Sue bank over lost account?
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squeekswhenwalking
Posts: 184 Forumite
Hi wondered what your thoughts are: in the late 1990's I had a TESSA (tax exempt special savings account) with N&P as a long term investment with £3000 in it. Fast forward a decade or so and I wanted to draw the money out. In the meanwhile the bank/bs has changed hands twice and is now Santander.
They don't recognise the account number and there response is, we'd have transferred the money into an ISA.
I paid for the archives of the TESSA to be sent, however they just sent me all of the ISA statements, which show that the money from the TESSA didn't end up in there.
The ombudsman weren't any help.
A friend has suggested I make a claim against Santander in the small claims court. Any advice or thoughts? Thanks for taking the time to read this.
They don't recognise the account number and there response is, we'd have transferred the money into an ISA.
I paid for the archives of the TESSA to be sent, however they just sent me all of the ISA statements, which show that the money from the TESSA didn't end up in there.
The ombudsman weren't any help.
A friend has suggested I make a claim against Santander in the small claims court. Any advice or thoughts? Thanks for taking the time to read this.
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Comments
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All they would need is your NI number to identify the account. If they've done that and come up blank, you'd want to be VERY sure of the facts before taking it as far as small claims.
But you could, for free, raise a formal complaint and take that to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you don't get anywhere. edit: missed the fact you've already gone down that route.0 -
My father had an account 'lost' by Santander.
I'm not sure of the details or amount (I would consider it rude to ask him) but knowing my father it wasn't a small amount. When they 'found it' he withdrew all of the money, closed the account and vowed never to use Santander again.
I've had dealings with Santander (and previously Alliance & Leicester) for over 10 years and I've never had any issues with them.0 -
A friend has suggested I make a claim against Santander in the small claims court.
What evidence could you present the court that it still existed?I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.0 -
What evidence we you able to offer the Ombudsman and why did they reject your complaint? Can you offer more evidence to a court?
(Assuming you made a formal complaint to the Ombudsman rather than just an informal phone call - if not that should be your first step.)0 -
So they had converted the TESSA into an ISA and Santander had a record of it? Or am I misunderstanding?squeekswhenwalking wrote: »Hi wondered what your thoughts are: in the late 1990's I had a TESSA (tax exempt special savings account) with N&P as a long term investment with £3000 in it. Fast forward a decade or so and I wanted to draw the money out. In the meanwhile the bank/bs has changed hands twice and is now Santander.
They don't recognise the account number and there response is, we'd have transferred the money into an ISA.
I paid for the archives of the TESSA to be sent, however they just sent me all of the ISA statements, which show that the money from the TESSA didn't end up in there.
The ombudsman weren't any help.
A friend has suggested I make a claim against Santander in the small claims court. Any advice or thoughts? Thanks for taking the time to read this.
If so, then it doesn't seem to be a case of a lost account, but that an amount of money has gone missing?
Have you asked them for the TESSA documents again? That was after all what you originally requested.
Also, about the timescale - you say a "decade or so"... that doesn't sound very accurate and covers a long period of time.
Are you sure you didn't withdraw some or all of the money and have forgotten about it?
It might be suggested that if you weren't checking the statements on at least an annual basis then it could easily be the case that you withdrew the money and simply don't remember doing so. How do you know for sure that you deposited the £3000 in the account to start with?
On the face of the facts you've presented so far it sounds doubtful you would have any luck persuading a court that Santander owe you money, especially in the absence of documentary evidence and also given the possible time elapsed between you discovering the problem and now making the claim."In the future, everyone will be rich for 15 minutes"0 -
Coming back to this, if you've had a final decision from an Ombudsman, the case will be summarised (anonymised of course). If you post the case reference people will be able to review and offer more specific help.squeekswhenwalking wrote: »The ombudsman weren't any help.0 -
Also, about the timescale - you say a "decade or so"... that doesn't sound very accurate and covers a long period of time..
TESSAs ceased to exist around 2000 so two decades or so. Bit of a long time to wait I thinkRemember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.0 -
i don't think they would have converted a TESSA into an ISA without your telling them to do so. when a TESSA reached the end of its 5-year term on a date after ISAs had been introduced (6 april 1999), it was possible to roll the original capital from the TESSA - but not the interest - over into a "TESSA-only ISA", which is then effectively just the same as any cash ISA. but they wouldn't (or shouldn't) do that without your telling them to do so at the time.
even if it was rolled over, the interest from the TESSA would end up not in any TESSA or ISA, so presumably in some kind of ordinary savings account. and if it wasn't rolled over, both capital and interest would again end up not in any TESSA or ISA, so presumably in an ordinary savings account.
so perhaps you should be asking them to look in their archives for ordinary savings accounts, specifically for an account opened 5 years after your TESSA started. you could try arguing that they've done the wrong kind of search, so they should do another search of their archives for no further charge. though i'm not sure whether that one would fly.0 -
The problem with any "lost" bank account must be proving that you didn't withdraw the money (or transfer it elsewhere). It's an act of faith when you deposit money with a bank that the bank will keep good enough records so that they know when your money has been deposited-to and withdrawn-from your account and will report this information honestly. Is there a "statute of limitations" meaning that banks are not obliged to keep records for longer than a certain period of time? Because if not and it you have printed proof that your Tessa existed I cannot see that Santander have a leg to stand on and how the Ombudsman could have found in their favour.Reed0
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There is the Data Protection Act, which obliges all companies handling personal data in the UK not to keep it for longer than is necessary, and this is usually interpreted to mean 6-7 years in financial services.Reed_Richards wrote: »Is there a "statute of limitations" meaning that banks are not obliged to keep records for longer than a certain period of time?
Obviously if an account is still open then a bank should have records of it, but if it was closed more than seven years ago then they probably won't....0
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