Hi I am just about ready to send my N1 form. Have completed POC but I am wondering whether I should include anything from the FOS technical notes: "This will involve the business removing the PPI premiums, any interest that was charged on the premiums and any charges (and interest on those charges) that would not have applied if the PPI had not been added to the account." Any thoughts? suvin

Hi All I have been having a battle with LLoyds over credit card default charges from 2004 and earlier. Lloyds rejected the case on the basis of it was over 6 years since I closed the card and also that they felt the the charges were appropriate, even tho I have refered to the OFT credit card statement. I referred the case to the FOS and the adjudicator has written back to advise that the charges of £12 are broadly in line with the actual and estimated costs with the legal principles of OFT April 2006 statement. The charges levied on my case were £36 a time not £12. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi Dear, good day 2 u. Hope you are all well. I am sure with your expertise i will be able to make further inroads against FOS adjudicator's appeal on this matter. I am hoping you can assist and advise me on this to make a final decision to appeal against the FOS decision on accept their £150 offer. Kindly pls c below letter from FOS: * Dear Mr Tom, your complaint about Barclays Bank Plc Thank you for talking to me today. As promised, l am writing to set out my understanding of your complaint and to let you know where I am with it. my role and how our service works l am here to give an independent opinion on your complaint. That means that l will look at everything that you and Barclays' send us, weigh up what has happened and then offer my own opinion on how l think this complaint should be resolved. my understanding of your complaint From your correspondence, this complaint is about the problems that you have had after Barclays closed your account and registered information to the CIFAS database following you falling victim to a job [problem]. You told me that Barclays delays in removing the information recorded on the CIFAS database caused you significant distress and inconvenience and that you have had problems with trying to open a current account since. my thoughts Barclays has confirmed that it removed the all information that it recorded to Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance System (CIFAS) was removed on 10 February 2014. Barclays has said that this is the only information that it recorded about your account to this (or indeed any) agency as a result of the account closure. l cannot say why you are still having problems obtaining a current account from another company as Barclays has removed the information that it recorded to CIFAS and as far as far as I can see your credit file remains clear of any involvement by Barclays. However, Barclays accepts that it is clear that this marker was still showing for roughly a month longer than it should have been and that this caused you significant problems. what Barclays has offered In view of the delays, Barclays would like to offer further compensation to fully settle the complaint. Barclays has offered to: Pay you a further £I50 to acknowledge the distress and inconvenience that it has caused (bringing the total offered to £300). At this stage, I think that this is a reasonable offer. However, l would welcome your comments. If you accept the offer, please sign the enclosed settlement form and return it to me. On the other hand, if you do not feel able to accept the offer, please let me know, so that l can consider any further points. " In our leaflet, your complaint and the ombudsman, we explain about your right to ask the ombudsman to review your complaint — as the final stage in our process. l look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible — and in any event by 30th May 20I4. Please let me know now if you plan to reply fully but do not think you will be able to meet that deadline. Yours sincerely *end The FOS guy called me on this Wednesday and ask me what amount of compensation/level I was looking for... to which I said I do not know...whilst discussing about the complain. Today I receive this letter/offer from them. I had made an appeal against Barclays offer of £150 because I knew they were getting away with it. And justifying my reasons as below when appealing FOS. ** Below are some of reasons I had gone to the FOS: 1) the maladministration and negligence of the misplacement of my important letters (royal mail deliveries), after it had been signed for and received by the Barclays personnel as indicated by the tracking receipts, 2) The excessive delay and length of time it had taken Barclays to remove my CIFAS; it was only removed on February 2014 and final confirmation received on 9th March; when all information was received and available for the team at Barclays on 03rd January, 3) Prior to CIFAS entry in 2013, I had been successful in opening a current & savings a/c with Barclays, with my previous reputation as a consumer in 2013. This in fact, after I had been abroad for a long time and not been operating any a/c's in UK for almost 10 years. And now, my difficulty in opening a current a/c or business, even after the CIFAS had been removed on XXXXX Feb (my latest refusal of current a/c on XXXXX February), is proving that my reputation as a Consumer has been badly tarnished and damaged compared to the Consumer reputation before CIFAS entry, (looking at my credit file I have NO adverse credit history.. as i had been from away from the UK for almost 10 years.. and on the closed barclays a/c on creditfile.. it says 0.. 'zero' .. which means the a/c has been closed successfully). Though to this day I have not been able open a/c current a/c with facilities.) 4) The amount of time (almost 65 -75 hours) and effort, I have spent on painstakingly putting together and drafting documents to Barclays bank through internet researching, public forums discussions, getting lawful advice, analysis and thinking on how to best handle this issue when dealing with Barclays. 5) The amount expenses I have incurred through this process in royal mail signed for deliveries, almost 17-25 expensive telephone calls, scanning, emailing and faxing cost of documents that was sent to Barclays. If not for my persistent calls to the Barclays support team during January, I would not been been able to bring this matter to what it is now. Only when my phone calls had raised my case to a level 3 status, I did receive a feedback from Toby on 08th Feb. 6) Loss of revenues, because I had not been able to operate a current or business a/c with my Forever Living Products International Distributors License over the last two and half months, due to the initiation of the CIFAS by Barclays. Pls see attached distribution licence document & purchase receipts. ( Also when i sopke to the FOS guy today... he said loss of opportunity with my business can cannot be taken into a/con this appeal) 7) The pain and suffering that has resulted from this extremely difficult process has been very difficult to deal with and I'm still reeling from the damage caused to me as a consumer. My suffering has been sufficiently admitted and addressed by Barclays, by their very own 'Regulated Poor Service' delivery in their correspondence to me. I have attached these letters for your attention. Therefore I have been unable to accept their level of offer of compensation and feel badly affected by the damage caused to my reputation as a Consumer. ** What is your take on this and advise on it? should I go further? I know you have a lot of experience on these matters. If I am appealing how I can make it the appeal a better one , thus I will be able to be better compensate. Pls advise. Here Below is the original appeal that I made against Barclays at FOS: ** On XXXXXXXXX my Barclays bank current & savings accounts got closed.. without any notice or a request of any clarification from the consumer (me) on the matter of concern. Following this, I had applied for a current a/c at Halifax XXXXXXX and the application was rejected. Its only then I came to realise that Barclays had initiated a CIFAS entry. After a few days of shocks and upon speaking to my colleague and to the police officer (on the reception) at XXXXXX police station, I decided to clear my name. My friend on (XXXXXX) advised me to report the issue to the bank. I then drew up an informative document and met the Staff at XXXXX Barclays Branch on (XXXXXX) around 3.15 pm. The staff member had then contacted the customer support at Barclays and explained