasons why packaged bank account complaints have been failing is that since around 2010-2012 banks have been sending out annual benefit statements saying what your package offers and confirming it is optional and that alternative accounts exist. You have three years to raise a complaint from being aware of an issue and these benefit statements are enough to trigger that three year clock.

We are now getting to the stage where packaged bank account complaints are starting to look like opportunistic compensation chasers rather than genuine complaints of failures by the bank.

kernowmagic

dunstonh wrote: »

We are now getting to the stage where packaged bank account complaints are starting to look like opportunistic compensation chasers rather than genuine complaints of failures by the bank.

There is a good reason for that.... this site! Martin Lewis on here and on the TV are pushing this as our right and is in no way opportunistic. Why put people like myself off who have only recently discovered via the forum and the TV show that there were choices?

dunstonh

kernowmagic wrote: »

There is a good reason for that.... this site! Martin Lewis on here and on the TV are pushing this as our right and is in no way opportunistic. Why put people like myself off who have only recently discovered via the forum and the TV show that there were choices?

You don't need Martin Lewis to tell you that you have the right to complain. You can complain to any retailer at any time about anything.

It is whether you have valid grounds for complaint that matters and in your case neither the bank or an independent arbiter of complaints has decided you have a case.

You started a thread with the opening words "Forget trying to reclaim your pacakged account fees" [sic]. So, please do not accuse me of putting people off complaining when all I did was provide an explanation as to why it is not as strong as an issue as this site makes out and why your complaint may have been rejected.

eskbanker

kernowmagic wrote: »

I escalated my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and contrary to what Martin says on his forum the Ombudsman sided totally with the bank

Contrary to what exactly?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/reclaim-packaged-bank-accounts clearly highlights the FOS's independence and role:

This is the official body for settling disputes between individuals and financial companies. It's a free service that acts as an impartial adjudicator. Present it with the facts, and it'll decide whether your account and the circumstances under which it was sold, were unfair

It does also go on to explain that you have further options if you disagree with the FOS's adjudication, i.e. escalation within FOS or ultimately court.

meer53

Why would you need a website to tell you that you'd been missold something ? Surely you can reach that conclusion all by yourself ? Did it never occur to you in the last 7 years that you were paying for something you didn't need ? What Martin Lewis and this website do encourage is people to check what they have and change banks if they can get a better deal elsewhere.

kernowmagic

Ok...... so I thought that MSE was supposed to be an helpful forum.... turns out you are all keyboard warriors.... sad but true.

If everyone was aware of the things they should question or as in my case bank charges they have been forced into then MSE would not exist.

PeacefulWaters

kernowmagic wrote: »

Ok...... so I thought that MSE was supposed to be an helpful forum.... turns out you are all keyboard warriors.... sad but true.

If everyone was aware of the things they should question or as in my case bank charges they have been forced into then MSE would not exist.

Your ability to put everything in absolute terms is a bit childish.

The FOS don't always side with the banks.

The replies you've had actually seem quite reasonable.

I am a little baffled as to how people can spend years paying out a monthly fee which gives them no benefits.

EarthBoy

kernowmagic wrote: »

None of the benefits are of use to me as I neve go abroard and Im deaf so I cant use the mobile phone

You can still use a mobile phone for texts and if it's a smartphone for all the apps, social media and internet. Many deaf people find smartphones a god-send because they open up a whole world of communication that is otherwise closed to them, or difficult to access. My deaf friend is never off his smartphone.

meer53

kernowmagic wrote: »

Ok...... so I thought that MSE was supposed to be an helpful forum.... turns out you are all keyboard warriors.... sad but true.

If everyone was aware of the things they should question or as in my case bank charges they have been forced into then MSE would not exist.

We just point out where your claim failed. To claim you were forced into taking out an account is where you went wrong. No-one is forced to take a bank account, you have a choice, you chose not to take it. Thats why the Ombudsman found in favour of the bank.

Uxb

All financial ombudsman decisions are made public and are published on the website.
I'm sure the OP can give a link to their decision so we can see all the facts for ourselves.
Here is the general link to the search page.
http://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk/Default.aspx