Financial Ombudsman Service

[everybodiesmum]

Has anybody an opinion as to using the Ombudsman, as opposed to CC's.

Its free and presume that will have to abide by the test case as will the banks

[tifo]

the FOS won't look at any bank claims at the moment other than credit cards.

 

the Ombudsman was good, but after being inundated with claims they take too long now .... about 3 months even to look at your claim, then they give the bank too long to reply, around 6 weeks, and then when you accept the offer they give the bank 6 weeks to pay, so you get your cheque in the 7th week after you accept.

 

but the above was until 27 July. Now you just have to wait maybe 1 - 5 years before the test case is resolved. Don't count on Feb 2008 as appeals and re appeals and further appeals are in the horizon.

 

also, if a stalemate is reached where you will not accept an offer and the bank won't pay more, they basically tell you to bugger off rather than actually make a decision as they seem too scared to.

 

just my own observations. I had a few good, quick claims through the FOS then they started pee'ing about when a stalemate was reached.

[Stornoway]

I have 4 credit card claims with them and they are very slow - one of the claims was started on 6th June and they havent even written to the Bank yet. When I queried this they told me that they aim to resolve complaints within 6 to 9 months. You'll also only get charges + s69 back - they wont refund interest paid on the charges.

[tifo]

When I queried this they told me that they aim to resolve complaints within 6 to 9 months.

 

Realistically i think its about 4 months after you have given the time 8 weeks to sort it out.

[zootscoot]

Its also worthy of note the FOS will still be dealing with bank charge claims for those who are suffering hardship.

[podgydad]

They should also be following the FSA guidance by dealing with claimants in Scotland & NI but they've conveniently decided to ignore that bit of guidance.

[surprise]

Just to let you know that my daughter received a letter from the FOS today regarding the charges she was reclaiming from Abbey. Abbey have been given 2 weeks in which to make an offer. We were surprised by this has we had expected this to be put on hold. We submitted this on 21.7.07.

[podgydad]

That's interesting, we are having 100's of claims returned to us, some submitted as early as the 6th of June, however yesterday we received an offer from FOS making an offer on an Abbey claim.

 

I have no explanation.