the situation and the available proof of documents on hand. I then decided to pursue the matter further with Barclays complaints team in writing. I also lodged a complaint with actionfraud.uk and was presented with a reference number which was disclosed to Barclays. I wrote to The Customer Relationship Manager at XXXXX processing Centre on XXXXX Dec and presented him with all the information I had. Letter and documents sent to the bank were sent on royal mail signed for 1st class service. The Bank then wrote back to me on XXXX 2014. mentioning the case was closed and requested more information if bank was to remove the CIFAS that had been initiated. I then on XXXXXX 2014, sent them further information and the money transfer receipts that was requested. By XXXXX, I still had not received any update and no further action had been taken on this, even though the documents had been signed & received by Barclays on 8th Jan. Alarmed, I call the support team on XXXXXXXX, and had requested them the case (XXXXXXXX) to be re-opened & escalated, which they did so. Shocked again.. to see no further action had been taken as of 8.10 am on XXXXXX 2014, I wrote to XXXXX again and sent him copy of alI correspondence that I had sent him on 6th of Jan through royal mail signed for 1st class. Still no response. Not even a phone call with an update. Expecting a response from Barclays, I kept calling the Barclays support team again and again, to see whether anything has been done about the CIFAS entry, because by now I had supplied all evidence they had requested. On the phone, whenever I called, the support team kept telling me, that they were waiting for someone to work on the case. I asked them whether they can confirm receipt, of my last two recorded deliveries,to which I was told, that 'they may have received it by now and that these were in the process to be scanned into their support system'. I felt something was not right here... thus kept digging. The royal mail tracking confirmed that both set of letters & documents had been signed & received, by the Barclays personnel on 08th Jan and 16th Jan respectively. Thus as pointed above, Barclays had received them, though nothing had been done about it, because they couldn’t find these documents. It had been lost or displaced by maladministration and negligence by Barclays. Subsequently, the above fact was admitted and confirmed by Senior Case Manager at Barclays on 8th Feb 2014, because he had explained what had happened and requested me a copy of the both the letters on email and proof of royal mail posting on fax. He admitted and apologized for the above negligence and delay on my matter. I had then sent him both letters (sent on 06 Jan & 15 Jan respectively), and proof of both royal mail tracking receipts for these. I did these on the same day. Subsequently the CIFAS was removed on 10th Feb. I thought things would be 'ok' by now, but only got awoken up again. During the time of CIFAS and after the removal of it, I had applied to XXXXX (once during CIFAS) and XXXXXX (once during CIFAS) and (once after CIFAS removed on XXXX Feb) to open a current/business a/c to operate my business of XXXXX products license. I had been trying to open a current a/c or business a/cto set up this business as sole trader since the Barclays a/c closure, and had been experiencing difficulties in opening one due to to the CIFAS. By now the whole affair with Barclays had become very wearisome and I once again had raised all these concerns [inability to open a current a/c due to side effects of the CIFAS even after its removal], with XXXX where he had assured earlier on, that he will look into if I had any issues with rejection a current a/c opening and requested that I would notify if such was the case. On XXXX Feb my application for a current a/c at XXXX was turned down. And I did report the matter to XXXX and had asked him to take remedial actions to solve this recurring 'turned downs'. After further telephone conversations and email correspondences, I finally received a page of letter of 'pathetic nature' (apologies for my language here)as below along with a cheque for £150 from Barclays on dated XXXXXXXth Feb. I wish to bring to your notice here, that on this instance of correspondence from Barclays dated XXXX, I ONLY RECEIVED the above 2 items(1 single page letter & cheque was received) and no mention of any other issues had been raised with Toby had been addressed. I was very very upset about this final response and was unable to accept, the offer/final decision from Barclays on this matter. I immediately drew up my dissatisfaction of this decision and notified Senior Case Manager at Barclays on email on XXXX March (as below) along with proof of my purchase of the XXXX Products License to make them understand the issues I had been facing because of the CIFAS initiation. I then sent a copy of the email & along with license, to XXXX, on the same day through royal mail signed for delivery, 03rd March for a further review of their final decision on this matter. I received a response from Barclays on this on XXXX, 1) with one letter dated 11) and copy of another 2 page letter 'providing explanation of CIFAS and other concerns raised', which I should have received [but which I did not receive] on 20th March, along with the letter & cheque I had received. Thus once again only upon my complaint on 03rd March, I had then received the detailed explanation of CIFAS removal. I have been very concerned all along, with the service that I had been receiving from Barclays, ever since the my a/c's closure incident, and it had proved to be right. Right from the start I intuitively felt alarm bells ringing. 1) the maladministration and negligence of the misplacement of my important letters (royal mail deliveries), after it had been signed for and received by the Barclays personnel as indicated by the tracking receipts, 2) The excessive delay and length of time it had taken Barclays to remove my CIFAS; it was only removed on 10th February and final confirmation received on 9th March; when all information was received and available for the team at Barclays on 8th January, 3) Prior to CIFAS entry in 2013, I had been successful in opening a current & savings a/c with Barclays, with my previous reputation as a consumer in 2013. This in fact, after I had been abroad for a long time and not been operating any a/c's in UK for almost 10 years. And now, my difficulty in opening a current a/c or business, even after the CIFAS had been removed on XXXX Feb (my latest refusal of XXXX current a/c on XXXXX February), is proving that my reputation as a Consumer has been badly tarnished and damaged compared to the Consumer reputation before CIFAS entry, 4) The amount of time (almost 65 -75 hours) and effort, I have spent on painstakingly putting together and drafting documents to Barclays bank through internet researching, public forums discussions, getting lawful advice, analysis and thinking on how to best handle this issue when dealing with Barclays. 5) The amount expenses I have incurred through this process in royal mail signed for deliveries, almost 17-25 expensive telephone calls, scanning, emailing and faxing cost of documents that was sent to Barclays. If not for my persistent calls to the Barclays support team during January, I would not been been able to bring this matter to what it is now. Only when my phone calls had raised my case to a level 3 status, I did receive a feedback from Toby on 08th Feb. 6) Loss of revenues, because I had not been able to operate a current or business a/c with my Products License over the last two and half months, due to the initiation of the CIFAS by Barclays. Pls see attached distribution licence document & purchase receipts. 7) The pain and suffering that has resulted from this extremely difficult process has been very difficult to deal with and I'm still reeling from the damage caused to me as a consumer. My suffering has been sufficiently admitted and addressed by Barclays, by their very own 'Regulated Poor Service' delivery in their correspondence to me. I have attached these letters for your attention. Therefore I have been unable to accept their level of offer of compensation and feel badly affected by the damage caused to my reputation as a Consumer. Thus I have reach out to you find rightful justice on this matter. I am confident a justified solution can be reached through you, both in compensation and a repair of my reputation as a consumer that which existed, prior to the CIFAS entry. I am looking forward to your PROMPT solution and reply. Thank you. **end of letter to FOS ** PLS HELP. Tks tom

