Isn’t it strange how things come about? 2018, and after being barraged by PPI claims companies from every angle I decide I should check to see if I had indeed been miss-sold Payment Protection Insurance.
Now, I can be a bit of a hoarder, not crazy can’t get in the door hoarding, more gentle than that. Yes, I’m a gentle hoarder, when my vehicle tax disc arrived I would squeeze in to the little plastic holder on my windscreen behind the other twelve that have been sunning themselves there since I bought my car. That kind of hoarding.
Anyways back to PPI. Now, obviously, I’ve “gently hoarded” my bank statement since the 1990’s and so checking for PPI was a scoot, if a little laborious and… there was none. Which was fine and kinda expected. But, what wasn’t expected was a little something called Assigned Funds. Money had been taken from my account in 1999 by my bank without my knowledge or permission.
Bloomin’ heck, I thought, my bank shouldn’t have done that. I’ll jolly well be asking for that back.
Now, do you remember the 2018 TSB computer upgrade fiasco? If you were a TSB customer you certainly will. If not, well to put it mildly it was a total cock up. The up side though was that all the staff were being incredibly helpful and so I met up with a Manager in branch. Middle aged now, he recalled that when he was a newbie back in the day the bank would do this. Just take money from accounts. Blimey! Now when I say “just take” it wasn’t willy nilly, they would have been asked to do this by some third party. Unfortunately our BM (Branch Manager) was new in the bank then and wasn’t entirely sure of all the ins and outs, but perhaps Council Tax sometimes?
Okay dokay, says me, I didn’t have any council tax arrears back then so, please may I have my money back… oh, with a bit of compensation obviously, given you’ve had it for so long.
No? I can’t? Why ever not? Ah you can’t give me my money back until I’ve proved that I do not, in fact, have an unpaid Council Tax bill from then.
Crikey! That’s an ask. But if that’s what it takes, I’ll do it.
What a palaver, but eventually I was able to prove, as much as humanly possible, that there was no Council Tax owed by me then. Hurrah! Back to TSB
Oh, I see, you're now telling me that, as it was “Lloyds TSB” at the time I’ll need go to Lloyds Bank. All right, says I, I’ll go and ask them.
Hello Lloyds, please may I have my money back? What’s that you’re saying? Oh, I see, Lloyds TSB was part of HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland) back then and I’ll have to go and speak to them? Right, right, okay.
Hello Bank of Scotland, please may I have my money back? Sorry? Did I hear you right? Bank of Scotland has now separated from Lloyds and TSB so you can’t help. I need to back to Lloyds and TSB you say?
Does this sound like “the runaround” to anyone out there?
Enough!
Financial Ombudsman Service (FSO), please help me!
It turns out that there are certain criteria regarding the FSO looking into an issue and one of these is time elapsed, and my complaint goes back a good bit as you now know. Unless I had contacted the bank when the issue arose their hands were tied.
Luckily BM had told me that I had in fact written to the branch about these Assigned Funds early in the 2000’s. Great, I had contacted the bank within the allotted timeframe so they will be able to investigate.
But, as I was starting to learn nothing was going to be straight forward or easy.
The FSO explained that I required proof, not that I had indeed written to the bank but, that they had received my letter. Fair enough, I’ll ask BM if he could find the letter he had found previously and either send it to me or forward it to the FOS.
Alas, the BM could not now find the letter. Multiple requests to please check again, and please please check once more, and if if you cant find it could you at least tell the FOS that there was a letter as this would be enough for them. Unfortunately BM’s replies became slower and slower until he stopped replying to me altogether.
Well readers, that’s the story up to about a fortnight ago. Then it occurred to me that I may not be the only customer who had money taken from their bank account in this way. I mean it seems unlikely doesn’t it? And Bankrobbers.org was born from that thought.
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