BCOBS - Unfair Treatment Claims - Can anyone help me complain and reclaim charges please??

[Etopple]

Hi all,

 

I've read a little around BCOB Regulations and have an idea of the general points but unless there's a template to follow I'm too unsure about things to actually construct a complaint letter to reclaim charges on my Santander account..

 

I'll get to the details next but so that people don't switch off after reading it all, I'll get to the main question first..

 

How do I go about complaining and how do I work out which parts of my bad experience constitute unfair treatement under BCOS? Do they all constitute unfair treatment under BCOS?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated including any links to example BCOS complaints or templates. I have seen the one sticky relating to RBS but then there's a recent comment at the bottom saying that a similar letter was ignored by another institution..

 

Thanks in advance..

 

------

 

So, the details :

 

In October Santander allowed an unauthorised card payment from Quick Quid (payment was unauthorised because the agreement was quite specific about the date and amount of any loan repayments and this amount and date were outside the agreement - relevant later) to go through which took me £83 over my overdraft limit which I then duly covered the next day with a cash deposit to take me back within my overdraft limit.

 

The following day however, Santander charged an Arranged Overdraft Fee of £8 which took me just £3 back over my limit and so incurred £45 in Unarranged Overdraft Fees.

 

I called Santander about the unauthorised transaction from Quick Quid, explaining that despite having made authorised payments to them before, they were now using my details to take money from my account outside the contract and therefore without my authorisation! I asked them to block all outgoing transactions on the account until further notice as I considered these to be fraudulent acts by Quick Quid.

 

At the same time I also flagged up concerns about money taken by Wonga a few days earlier as they had 'tested' my account by taking a small amount before then taking a larger one. I couldn't say that this was fraudulent as I was uncertain about the specific Wonga loan terms at that time - the contract appeared to authorised ad hoc payments, even though these might be unfair terms - but reported that I thought this was suspicious behaviour.

 

Santander said they would look into it.

 

On 19th October, despite being fully over my overdraft limit by £3 (with up coming charges for this over limit) and despite my request that the account be frozen for safety reasons, Santander allowed a payment of £83 to be taken from my account by Wonga, taking me further over my limit. This incurred a Paid Item fee of £25.

 

The next day I received a letter from Santander saying that they had reviewed my account and that their records had shown that amounts had previously been debited by the same merchants before and so they did not consider them of concern and would not freeze my account. This completely ignored my concerns that despite already having had authorised payments go to Quick Quid and Wonga, that these companies were now using my bank details and taking payments WITHOUT authorisation.

 

I moved over to another bank whilst these problems were ongoing but one salary payment slipped through and my account balance returned to within my overdraft limit, just.

 

A few days later and I am hit with an arranged overdraft fee and the previous month's £45 unarranged overdraft fees taking me back into unarranged territory.

 

At this point, I'd forgotten about some cheques that in normal course of events would have been paid. Firstly Sandander bouced two of these (three in total) incurring 2 x £25 Unpaid Item Fees, yet for some unknown reason allowed a third to be honoured despite already being well over my limit.

 

The a few days later, on re-presentation of one of the bounced £100 cheques, Santander allowed it to be honoured taking me a further £100 over my limit and incurring a £25 Paid Item Fee.

 

The following day the second £100 cheque was honoured despite yet further lack of funds and incurring a £25 Paid Item Fee.

 

In December and January the above fees all kick in and I'm being charged £105 a month in unarranged overdraft fees and £5 Underfunding Fees.

 

In February I attempt to complain by phone using my newly aquired knowledge of BCOB Regulations. I tell them that unfair treatment and treatment that is designed to maximise their profits at the expense of me the customer is illegal. I also complain about sloppy treatment reguarding my concerns of fraud on my account. They offer to refund my account by £200 and I refuse wanting this to be taken further. They tell me that someone will be in contact to discuss things.

 

I never had that contact and on my next statement find that I have been refunded £200 as a good will gesture. Later I receive a letter hoping I am satisfied with my refund and asking that now the matter is 'resolved' could I now clear the outstanding balance!

 

Now we're up to July and the account is now frozen, no longer incurring further fees but default is being threatened.

 

I have also suffered the misfortune that an idiot employer who has paid two recent invoices into this frozen account despite instructions to delete the details and use my new ones - Santander will be under the impression that I agree with these charges and am paying them off. That unfortunately was my only income this month so I'm stuffed..

[dx100uk]

We have been telling people to put a letter into their bank instructing them not to make any payments under any circumstances to these companie

http://whatconsumer.co.uk/visa-debit-chargeback/ it works!

 

banks MUST follow written intructions from their customers !

This fsa guide has now been updated:

 

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/consumer_...ghts_guide.pdf

 

Here's the text:

 

Cancelling a regular

card payment:

 

When you give your credit or debit card

details to a company and authorise

them to take regular payments from

your account, such as for a gym

membership or magazine subscription,

it is known as a ‘recurring transaction’

or ‘continuous payment authority’.

These are often confused with direct

debits, but do not offer the same

guarantee if the amount or date of the

payment changes.

In most cases, regular payments can

be cancelled by telling the company

taking the payments. However, you

have the right to cancel them directly

with your bank or card issuer by telling

it that you have stopped permission for

the payments. Your bank or card issuer

must then stop them – it has no right to

insist that you agree this first with the

company taking the payments.

Be aware, though, that you will still be

responsible for paying any money that

you owe.

see: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?336569-How-to-remove-a-lender-s-continuous-payment-authority(2-Viewing)-nbsp

dx

[Etopple]

Thanks for the response dx100x

[Etopple]

Forum seems to think I was posting links so will make this post piece by piece so I can isolate each bit..

[Etopple]

Do you think that their refusal to stop these payments (although I went about it in a kind of security alert manor of asking them to stop these payments rather than specifically asking to cancel the regular payment) is a big point of complaint?

[Etopple]

From the last link: "Your bank or card issuer must then stop them - it has no right to instist that you agree this first with the company taking the payments"

[Etopple]

The letter I received from Santander did suggest I just take up the matter with the lender instead..

 

(P.s your first link goes to a page relating to the sale of electoral role data)

[Etopple]

(odd - each part of my cut and pasted post was allowed yet all together it thought there was a link amongst the text..)

[dx100uk]

The letter I received from Santander did suggest I just take up the matter with the lender instead..

 

(P.s your first link goes to a page relating to the sale of electoral role data)

 

weird works now

 

http://whatconsumer.co.uk/visa-debit-chargeback/

[Etopple]

Yes, working now.

 

Alas, these are now over the 120 day whatsit in my case (although have heard of credit card chargebacks going back nearer 6 months) but good information for other people.

[Etopple]

Actually, looking at the letter I received, they say:

 

"In these circumstances, we are not able to reimburse the payments. " This implies (and I do have a vague recollection of the phone call to agree) that I did indeed request that the payments be reversed as they were unauthorised.

 

Yet they refused..

 

I didn't specifically mention anything related to Visa chargebacks though so is it their obligation to act under the Visa chargeback scheme or my obligation to specifically ask them to act under it?

 

Seems there could be possible FOS complaint about this too perhaps?