I'll be as brief as I can. Vanquis incorrectly applied an over limit charge to my account in 2009, which took me over my agreed credit limit of £1,000. In 2010 I logged a complaint with the FOS, they advised me to take further steps before they would consider the case. In 2013 I was able to offer the FOS proof that I had taken those steps and they took up the case. Throughout this period until currently I have maintained the minimum payment to Vanquis. The officer dealing with my complaint requested Vanquis return all late fees and charges accumulated as a result of those accumulated fees, this request has been ignored. It is now waiting for consideration by the main Ombudsman. During this complaint it was noted that Vanquis had charged me ROP, even though I had never agreed to it. I had to go through their complaints process with this first, before the Ombudsman could look at this issue. Vanquis adjudicated that I had taken out ROP and they had listened to a phone call with me stating I agreed. When I pressed for a copy of this phone call, they suddenly said they had made an error there wasn't one, but I must have agreed to the ROP so they would not refund, but would now cancel it in the future. This complaint has now also been taken up by the FOS also. I recently SAR'd Vanquis to be given a lot of garbled scene print outs which I could not make head nor tail of. Copies of one line recordings of phone calls, which haven't noted the involvement with the FOS at all. Several weeks ago I also sent in a request for a CCA, again Vanquis have breached that request and sent a blank copy of an application form with no attached prescribed terms and conditions. Today I have notified them by recorded post that the account is in dispute. The over limit charges and resulting interest applied since 2009 have taken the account to double its limit, the current monthly payment is just over £100. As I am managing to deal with the above issues. But an interesting development occurred in December 2013. As soon as Vanquis were requested to return the over limit payments and interest, they began lodging the amount of credit usage on my credit report. Up until December the amount was always listed as zero. Bare in mind this account has been over limit since 2009. The account is still listed as satisfactory. But their recording of my credit usage has hit my credit in to the FAIR region, where it was excellent before - I have no other outstanding credit. It was only when the Ombudsman contacted them about repaying the charges, that they began recording information - this appears to be quite a vindictive course for them to have taken. I have contacted Credit Expert on two occasions to add dispute reports to the account, they have contacted Vanquis who will not agree to this. I have asked Vanquis to stop processing my data - although I doubt they will take notice. Does anyone have any advice on how I deal with Vanquis recording with the Experian?

