Santander free forever bank account changes

MeteredOut

Did anyone ever get a response from theareal ombudsman, not the junior "copy and paste" investigator?

And a few were committed to going down the small claims route? Did anyone follow through with that? 

noitsnotme

MeteredOut said:

Did anyone ever get a response from theareal ombudsman, not the junior "copy and paste" investigator?

And a few were committed to going down the small claims route? Did anyone follow through with that? 

Lots of people on the Facebook group have had a final response from an Ombudsman.  None have had their complaints upheld.

eskbanker

MeteredOut said:

Did anyone ever get a response from theareal ombudsman, not the junior "copy and paste" investigator?

There was a flurry of ombudsman rejections published in November (three from the same ombudsman):

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-5841737.pdf
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-5912592.pdf
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-5902830.pdf
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-5959194.pdf

MeteredOut

Thanks, waiting for all those going to the small claims now I guess. I suspect that will be fewer than threatened.

I think their chances of any sort of win are low, unless its purely to refund any charges not refunded prior to moving elsewhere.

boingy

I think Santander are well out of order with this move but I don't really see what the small claims thing could do for anyone. They can't order Santander to reverse the decision. They can't make an award based on future account fees that haven't yet been paid. 

When you got to small claims you have to be seeking a specific amount of money. You pay a fee based on that amount. If you win you get the fee refunded. If you lose you may be liable for some of their Santander's costs too.

So it looks like a small upside vs a large downside to me.

Section62

I'm sure this has been gone over before in the thread.  I'm not suggesting going to court is a good idea, but anyone thinking about doing so needs to be making a decision based on facts, not erroneous information.

boingy said:

I think Santander are well out of order with this move but I don't really see what the small claims thing could do for anyone. They can't order Santander to reverse the decision. They can't make an award based on future account fees that haven't yet been paid.

That is incorrect.  E.g. look up "specific performance".

boingy said:

When you got to small claims you have to be seeking a specific amount of money. You pay a fee based on that amount.

That is incorrect.  You don't have to claim a specific amount.  If the amount is uncertain then you use the paper form application route and estimate the upper amount of the claim and pay a fee based on that.  The court will then decide the amount, and may adjust the fee if necessary.

boingy said:

If you win you get the fee refunded. If you lose you may be liable for some of their Santander's costs too.

If you lose you can be liable for some of the other side's costs, but these are very restricted compared to other litigation. It is very unlikely legal/solicitor costs would be allowed.

Anyone contemplating litigation needs to make sure they get good advice about the pros and cons.  But it is also important people aren't put off using their legal rights due to false information circulating on the internet.

amyfairweather

MeteredOut said:

Did anyone ever get a response from theareal ombudsman, not the junior "copy and paste" investigator?

And a few were committed to going down the small claims route? Did anyone follow through with that? 

We’re not really supposed to refer to them as junior investigators as it seems to trigger the usual suspects.

I’ve only just had the initial investigator cut and paste job so quite a way off any final answer.  

Only at that point will I be moving things on to the small claims court.

Nasqueron

amyfairweather said:

MeteredOut said:

Did anyone ever get a response from theareal ombudsman, not the junior "copy and paste" investigator?

And a few were committed to going down the small claims route? Did anyone follow through with that? 

We’re not really supposed to refer to them as junior investigators as it seems to trigger the usual suspects.

I’ve only just had the initial investigator cut and paste job so quite a way off any final answer.  

Only at that point will I be moving things on to the small claims court.

Giving someone's proper title is just respectful, rather than putting them down because they give an answer that isn't the desired one. I've seen stats previously that only 1/10 decisions get overturned by the Ombudsman over the Adjudicators so whether you want to call them junior or not, they are qualified 

robatwork

Been following this thread with interest, as a very long time customer of Santander who thinks they've done the dirty to many small business owners over this.

Here's my take on how these things always seem to work out. Nobody will go to court, and this thread will fizzle out.

Feel free to correct me as and when.

eskbanker

robatwork said:

Been following this thread with interest, as a very long time customer of Santander who thinks they've done the dirty to many small business owners over this.

Here's my take on how these things always seem to work out. Nobody will go to court, and this thread will fizzle out.

Feel free to correct me as and when.

It would surprise me if nobody went to court - talk is obviously cheap so it'll be a subset of those who got a final FOS decision, which is a subset of those who went to FOS, which is a subset of those who complained to Santander, which is a subset of those who are affected, but even though the numbers diminish at each stage, it's unlikely to be zero who'll take a punt on a legal claim IMHO.