**WON** Bank Smart insisting I have "cancelled" claims

[Never_again]

Yes, I kept asking why that one hadn't been closed by themselves with no further charge and that point was never answered...

They were VERY quick in sending me that signed Default Charges LOA though... yet have not ever managed to send proof of all the others.....

[Never_again]

Soooooo.... wish me luck, I've just sent the letter! I will of course keep you updated with their response. Thank you.

[EXC]

Soooooo.... wish me luck, I've just sent the letter! I will of course keep you updated with their response. Thank you.

Great. I'm fairly confident that they'll back down, they usually do, but if not we can always go to the Ombudsman.

[Never_again]

I hope so! I've actually just been reading further Bank Smart posts on the forum (obsessed as I now am) and there's a similar one of PPI claims mysteriously morphing into Default Charges, and then cancellations, invoices, breach of contract etc etc. In that instance your forum member won, so I'm keeping everything crossed.

(By the way, I've only just properly read your email footer... Steely Dan.... superb... !)

[EXC]

I hope so! I've actually just been reading further Bank Smart posts on the forum (obsessed as I now am) and there's a similar one of PPI claims mysteriously morphing into Default Charges, and then cancellations, invoices, breach of contract etc etc. In that instance your forum member won, so I'm keeping everything crossed.

That one was where they originally signed PPI LOAs but not default charge LOAs so was quite straight forward. Although you signed one

default charge LOA, that claim was rejected by the Ombudsman as out-of-time and Bank Smart wrongly charged you £520 for cancellation, so you have a good case.

(By the way, I've only just properly read your email footer... Steely Dan.... superb... !)

Indeed, if you like Peg you might be interested in Donald Fagan discussing how he wrote it - amazing how much goes into a song.

[Never_again]

I've always considered that particular claim to be different as the original comments were all about Default Charges and not PPI, and the fact they charged me for cancellation when surely it should never have been "live" is promising. They should cancel that £520, at the very least!

Fascinating video, thank you for sharing! Peg is a great song. I've always liked Steely Dan - I saw them (well, Donald Fagen and his band) in Birmingham earlier this year, excellent gig.

[Never_again]

Hi everyone and Happy New Year!

Sorry to resurrect this thread again, but I’m afraid the problem hasn’t gone away.

I received no response to the email, and it’s now 27th January and I haven’t received their final response, either. Furthermore, I did not receive anything in response to my Subject Access Request, this was due on 12th January.

In the meantime, their “goodwill gesture” of the reduced cancellation fee remains active on the online claims portal, and I received a reminder to pay this on Thursday 16th January (I didn’t respond to the reminder and obviously didn’t pay it).

Now, the online portal shows the following – arbitrary late fees are being added to the amount at what would appear to be around 10% per week! And my account is locked – I can now longer view details of my “claims”.

I suppose the only saving grace is that they’re not showing the original £5k worth of invoices, although I fear it’s only a matter of time before they reappear!

The fact remains that I don’t believe I ever signed LOAs for default charges claims - well, I’m 99.9% sure but they didn’t respond to my SAR! I have blank ones in my possession though, which would seem to indicate I didn’t. So surely they were never active in the first place and even so, I never actually stated I wished to “cancel” them, which is where all this started…

What do I do now? Any advice would be gratefully received, thank you so much in advance for your help.

[EXC]

I know the complaint response is due today but lets give them another 48 hours before we go to the Ombudsman. We can add the lack of response to your SAR to it too.

[Never_again]

I know the complaint response is due today but lets give them another 48 hours before we go to the Ombudsman.

OK, no problem! I'll be back later in the week with an update...

Wishing you a lovely evening.

[Never_again]

Still nothing from Bank Smart - I don't think I'm going to hear anything from them, to be honest. My account is still locked and the invoice shown as outstanding (fortunately it hasn't gone up any more yet!) Still no response to the SAR. Is the Ombudsman my next step now - is it best to start with a simple email or bombard them will all the evidence straight away?! The sooner this is all over the better....

Many thanks as always for your help.

[Amethyst]

Tagging EXC for you.

The SAR has been well over a month hasn't it now? Pop a complaint in to the ICO on that -*https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters...h-the-outcome/

[Never_again]

Thank you... yes, the SAR was sent on 11th December. Thanks for the link - it suggests I should contact Bank Smart again prior to contacting ICO to give them a chance to resolve the issue, should I try this first? If I could be 100% sure I didn't sign the LOAs for default charges I would feel far more confident in my argument, as the claims they said I "cancelled" should never have existed in the first place. That said - if I had signed them, I'd like to know why they didn't pursue the claims on my behalf?! Which makes me think I didn't sign them... ugggh, this never ends....

[EXC]

Ok I think we should go to the Ombudsman now, don't worry about complaining to the ICO at the moment as it's the Ombudsman we need to concentrate on.

It's your original complaint that goes to the Ombudsman but we'll need to attach the relevant*

docs and a covering letter outlining the history of the issues and the complaint itself. Don't worry I'll work on all that tomorrow.

*

[Never_again]

As always, thank you so very much for your help. I've PDF'd and documented all the evidence I have, which I've sent to you as an email. There's a lot... I apologise....*

[EXC]

Thanks - that's really helpful. Have replied.