Hi there, first time forumite so please be gentle. I have an extremely long running case with HSBC over our credit card bill and I now find myself in a very specific situation and I'm not sure where to go for help. As a very brief summary; I tried over the phone to pay a sum from the outstanding balance that was over the minimum payment I was told I could only make the minimum payment over the phone and for anything greater than that, I'd need to go into the branch I went to the branch and the only way they'd let me pay was with cash, not card When I complained, I was told that this was in the T&Cs that I signed, 12 years ago when I opened the account I asked for a copy, under the relevant Civil Procedure Rules and they wouldn't provide me with them I've complained to the Ombudsmen, they've ruled in HSBCs favour My argument is that if they are imposing practices that they say that I agreed to when I signed the agreement, they should be able to demonstrate that I have indeed agreed to it. Without this evidence, their practices are unfair and they should have let me make a payment, for any amount I liked, via any channel available. I have experience of working in the Financial Services Industry and I know that Credit Card companies will (and do) make it as difficult as possible to clear down balances (ask your card company to explain residual interest for example, it's great fun listening to them try). But given that the FOS has ruled against me, I'm not sure where to go with this now. I've been fighting the good fight since January 2012, I don't want to give up.

Hi Had a few past loans with ppi claims from 1988 onwards, now been with FOS for over 16 months. I found 4 copies of legal agreements in the loft but the bottom part of the agreements were beyond repair and could not make out at all, the top parts of each agreement were readable and you can clearly make out my name, address, the acc numbers, ppi showing single premium, life cover, sickness and redundancy cover with the figures showing and total figure with interest added and the optional box has a cross already in the box which is printed rather that been ticked with a pen and each agreement at the top has the HFC stamp on paid in full with the date it was paid off. When I originally sent copies of the info I had to HFC as above they stated that since it was over a six year period that they have destroyed all records, and although they have acknowledged they were copies of legal agreements they needed info as to why I thought they were missold. I can remember when the loans were taken out that I was told in no uncertain terms on each occasion that unless I took the ppi out that I would not get the loans regardless of my employment status, and since I have found the information from my employer at the time to prove that I got paid work or play, had life cover and got redundancy pay along with a pension. All the above info was then sent to the FOS over a year ago, but now because then agreements don't show the term of the agreements ( ie) how long they were taken out for due to wear and tear the ombudsman is now stating that he needs to ask HFC for more information regarding the terms etc which obviously as per HFC final response letter which the FOS has had a copy they are not going to have as they have already stated they have destroyed all the records so I don't see what that is going to achieve, and even if they do find anything surely then that is illegal to say they have destroyed all records if they have not! But now I get the distinct impression from what the FOS has told me that if HFC have no info regarding this issue, then without that it is down to HFC bank as to whether they accept my claim or reject it based on the information I have managed to salvage and from the vibes I was getting from the ombudsman if HFC have not got any info regarding the terms then HFC would reject my claim and the ombudsman would side with them. It seems to me u cannot win with these people even if you have got evidence to prove that u have had single premium ppi with interest added and box pre crossed and then stamped with HFC stamp PAID IN FULL with the date paid and you can then prove as to why it was missold with evidence from your employer at the time l though that would count for something but obviously not, has this been a complete waste of my time and effort. Any thoughts please.

