Are you having trouble with your banks? Have your bank unfairly charged you for unauthorized overdrafts or missed direct debit payments, leaving you with no money for electric, gas or even food for your kids? or have your bank gone into your account and illegally taken a large sum of money from your bank account? Lloyds TSB have taken over £80000 from one account, after a retiring (from business) couple sold 1 of their 2 houses! Never fear we are protected, by the Financial Ombudsman, the banks must be shitting their selves!
Back in about 2009, after my girlfriends bank illegally taken money from her bank account (over £3500 in a 5 year span, sometimes taking as much as £140 per day and other occasions £200 per week) I contacted the Financial Ombudsman, and explained the situation, i was confident that I was going to get the money back after all the charges were undeniably ridiculous especially when you think she was a single mother with 2 children at the time and on benefits, they had left her with no money for gas and electric at times so when I speaking to the Financial Ombudsman service they agreed the charges were ridiculous and illegal and they were also confident that she would have it back.
The Financial Ombudsman told us to get a copy of all our bank statements over the last 5 years and highlight all the charges and post the statements with the overdraft and missed direct debit charges on them, they added up to £3500, we waited over a month to receive the bank statements from Nationwide Building Society, I posted the statements to the Financial Ombudsman, i waited over a month for a reply, i than get a letter telling me they have warned Nationwide Building Society about these charges and I should hear something from them soon.
Three weeks later we get a letter from the Nationwide Building Society offering us £400, we rejected the offer and called the Financial Ombudsman again, “take it” they said “we can get the rest later” so we take the £400, mean while the corrupt blatantly paid off supreme court over turned earlier court rulings that would have allowed the Office of fair trading to investigate bank charges, effectively legalizing bank charges of up to £300 per week, the Office of fair trading said they will fight on but there as been no sign of any change yet.
After the ruling, the Financial Ombudsman still insisted on we could still get it back, I had just lost my job, we were falling behind on rent and the Ombudsman said we could claim financial hardship, a few weeks later we get a letter back from the bank refusing to pay out, I inform the Ombudsman and he informs me there is nothing else they can do because of the change in law! So after months of long phone calls, massive phone bills, waiting on hold to speak to both the Financial Ombudsman service and Nationwide Building Society, posting letters, waiting for replies I got back £400 from the £3500 they had illegally taken over the years and I should not be surprised, after all who funds the Financial Ombudsman service? the answer is of coarse the banks! the Financial Ombudsman service WORK FOR THE BANKS NOT FOR THE PEOPLE, they make everything as slow possible and in my experience the Financial Ombudsman service seem to be completely powerless and absolutely useless at doing there jobs, that is unless their job is to waste your time in that case 5 stars for the Financial Ombudsman service, well done lads.
yup, they are useless. Don't expect justice or any kind of real result. Dealt with them regarding criminal fraud, mortgage mis-selling, etc. Basically, they take the side of the bank and rush you to the gallows asap. They are effectively an outsourced complaints department for firms (not a well-known fact) with no real will to do anything involving a bit of work. Most of them don't even know the law. Farcical, but with tragic results for some people who pin their hopes on them. Probably been more than a few suicides thanks to that pack of suited twats.
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