Thanks Ims, I will give it a go on questioning the policy that Lloyds sent to FOS. Brett

After an 18 month wait, FOS have finally ajudicated on my Lloyds credit card claim and not upheld it! I thought I had a pretty clear cut case as I was self employed during the lifetime of the card and I am sure that it was not made clear that the PPI was optional when I took out the card in the early 90s. Unfortunately, I do not have any documents relating to the original application and the Lloyds SAR only came back with stuff from 2000 onwards. FOS says that I was eligible for the policy which I find hard to believe. I suspect that Lloyds do not have the policy details from early 90s and have sent FOS details of a more recent policy that does include self employed eligibility but it would be difficult to prove that this did not link to my PPI. FOS also say that due to the length of time, they cannot be sure that the PPI was presented as optional so the onus is on me to prove it was not optional to back my claim. I can appeal on the aujudicaion but I am not sure if it is worth it. I do not have any new evidence and I am not sure if there is anything more that I can say that will overturn the decision. Has anybody got any ideas/comments on the next step or should I finally admit defeat on this one? On a more positive note, following a recent loft clearout, I have now found documentation relating to PPI on my Lombard Direct Loans and Santander are now on the case. I also found some PPI documents on an old Lloyds business loan. This was typically knocked back by Lloyds with their standard rejection letter and has been passed to FOS - Based on the credit card experience, I am not very optimistic about a sucessful outcome when they get round to ajudication next year. Brett

It was Tim.shoveller As expected, my complaint was passed to one of his minions who eventually replied with apologies but offering no assistance. Their take is that no lost phones were reported handed in on the day in question and therefore the mysterious caller to my wife must have been Joe Public trying their luck. My wife, who is normally a good judge of voices, thinks that the caller sounded like a member of staff but of course we cannot prove anything. I am considering this as case closed. Thanks everybody for their input. Brett

As expected, not a dickie bird from top man Tim or even a minion's acknowledgement since I emailed him last week - I guess it's par for the course with passenger complaints

Thanks all for your help I agree that we can't be 100% sure that the person who called my wife was a Southwest trains employee. My wife said that he sounded genuine but it could possibly be a fellow passenger chancing their luck. However, no further calls were made from the phone which I would expect if it was a member of staff who made the call home. I am resigned to not seeing my phone again but I would just like to do my bit to try and prevent a similar situation happening to someone else if indeed the correct procedures for handling lost property are not being followed. I will try forwarding my complaint to top man Tim ,although I am not optimistic of a favourable response. Brett

Does anybody know the email addresses of any of the big cheeses at Southwest Trains? I sent an email to customer services a few weeks ago regarding my mobile phone going walkabouts from lost property but have not even had the courtesy of a reply and I would now like to take my complaint higher. The story so far is that my phone dropped out of my pocket while I was running between connections at Clapham Junction station last month. The first I knew about the loss was when my wife told me that a member of the Southwest trains platform staff phoned home from my mobile to report that a member of the public had found my phone and handed it to the staff member. Initially, he asked my wife for our address to post the phone back to us. When my wife refused to provide our address on identity security reasons, he informed her that the phone could be picked from lost property at Waterloo. The trouble is that the phone never arrived at Waterloo! Despite a visit to the lost property office, several calls to the office, and conversations with disinterested platform staff at Clapham Junction, my phone has disappeared without trace. Interestingly, one member of the lost property staff told me that several people had recently also reported lost phones going missing between Clapham Junction and Waterloo and another informed me that the correct procedure when a lost phone is handed in to a staff member is for the phone to be switched off and then sent directly to Waterloo lost property. So it seems that I may not be alone in my predicament and some Southwest trains platform staff may not be strictly playing ball when it comes to lost property. Any help in taking this further would be much appreciated. Thanks Brett

Yep, getting the CEO involved normally does the trick if you can get past the minions intercepting the mail and firing off standard responses to complaints. Great news that you have managed to dig up the account number and good luck with your claim! Brett

