Symmetric systems Ltd Bank-Smart

[Steve58]

I have just been billed by this company (£1,350) for withdrawal from PPI claims. This company contacted me after a company called ‘Easy Claims’ went into liquidation. I signed their agreement form without fully understanding repercussions, Easy Claims cold called with no win no fee offer! I signed the agreement at the time of a house move and redirected post - just thought I was updating address!! The claims are against banks/ lenders where there is no possibility of a successful claim, Bank-Smart are now claiming default charges for work done, I have received 11 invoices with 30 day payment window! Having spent several hours reading poor reviews about this company, and there are lots, should I pay these invoices?? Some of the posts from other ‘customers’ involved with Bank-Smart say that they continue to claim on your behalf, threaten, and pursue further payments/ claims. Like many many other people I feel conned. I’ve read that this company no longer has a credit consumer licence, they are under investigation by CMR (Credit Management Regulator). Is this company still under investigation? is it legally trading?
should I pay the invoices then make a formal complaint??

[Celestine]

NO! Do not pay these 'invoices'. You need to initiate a formal complaint to BankSmart; which they will likely reject and then proceed to a complaint to the FOS. Financial Ombudsman Service: our homepage (financial-ombudsman.org.uk)
EXC will no doubt pop in for further advice, he did a Radio 4 piece two weeks ago on Banksmart :o

[EXC]

I have just been billed by this company (£1,350) for withdrawal from PPI claims. This company contacted me after a company called ‘Easy Claims’ went into liquidation. I signed their agreement form without fully understanding repercussions, Easy Claims cold called with no win no fee offer! I signed the agreement at the time of a house move and redirected post - just thought I was updating address!! The claims are against banks/ lenders where there is no possibility of a successful claim, Bank-Smart are now claiming default charges for work done, I have received 11 invoices with 30 day payment window! Having spent several hours reading poor reviews about this company, and there are lots, should I pay these invoices?? Some of the posts from other ‘customers’ involved with Bank-Smart say that they continue to claim on your behalf, threaten, and pursue further payments/ claims. Like many many other people I feel conned. I’ve read that this company no longer has a credit consumer licence, they are under investigation by CMR (Credit Management Regulator). Is this company still under investigation? is it legally trading?
should I pay the invoices then make a formal complaint??

[Thread moved to Claims Management Forum]

Hiya

I'm sure we can help. Bank Smart are now regulated by the FCA and we've been trying to pursuede them to close Bank Smart down for ages.

First question: When Bank Smart first contacted you about Easy Claims, do you have the email or letter? Also when Bank Smart sent you the agreement to sign, did they send an accompanying letter and if so do you have that?

If so please send the above to me at nick@legalbeaglesgroup.com

[Steve58]

Thank you for your prompt reply,
They sent me a letter on 11/04/2019 stating that Easy claims had passed on my details and their agreement contract was signed 03/05/2019 - I moved house 26/04/2019 and with redirected post, I inadvertently signed this contract and sent it back thinking it was an address update! My mistake! I have some letters and can certainly pass these on to the above email address! I feel that my case is further complicated and I will email full details together with documents I have but I’m concerned that I have 30 days to pay £1350 when I have received no monies from any successful claim and as stated in earlier post, the claims were never going to be successful!
I will be in touch soon, thanks again for your prompt reply

[EXC]

Ok thanks. I'll give you my thoughts when I've seen what you're sending but I think we can deal with this with a well drafted formal complaint. That way if they reject it we can then go to the Claims Management Ombudsman.

One other thing, if you have received lists of charges similar to the one below it would be good to see those too.

[EXC]

Steve58 Further to the email to FCA, they are going to contact you to ask for your consent for them to request your case file from Bank Smart, so I would encourage you to respond.

This is a good sign as it not only means we're barking up the right tree but it will put pressure on Bank Smart.

