Claim Bank Charges Back

Independent
The Financial Ombudsman Service said it was currently receiving more than 1,000 cases each week relating to the insurance cover from people who were unhappy with the way their provider had dealt with their original compliant.
It had expected to receive around 46,000 complaints about PPI this year, but figures for the first part of the year suggest the total will be far higher than this. The ombudsman has repeatedly criticised the banks and other PPI providers for the way they handle complaints, claiming that many are failing to investigate them properly.
The service is currently upholding between eight and nine out of every 10 complaints it receives about PPI, which is the single most complained-about product.
It is also calling on firms to pay consumers compensation typically in the low thousands of pounds, although in some case the figure has been as high as £25,000.
But it is thought that tens of thousands of people who could be entitled to compensation may be missing out because they fail to pursue their claim through the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Figures from the Financial Services Authority, the City watchdog, show that firms received around 260,000 complaints from consumers relating to PPI during 2009, but only 41,000 of these were referred to the ombudsman.
PPI covers debt repayments if the policyholder is unable to work through accident, illness or redundancy.
But the product has come in for heavy criticism after research found it had been mis-sold to many consumers who would never be able to claim on it, while others felt pressurised into taking it out alongside a loan or credit card.
A spokesman for the Financial Ombudsman Service said: "Banks still need to improve the way they handle PPI complaints. We will continue to work with the regulator where we see banks treating customers unfairly."
Vera Cottrell of consumer group Which? said: "Banks have been warned countless times by the FSA and the Ombudsman about PPI complaints and it is incredibly disappointing that they are refusing to implement the FSA's guidelines.
"Banks are wasting everyone's time by automatically rejecting so many complaints – the vast majority of cases should not have to go to the ombudsman."
The FSA is currently in the process of issuing new guidance to ensure PPI complaints are handled properly, and it has warned that 185,000 previously rejected claims will have to be reassessed against this benchmark. The FSA has already banned the sale of single-premium PPI alongside unsecured loans.
Earlier this year the Competition Commission said it planned to press ahead with moves to ban the sale of PPI alongside credit, with firms instead having to wait for seven days before they could contact customers about buying the cover.

BBC
Lloyds TSB is to cut the overdraft fees on its current accounts from December.
From 2 December it is cutting the daily and monthly fees for customers who go overdrawn without permission and will halve to £10 the fee for bouncing a cheque or electronic payment.
The bank admitted it was responding to complaints from its customers about how much they were being charged.
However authorised overdrafts will now incur a £5 a month charge, in addition to their normal interest charges.
"The reason we are making these changes is in response to customer feedback," said Mike Regnier, a Lloyds TSB director.
"Our customers are telling us that they still think our unarranged overdraft fees are too high and we are responding to that very directly by cutting them - and it is as simple as that," he added.
I
The fees are still very, very high
Vera Cottrell Which?
Lloyds also said it would stop paying any interest on its standard current accounts to customers in credit.
It currently pays just 0.1% annual interest to the account holders but will now pay nothing at all.
Lloyds, in which the government is a substantial minority shareholder, said most of its customers who went into the red without permission would now pay less than half their current level of charges.
"All customers who use an unplanned overdraft facility will pay less under the new structure," said Mr Regnier.
"Almost 70% of customers who use an unplanned overdraft will pay less than half what they currently pay," he added.
The changes
Customers who go into the red will still be charged interest and there is no change to the rate currently being levied of 19.3%.
The main changes to the Lloyds TSB overdraft fees are:
• The £15 a month fee for running an unplanned overdraft will be cut to £5. It will be payable for using either an authorised or unauthorised overdraft
• The £20 fee for bouncing a cheque or electronic payment will be cut to £10, with a continued maximum of three such fees per day
• Customers who slip into the red by up to £10 will not have to pay any charges - a "buffer zone"
• Daily fees for being overdrawn will be reduced from between £6 and £20 to between £5 and £10
• The maximum number of such daily fees that will be imposed is going down from 10 a month to 8.
The consumers' association Which? said that, despite the cuts, it would still be very expensive for Lloyds TSB customers who went into the red without permission.
"You can still pay £40 a day for up to eight days a month," said Vera Cottrell of Which?.
"The fees are still very, very high, and customers with authorised overdrafts will now have to pay £5 where they did not before."
Pressure
The bank's decision to make its overdrafts cheaper reflects intense pressure from the government and campaign groups.
Last month, the coalition government said it would stop "unfair" bank and other transaction charges.
Last year the banking industry was successful in defeating an attempt by the Office of Fair Trading to regulate its charges.
But the previous Labour government, and now the recently elected coalition government, both threatened to bring in new laws if bank charges were not made fairer and cheaper.
Last October, Royal Bank of Scotland - which is majority-owned by the taxpayer - cut its overdraft charges.
It was soon followed by Santander which started offering a bank account to mortgage customers that does not charge for unauthorised overdrafts, nor charge a fee for payments that bounce.

By The Independent

More than 1,000 people a week are pursuing mis-selling claims about payment-protection insurance (PPI) after having their complaints rejected by the banks, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) revealed yesterday. The ombudsman said it was receiving some 200 complaints every working day relating to the insurance cover from people unhappy with the way providers had dealt with their complaint.

The FOS had expected to receive around 46,000 complaints about PPI this year, but figures now suggest the total will be far higher than this.

The ombudsman has repeatedly criticised the banks and other PPI providers for the way they handle complaints, claiming many are failing to investigate them properly. The service is upholding more than 80 per cent of the complaints it receives about PPI, which is the single most complained-about product.

The FOS has typically called on offending firms to pay four-figure compensation sums to consumers, although in some cases the figure has been as high as £25,000.

Yet it is thought that tens of thousands of customers may be missing out on compensation because they fail to pursue their claims through the FOS. Figures from the City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), show that firms received about 260,000 complaints from consumers relating to PPI during 2009, but only 41,000 were subsequently referred to the ombudsman.

PPI covers debt repayments if the policy holder is unable to work because of an accident, illness or if they lose their job. But the product has been criticised after research found it had been mis-sold to many who would never be able to claim on it, while others felt pressurised into taking it out with loans or credit cards.

Vera Cottrell, of the consumer group Which?, said: "Banks are wasting everyone's time by automatically rejecting so many complaints. The vast majority of cases should not have to go to the ombudsman."

Claim Back Mis-sold PPI.
New rules on payment protection insurance delayed until May.
The Financial Services authority will not publish its plans on the mis-selling of PPI in the near future. The FSA has faced a barrage of hostile criticism and comment from companies and organisations in the Financial services industry.
This has forced the FSA to delay its proposals until May or with the General election pending, even later. PPI is usually aggressively sold by car dealers, traders and loan companies on the back of a loan.
PPI is an insurance that covers loan repayments in the event of job loss or long term sickness. The trouble is that in a vast number of cases there are so many non-qualifying conditions that the customer could not claim. The Salesperson-who is on a massive PPI commission- often fails to point out the small print conditions that apply. The customer often feels also that If He/She doesn’t take out PPI then the loan may not be forthcoming.
The FSA states that the repayment of mis-sold PPI policies could be as much as one billion pounds. WOW!
In 2006 he competition commission said that lenders made excess profits of
£1.4 billion when selling PPI insurance.
How about you? We are sure that you have little sympathy for bankers with
their guaranteed bonuses………..Right? If you have taken out PPI
insurance in the last six years it may be very well worth your while to apply
for a full refund. That would be nice to have,wouldn’t it?
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