Hi Danny If it is any help, I recently successfully claimed on a single premium PPI on a Halifax loan dating back to 1997 using the standard loan spreadsheet template on this site to calculate simple 8% interest. I found that the accuracy of the spreadsheet does not matter too much because Halifax will do their own calculations to derive a settlement figure. In my case, this worked out at almost double the amount I claimed. I also received a similar uplift on the claimed amount (again using the standard spreadsheet template) on a Halifax credit card from 2002. Brett

Hi Bleasy I have recently had a successful claim on a Halifax loan dating back to 1997 so it's worth a try. Like you, I had no paperwork or account numbers and was entirely dependant on the SAR results to pick out the PPIs to claim. To their credit, of the half dozen SARs I sent to different banks, Halifax came back with the most comprehensive bundle, including copies of all my loan agreements dating back to the early nineties. Halifax also settled a claim relating to credit card PPI that I found in the same SAR and the settlement amounts they offered on both claims was almost twice the amount I was claiming! Brett

Thanks Mike, just goes to prove that oldie claims can work, even after shredding all paperwork! Brett

Halifax Town 2 Lloyds Wanderers 0 Fair play to the Halifax boys who have not only accepted both of my claims but are paying almost double the amounts I claimed using the standard loan and credit card spreadsheets, around £2.5K in total - Result !!! One cheque already received and the other on it's way .... What a difference to their brothers at Lloyds who have already kicked my claim with equal merit into touch and left poor under pressure referee, Mr FOS, to think about showing them the red card sometime next year. Brett

My SAR without an account number to Santander relating to a closed Lombard loan from the nineties via First Tricity Finance and GE Money was returned twice with just a hand written with compliments slip requesting an account number. After I returned the request a third time, reiterating the point that an account number was not mandatory and my address had not changed from opening the loan, they finally replied that they had no data and could not help. In the end, I sent all of the stuff off to the Information Commissioner. They are still investigating but I am not optimistic that they will be able to squeeze any further info from Santander - they are a tough nut to crack ... Brett

Hi Noonoo, Lloyds should be able to do your SAR based on your address history without the need for account numbers. Based on my personal experience with both bank charge and PPI SARs to numerous banks/credit card companies etc, Lloyds will respond near the tail end of the 40 days but on the plus side, their meaty reponse comes near the top in terms of comprehensive info. Just don't expect any detail prior to 2000. The crazy part is that when you pick out the juicy PPI bits from the SAR and pack it off back to Lloyds as part of a claim, they deny all knowledge Arghhhhhhhhh!!! I hope your claim works out better Brett

I also had my claim to Lloyds kicked back quoting the same excuse of no PPI found. It appears to be their standard initial response to oldie claims as they cant be bothered to trawl through their records and hope that the claimant will give up. I was also on a debt management plan (now paid up) but I dont think that had any bearing on how Lloyds processed the claim. My claim related to credit card PPI dating back to the nineties and early noughties. They only supplied stuff from year 2000 on my SAR but were able to provide earlier summary card info when I phoned the SAR dept. I even included in my claim the relevant SAR copy statements with the PPI highlighted but this of course was totally ignored when it came to the standard rejection letter being issued. The claim is now with FOS so I have a good year to wait before any further developments. I am slightly more optimistic about two similarly aged Halifax claims issued at the same time and also based on SAR supplied documents - the claims were acknowledged and not rejected outright so with the 8 week deadline looming, I am hoping for some better news ... Brett

Lloyds initial response has been to dismiss my claim on the grounds that they could find no evidence off PPI in their records, despite PPI premiums showing clearly on the copy statements which I included with the claim. This smacks of the standard first refusal letter tactics employed on bank charge claims a few years back in a vain attempt to deter people from pushing their claims further. It does not wash with me so the claim has been whacked off to the fossie boys to do their business, hopefully wit a successful outcome. Halifax have acknowledged receipt and are still deliberating .... Brett