In the meantime I think you should send Bank Smart a Subject Access Request which hopefully could turn up some information that would assist us in making the complaint.

See draft below. I would send it via email to them and by registered mail.

Dear Sirs

Your ref: 68033

Subject access request ( Data Protection Act 2018 / General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) )


Please supply all the data about me that I am entitled to under data protection law relating to myself.

In particular (but not limited to) I require the data specifically relating to and including the data you aquired from Easy Claims Collection Ltd, as referred to in your letter of 11 April 2019.


As you will be aware data protection law requires you to respond to a request for data within one calendar month.

If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer, or relevant staff member. If you need advice on dealing with this request, the Information Commissioner’s Office can assist you. Its website is ico.org.uk or it can be contacted on 0303 123 1113.

Yours faithfully

[Signature]

[Your full name and address]

[Steve58]

Hi
I’ve received my Subject Access Request’ from Bank- Smart - lots of photocopies of few documents to bulk it out!!
However there is no mention as to how they obtained my permission for information/ data from Easy Claims Ltd. The FCA have yet to contact me! What are my next steps?
I’ve sent an email to Nick who helped me initially!
So grateful for your help & advice.

[EXC]

Hi Steve

Ok.

I've had quite a bit of correspondence with FCA about this but the main sticking point for them is that you did in fact sign an agreement with Bank Smart regardless of whether they originally obtained your data lawfully, which the FCA appear to be looking in to.

There may potentially be another ground on which you could complain relating to whether there was ever PPI on the accounts that they were claiming on but it's quite complicated to explain so I've forwarded you the emails.

With regard to the SAR response I would reply with something like the following:

Dear Sirs

I refer to your response to my Subject Access Request received on [xxx date].

The data you have provided is incomplete. My request speciffically identified ''data specifically relating to and including the data you aquired from Easy Claims Collection Ltd, as referred to in your letter of 11 April 2019.''.

Unless this data is provided in full by the end of this month I intend to make a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner without further notice.

Yours

[Steve58]

Thank you! Yes complex! I have replied to your emails!

[EXC]

Whatever you do don't pay them anything.

I've just received another email from FCA which I've forwarded to you and which confirms that we have good grounds on which to complain.

As you already told me, it's unlikey there was PPI on any of your accounts and as such we can argue that you shouldn't have to pay anything - see FCA rules below.



We can apply the same principle to the default charges claims too.

I'll draft up a complaint for you in the next few days and in the meantime can you please give me a list of all the accounts they are claiming on and when you closed them or what their status is now, as we can also argue that they are so old that the 6 year limitation on complaining about them has past.

Don't worry about them adding further charges as once you've made a formal complaint they can't add anymore.

[EXC]

Hi Steve

I've sent you a draft complaint. Please check it for accuracy.

If you're happy with it email it to them and I would reccomend sending them a hard copy registered mail to be on the safe side.

In my considerable experience dealing with these scumbags I would say that you had a better than 50-50 chance of them upholding it and if not we can then go to the Claims Management Ombudsman.

As I think I said previously that cannot add anything to the alleged debt once you've filed a formal complaint with them, so you have nothing to lose and every thing to gain.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Steve58]

Thank you so much for your help! I certainly will keep you informed!

[Steve58]

Well, as mentioned in earlier posts, I sent off the formal complaint using your template and their email response was “eight weeks to look into the complaint!” That eight weeks is now well gone! Do I still wait for a response or assume they’ve given up chasing me for money they are clearly NOT entitled to??

[EXC]

You should refer the complaint to the Claims Management Ombudsman How to complain (financial-ombudsman.org.uk)

[Steve58]

Hi, so having sent a formal complaint to bank-smart and having received an email receipt that it would take at least eight weeks to investigate, today I received an email from bank-smart requesting payment of invoices without any acknowledgment of the complaint!! I have replied to the effect that I am now passing on the complaint to the financial ombudsman if they don’t acknowledge the complaint.