Hi posting for a friend please. A friend had two bank accounts with Lloyds. There are balances on both accounts (totalling £1100). We put in a claim last year for Bank Charges (a bit late I know, according to MSE it can still be done), the case is currently with the FOS awaiting a final decision. He keeps getting letters from DCA's acting on behalf of Lloyds and has now received a threatening letter from a DCA's Solicitor. Lloyds are fully aware that this case is with the FOS. Are the DCA's allowed to continue to chase the debt even though it is under query and with the FOS? Furthermore, the amount they are claiming is incorrect. Lloyds Bank sent a letter in March 2013 waiving some of the interest charged being £350 across both accounts. The Solicitor's letter does not include this discount. Many thanks

Back in February 2013 I bought a car from a commercial garage. It was inherently faulty from the start. I attempted with the authority of the garage to get it repaired but new faults kept appearing, so I returned it under SOGA. The garage agreed to a partially refund the £9000 I paid by offering £7500. I had the car for a month and it was in and out of the garage for repair 6 times so I refused their offer. They then got quite nasty with a "take the money or take us to court" attitude so I referred it to my credit card provider under Section 75 of CCA. They told me they thought the garage was being entirely reasonable and rejected my claim. I then took it to the FOS, who upheld my claim and ordered the credit card company to refund me at the beginning of December. They responded after the deadline that the FOS gave them, saying that they were liaising with the merchant. They were given an extension until last Monday to respond, they didn't. Now my complaint has been passed on to be reviewed by an ombudsman. Do I just have to wait for their decision or can I take the merchant and/or the credit card company to court, with the decision of the FOS adjudicator as evidence?

Hiya I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice? Im fairly new to all this ppi reclaiming so want to make sure the information im giving the FOS is concise and to the point. I took out an Egg credit card in 2006, fast forward to the start of Jan 2009 and I get a letter from EGG saying my payment protection insurance has been cancelled (I still have this letter) I never even knew I had payment protection insurance, I would of never signed up to payment protection insurance, I had a good job working for central goverment so full sick pay, pension good redundancy package etc, not to mention being a member of the union which also had benefits if I ever lost my job/illness/death benefit etc so I definately would never of signed up for payment protection insurance as it was most certainly not needed. I applied for my egg card online and I think I was one of their customers who had pre ticked boxes on the online application as I cannot recall ever ticking a box saying yes to ppi insurance. I had a Halifax Mortgage and I spotted the ppi added to my claim fairly quickly and had it removed and that was not long after so I im pretty certain I wouldn't of signed up for ppi. a year and a half ago I signed up to i-smart to sort my ppi claims out, after about 9 months of no contact from them I sent them a letter to say I did not want them to act on my behalf. That was the last I heard from them. Fast forward to around Oct 2013 and I decide to put some ppi claims in myself, I write to Barclaycard about my Egg card and hear nothing, I decide to call last week and they tell me the claim has already been looked up and closed and if I want to know why I need to call the FOS. I call the FOS and they say a claim managment company acting on my behalf submitted a complaint to FOS about my Egg card claim being rejected, the FOS asked for more info and I did not reply so the case was closed! To cut a long story short I had to write another letter to i-smart and they are no longer acting on my behalf and the FOS have sent me the letter detailing why my claim was rejected and a slip for me to return with my explanation and any evidence as to why my complaint should be upheld. Would anyone be able to advise me how best to reply as I don't want to leave anything important out?! The reply they have sent is 3 pages long so I will just try to paraphrase it. Your circumstances when you bought the policy Took the policy out in December 2006 over the internet. The cost of the PPI was £0.75 per £100 of the outstanding monthly balance. If you made a successful claim, the PPI would cover 10% of the outstanding monthly balance on your credit card. This would have been paid upto 12 months per claim. We asked your representative (i-smart) to give us more information about your circumstances when you bought the policy. Because we have not received that information, I cannot conclude that policy would not have provided you with reasonable benefit compared to the cost. So for this reason , I cannot uphold your complaint. From the information I have gathered I do not think Barclays recommended you take out the policy and I have kept this in mind looking at your case. I did not even realise I had this policy so I can only conclude that it was a pre tick box on my online application, I only discovered I had ppi when I received a letter from Egg in early 2009 saying my ppi had been cancelled, why had it been cancelled? I didn't even know I had it so why was it suddenly cancelled? Was it because they had been told at that point their practice of pre ticked boxes was wrong? When I checked the terms of your policy, I found you were eligible for the policy when you took it out. We check whether the business made it clear to you that the policy was optional, looking over the information Barclays gave when you took out the policy, I have found that you made it clear you wanted to take out the policy in your application. Because of this I cannot fairly say that Barclays did not make it clear to you the policy was optional. Again how did Barclays make it clear it was optional when it was added sneakily on my intial online application with a pre ticked box that was ruled in court to be wrong? Were the policy’s costs and benefits made clear to you?: I can see Barclays could have made information clearer to you. But I think your circumstances at the time suggest the policy was not too expensive for you, and it’s benefits could have been useful to you. Does it matter if the policy was not too expensive for me? I did not want or need the product! My job and union cover would of covered me for this, not to mention if all else failed I could of asked for my parents to cover the cost, it was simply something I would never need! They have admitted Barclays could have made information clearer to me, maybe if they did that I would of realised ppi had been added and I could of called them to have it removed? For the reasons explained – and taking into account all other evidence I have - I cannot conclude that Barclays mis-sold you the policy. They did not give me an option to decline the policy surely that is mis-selling? I didnt know I had the policy, I didn't need the policy and had adequate cover elsewhere Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I have posted complaints about 2 lenders to the FOS and passed the reference numbers to them, yet they are both still chasing, one quite aggressively. Are they meant to suspend action while complaints are being investigated?

