RBS Packaged bank account rejected by Ombudsman

AndyC1967

Hello, I had a Royalties Gold account with RBS from 2000 until 2017, paying £14 per month, never had the need for any of the insurance policies and never informed that if I did need them Id have to register. I contacted RBS in 2016 who rejected my claim for mis-selling on the grounds that I should have cancelled my account within 5 years of me realising that it was unsuitable. Referred to the Ombudsman who initially upheld the decision made by RBS, but subsequently after reviewing further information reopened the case and referred back to RBS, the end result being that they agreed that RBS were correct as they wrote to me at 3 points over the last 15 years giving me all of the information I required to either activate the policies or change the account, to my knowledge these letters were never received however I suspect they were possibly incorporated within the junk mail magazines that were sent. Either way I do not agree with the decision but am not able to take this further. Does anyone here have any experience of this or similar? Is there a higher authority that I can follow this up with? Any help would be appreciated.

dunstonh

RBS Packaged bank account rejected by Ombudsman

A not unexpected outcome. The uphold rate by the FOS is only around 13% on PBAs.

I contacted RBS in 2016 who rejected my claim for mis-selling on the grounds that I should have cancelled my account within 5 years of me realising that it was unsuitable.

Do you mean 3 years? There is no 5 year rule. There is a 3 and 6 year rule though. 6 years from the same of the product and 3 years from being reasonably aware.

Referred to the Ombudsman who initially upheld the decision made by RBS, but subsequently after reviewing further information reopened the case and referred back to RBS, the end result being that they agreed that RBS were correct as they wrote to me at 3 points over the last 15 years giving me all of the information I required to either activate the policies or change the account, to my knowledge these letters were never received

The 3 year rule is reinforced with documentary evidence. One of the reasons PBAs have a low uphold rate noawdays is because the periodic notifications of account benefits and the ability to change accounts appear in those letters.

I suspect they were possibly incorporated within the junk mail magazines that were sent.

They were not. However, they were a little glossy themselves.

Either way I do not agree with the decision but am not able to take this further. Does anyone here have any experience of this or similar? Is there a higher authority that I can follow this up with? Any help would be appreciated.

You can appeal an adjudicator decision. However, the timebar seems valid and the adjudicator seems to have followed the rules correctly. PBAs are not a difficult subject and not something you expect an adjudicator to get wrong. So, an appeal would be expected to fail. Appeals have around a 10% overturn rate but it tends to be in more complicated areas.

So, apart from an appeal to an ombudsman, that is the end of it.