Lloyds eventually delivered a chunky SAR bundle which revealed PPI on a credit card opened in 1994 and closed in 2000. I found the specific claims addresses on their websites with 2 Halifax claims and 1 Lloyds claim now despatched, approx £4000 in total. I am still pessimistic about any of my claims being successful because they all relate to stuff in the 90s and early 00s which is way out of the bank's and FOS acceptable date ranges but we will wait and see ... On the Lloyds claim, the SAR could not provide copy statements before 2000 so I have estimated the monthly PPI amount prior to 2000 based on the average PPI showing on the half dozen statements I have after 2000. I am not sure if this is acceptable practice but it was the best I could do with the information available. Lombard aka First tricity Finance aka GE Money aka Santander have finally admitted defeat on my SAR, returning my request and cheque for a third time. The Information Commisioner is now delving into my request but I am expecting a similar no can do response. Brett

Thanks ims, I hope it will be a case of Process Payment Immediately rather than Payment Postponed Indefinitely! Brett

The majority of SARs have now been returned and congratulations to Halifax/Bank of Scotland who are the clear winers in providing a bundle several times larger than anyone else and the only bank to send by recorded delivery. Overall, the quality of info provided has certainly improved since my last foray into the murky world of SARs when reclaiming bank charges a few years back. The PPI content was a litlle dissapointing however with only Halifax coming up trumps with a cedit card PPI cancelled after a year and an amount entitled 'MSF CREDITCARE' of around 12% added to one of my loans which sounds like it could be PPI in disguise. Still waiting on 2 SARs to come back - LLoyds who returned my original request because it did not have a signature (delaying tactics?) and Lombard aka First tricity Finance aka GE Money aka Santander who seem to have finally got the message after 2 returns that they can delve into their dusty archives for my info without an account number. So I can now whack in a couple of claims to Halifax but I have a couple of questions for the site team: Do I need anything else apart from the template letter, calculation spreadsheet and FOS questionaire? Is there a special PPI claims address for Halifax or should I just use their standard registered office address? Thanks Brett

Hello brighteyed newbie. Thanks for filling me in on why we are now in the dubious hands of Santander, my confidence in establishing a claim has certainly diminished somewhat with this news. I would imagine it would be well nigh impossible to determine the relevant underwriter and then persude them to cough up the readies. However, I have learnt from the bank charges fun and games to press on until the situation appears hopeless. I am still awaiting the second response from Santander which may be some time because I replied to the GE Money data protection address so it is likely to go round the houses again before it lands on an appropriate Santander desk. Of the other six SARs despatched, I have only had a reply from HFC with a standard letter acknowledging receipt and stating that they were on the case. Still, it's early days yet and hopefuly I should be be knee deep in returned SARs in the not too distant future .... Brett

Thanks IMS, I will send it back. Brett

Seven SARs fired off a couple of weeks ago and the first response has come back from GE Money re: the Lombard loan via First Tricity Finance. Although confusingly, the response is not from GE Money but from Santander cards who I assume must be connected to GE Money in some way. Anyway, the bottom line is that they have returned my SAR letter together with my fee cheque and a hand written complimemts slip requesting that I supply the account number. The Lombard/First Tricity/GE Money/Santander SAR was the only one where I had zero information, not even an account number. Am I right in assuming that the provision of an account number on an SAR is not mandatory and that the combination of my name and address (which was the same at the time of starting the loan) is sufficient for the SAR to be processed? I just want to be sure before I fling it back at them. Thanks Brett

Thanks Lakesboy, I have never used Barclays but that sounds promising if my SAR banks/credit cards adopt a similar approach. I am hoping that when I pick through the bones of the SAR responses, I too will discover the magic letters PPI. Brett

Brilliant, thanks for that. I hope the other banks can dig as deep with a little persuasion ...

Brilliant,

Thanks for this info Fishy and Mike. Unfortunately it does not help in my case as I had a shredding blitz on old documents a few years back and I am therefore totally reliant on the banks and credit card companies coming up trumps with the content of their SAR reponses. If they can only go back a certain time, it is possible that I could pro-rata back to the start of the agreements, depending on the payment information provided. I am nearly complete on my SAR preparations and they will be winging their way to the recipients by the end of the week. Brett