Hi Guys Anyone got one that they could scan?, need to have a read as a matter of urgency. Thanks in advance.

I have recently taken a complaint to FOS, regarding us being mis sold our mortgage by Halifax. We approached several mortgage companies in 2007 for a mortgage and were refused by everyone except for Halifax. At the time my husband was working and i was and still am on benefits as i am disabled. They offered us a mortgage at fixed rate. In 2009 my husbands health deteriorated and he had to take early retirement which meant that we began to struggle making repayments to the mortgage. Halifax were very unhelpful in assisting us with how to sort our problems out. Everything we suggested such as adding our daughter on the mortgage they refused. It has since come to light that they had made assumptions when it came to my husbands pension and had foolishly calculated his yearly pension as his monthly incoming???? we took the complaint to the FOS and they have come back to us and we have in writing that halifax have ADMITTED mis-selling our mortgage yet our only options are to pay the arrears or sell our home??? Surely if they have admitted liability then they are responsible to give us some compensation? all we want is to remain in our home with payments we can afford and not the £900 a month they are asking for. can anyone help or advise?

Hi everyone - I have a complaint re FOS. Since my initial questionnaire I heard from FOS to say that my case may be upheld and the lady whom I spoke to took all my details. A week later I had a letter from a consultant telling me that he has taken up my case and asked me to send some information which I did send via recorded. So in Sep the call then in Oct the letter and yesterday another letter asking me the same thing which I already sent them. In just two lines the consultant asked me what is the business I am complaining about. Surely, if he opened my bundle of documents it has it all. I am sure they are paid by the hour or per day so taking all that time to ask 2 line question is unbelievable. It cost me so far !0 in postal charges to send the documents via recorded delivery twice. If he asked me a question relating to why do I think it was mis sold or something I can understand, but to ask the same question taking 2 months is not very effective way of sorting these out. I bet some of the people on this site could do a better job than those consultants.

So, I complained to Halifax a few weeks ago, they 'refused' my complaint. I wrote to the FOS, who contacted Halifax on my behalf. Halifax told them that they were going to make me an offer within eight weeks (eight weeks is tomorrow). I can see in my Credit Card account (being handled by Capquest, but still visible in my Halifax online banking) that they have credited a sum to my account. I don't have a breakdown of what this sum is, but it was ever-so-slightly more than I was expecting. My question is; given that I had to take this to the FOS and their intervention resulted in Halifax paying up, what am I entitled to in terms of interest? As an aside, I see this as deliberate delaying tactics on Halifax's part, and fully intend making a formal complaint about this - again involving the FOS if needs be.

