Account hijacked, lost money, need advice

[Freebird20]

Hi,

 

I moved abroad a little over a year ago and a few months after realized that there were unrecognizable direct debits, standing orders and Amazon purchases in my account. I called up the fraud department and was told that I should contact the local police and have them in turn contact the UK police who would corroborate with the bank upon which Lloyds would refund me the money lost.

 

I took it up with the local police (which took a fair amount of time given how THEY work) and then the UK police. Few weeks after I tried to log in to internet banking and my account had been closed. Since then I have tried to contact customer care followed by the fraud department. All I got from them was that my account had been closed and there was nothing that they could do for me over the phone. I have been now asked to write a letter to their Customer Relations office in Birmingham but it seems like it's just a way to get me off their backs.

 

The fraudulent transactions were made by someone who had presumably stolen my card details. I suspect it was my previous flatmate who was wont to such skulduggery. The bank did try to mail me about the closure of my account but they sent it to my UK address where I was no longer resident.

Questions:

1. Can I really expect my money back from them? It says so on their website that they would if they found that it wasn't due to a fault of mine.

2. Can I do anything to speed up or ease the process? Naturally, all correspondence with them is made even more difficult due to the fact that I am abroad.

3. Is there anything I can or should do to get some action from them? This has been pretty frustrating so far, I feel like I've been on a wild goose chase for the last six months.

4. Any similar experiences or general advice.

 

Thanks in advance. Cheers

Freebird

[Freebird20]

Anyone? Anything? Something.. ?