Hi I wonder if you can help me I am at my wits end I own aproperty with my ex-girlfriend, We split up in 2006 with her living at theproperty with the children after a court ruling which also confirmed she wasentitled to half the house it was agreed by private arrangement between us as Ihad paid the first half of the mortgage on my own with no help from my ex, Andas she was entitled to half she should pay for half, my ex agreed and for 5 years I now know thiswas the case Now over a year ago I was solicited by a ppi claim firm so Irang the mortgage company to find out if ppi was on my mortgage only to be told"was I aware that my mortgage was on interest only payments"!! And totop it had been this way for 36 months The mortgage works (TMW) now part of nationwide buildingsociety has made major changes to my mortgage without my knowledge or consent!And I believe has resulted in a breach of their contract and also failing toput in place after a reasonable time period (I am informed by TMW of it beingapproximately 3 months) a capital repayment vehicle all of which would beacceptable to themselves, all of this is printed in bold letters on everyletter i now receive I complained which resulted in the mortgage being revertingback to repayment, My ex refused to pay, I offered to allow interest only if myex via a solicitor put forward a plan to pay the capital as per their ownpaperwork and rules they refused to get involved!! even though they had causedthis problem. And the property fell into arrears and then TMW startedrepossession proceedings and the property is now up and is in the last stagesof selling. There is a court order pending for repossession on 7th January2014. TMW refused the complaint saying they were following rulesset by the fos and acting fairly to my ex on low income (but not fairly tome!)and it was then sent to the fos who also refused my complaint (no wonder ifindeed the fos rules allowed this to happen) without no mention of the timeallowed on interest only, no vehicle in place etc let alone my consent, notupholding any part of my complaint and taking no notice of my updates into thefailings and conversations with TMW. Indeed saying I should take my ex to court I am indeed thinking about this but feel that had i beenasked at the time I would have answered the same, my ex to put in place avehicle to pay capital and if not the property would have sold then! Not witharrears on it, letters, and court costs and as no payments have been made forthe last 5 months due to TMW informing my ex of my liability a high redemptionfigure. Also as my consent was not sort, I have lost approximately £8000 incapital payments had to reduce the property so to get a quick sale beforerepossession and the fact selling wasn't in the plans the property wasn'treally ready for sale and TMW have to be held to account for this? When werethey going to tell me? When I was liable for £35000-£70000?? at the end of themortgage term. I also feel that the fos has treated me unfairly as TMW ishiding behind fos rules and a quick look on their website has resulted in themupholding far less involved cases! One involving early redemption clausessaying their costs and terms was hidden on page 5 subsec 24! And even payingout for his distress! My rules come on every letter and underlined and in boldtype. TMW have said that they didn't have a forwarding address forme but I informed them that I had indeed left the property and their obligationto both parties ref in a letter sent by my solicitor back in 2006 referring topayment changes which they have still on file What conversations TMW have had with my ex in relation to meI do not know and indeed my ex has never said and has obviously deceived me atevery stage but if she was asked or told changes would require my signature shecould have passed me letters or asked me at any stage I was in contact viaphone, text, email, facebook, work, etc and seeing my children on a weekly basis's and I was indeed relaxedabout the property due to what I thought was the safety of two signatures andthe mortgage contract. And as I was no fixed abode for 5 years after eviction Icould give no address You can’t even begin to understand the stress this hasbrought to me out of the blue and to my current partner who is having to go throughthis with me, something we both agree should have been sorted out three or moreyears ago before we met TMW has failed to act in the best interest of both of itsclients and acting impartially, swinging to my ex and leaving me exposed. Do I have any recourse in relation to these sets ofcircumstances? I await your response in anticipation due to the imminentforced sale of my property and once these matters are closed redress may beimpossible to come by?

Hi there, First time posting here but looking for some advice if at all possible. I've been successful with a number of claims and I've had a claim outstanding with the ombudsman for a while. The background to the story was I found a letter telling me I had PPI on a mortgage I held with the Clydesdale Bank, Initially I wrote directly to the bank who told me they looked at my claim and while I did have a PPI policy it was not mis-sold. I disagreed with this and wrote to the ombudsman for a ruling. I received a response after 8-9 months saying they had reviewed the case and had decided to uphold my complaint and that the bank had 8 weeks to make an offer to me based on their findings. After hearing nothing for almost 3 months I contacted them this week to find out if any updates had appeared on my case. I was told that there was an update stating that the bank had disputed their findings and had provided new evidence which now needs reviewed. This can take 12-18 months again as the whole process goes back to the start again due to this. Has anybody ever had any experience of something like this where initially the ruling is in your favour but then goes back into dispute due to the bank suddenly uncovering new evidence to support their claim? Thanks

Hi Guys, I've got a PPI claim being looked into by the FOS, I've had the letter back acknowledging my compliant and have advised it could take up to 18 Months to get a decision, longer if it needs to go to an actual ombudsman. I'm not too fussed but it just seemed a very long time, are they just covering in case it takes that long? What are other peoples experiences? I'm not looking to moan at them, they are doing me a service after all and I appreciate that I'm not the only one, just seemed...... very long and not in a good way Thanks, Steve

I lodged a complaint over the phone with Halifax in early May and obtained a reference number. Halifax failed to issue any correspondence or response to the complaint and after more than eight weeks I referred the complaint to the FOS. I received back a letter saying I must first take up the matter with Halifax and my complaint had been referred back to Halifax for handling. I phoned the case handler and he said that because I had not included the final response or any other evidence of making the complaint, he wasn't going to take the complaint forward. This despite me saying that I hadn't received the response within the eight-week period, nor anything else at all. Halifax is proceeding to re-ignore my complaint (assuming it was ever sent back to them in the first place). Any ideas on what to do next?

Hi all, I lodged a complaint with the FOS about a PDL that refuses to help people in financial difficulty, illness and other difficulties. What was originally a loan of £400 has gone up to £3500 in 18 months despite having paid off £390 through my DMP. I lodged the complaint over a year ago and now have had a phone call from the adjudicator saying that he has investigated the claim. The PDL have "kindly" agreed to decrease the debt to £1000 and have been ordered to pay me £250 in compensation. I said that I was not happy with that, I mean the debt, I was not expecting compensation. The adjudicator then said that he would pass this on to the (chief) ombudsman now. My question is, can the FOS force the PDL to pay me compensation? Has anybody had any experience of this? I am not happy that the debt still stands at £1000 considering the 18 months of sheer hell, I have had with these clowns. The loan was originally £400, what would be a reasonable figure? I was thinking of a final figure of £496 bearing in mind, I have only £100 to go. If I'm not happy with the FOS what is my next port of call? I really do not think that I can go through this again and I really don't want to go to court. Any suggestions/advice would be gratefully received.

Citizen's Advice believe that the majority of payday loans could be complained about; their in depth analysis of 665 payday loan cases, reported to its consumer service between 1 January and 30 June 2013, finds that at least 76% could have grounds for an official complaint to the Financial Ombudsman including: 1 in 5 were possible cases of fraud – where a person was chased for a loan they hadn’t taken out. More than a third involved issues with continuous payment authorities including money that was not authorised to be taken. 12% involved harassment whereby lenders pester people with phone calls and text messages rather than accept affordable repayment offers. 1 in 10 were about lenders’ unfair treatment of people in financial difficulties. Why you should complain to the FOS Every creditor is allowed 25 free investigations by the FOS, all subsequent investigations will be charged at £550 each to the lender. You can read more about the way the FOS charges here: http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/QG1.pdf Given that payday loans are generally given for small amounts, the charge made by the FOS is often very high by comparison - usually more than the actual loan amount. As such complaining could put a massive dent in a payday loan lender's profits. In addition, you may find that a lender agrees to write-off a loan as it could be financially cheaper than allowing a FOS investigation. Get complaining, it makes a LOT of sense. Make your Complaint HERE

Hi all, Thought I would share with you my current battle with the lovely Countrywide Assured! Well I will cut a long story short.................... Back in 2000 I needed a mortgage offer urgently as going to auction for the house i was renting. I had never had a mortgage before, and the advisor told me that there was a new and exciting product on the market called a half endowment/half repayment. I trusted the salesman and signed all paperwork. 18 months down the line I realised my critical error and swaped over to all repayment and cancelled all of my dealings with Countrywide Assured. I did try to get my money back at the time, but was advised that as i had paid less than 2 years i had no chance (paid 18 months). Now then, years down the line and seeing various tv programmes i decided to complain. After a bit of to and froing they did uphold my complaint about the mis selling of the endowment part and i snatched their cheque for that. However they did not uphold my complaint about the mis selling of the lifetime protection plan that ran alongside. Financial Service Ombudsman says he upholds my complaint as the product over ran my mortgage term by 6 years!!!!!!......... But Countrywide must have a novice in the office.....Listen to the response...... "I feel that a critical illness benefit amount above the mortgage amount would have been suitable for the client at the point of sale. Beyond the repayment of her mortgage, had she been diagnosed with a serious illness, she may have had to give up work, have her house adapted or required a carer's assistance and would need funds to assist her.!!!!!!! REALLY................................... Well this has now been refered up to the main Ombusman....Lets see now??? Your comments plese

has any 1 got a photocopy of a completed (filled in) FOS questionaire so that i can copy from it,as i'm not to good at filling in forms and things.it would be a massive help if you have. thanks

hi all. just a simple quick question need answered please if you can????.what's best for starting a ppi claim?????.sending 1 of those ppi template letter's or sending in a FOS questionaire. thanks

I was wondering if anyone has had this before. I asked for an update from FOS on my PPI claim against Robins and Day. I was told that they are objecting to the investigation due to it being outside the 6 months. However, after chasing this up with the FOS I quite clearly am within the time frame. I'm just within the deadline by around 2 weeks but obviously within it. I just wondered what they have to gain from quite clearly lying even though the FOS have the dates with them? I think their argument could be that the FOS didn't contact them until after the date so what is likely to happen?

Hastings Direct - misleading web site and they don't deal with telephone or written complaints - to makes matter worse after they ignored my letters etc the FOS fined them just £20 - which is in my view is a disgrace. Ed