Bank-Smart

[bhamoggy]

Can anyone advise.
For the last 7 or so years I get the occasional letter from bank-smart asking for more information regarding PPI claim.
I’ve never replied or sent them anything. I’ve just ignored them and once I emailed them a couple of years ago I don’t want them to do anything on my behalf and to stop harassing me.
Today I get an email from them as below.
What should I do as I have no intention of paying these people anything for a service I haven’t used or want anything from.

Dear Stephen We have previously contacted you to explain that you are in breach of your contract with us and that an invoice for our costs was required. We write to notify you that we currently reviewing all breach of contract charges, which may take several weeks. You are not required to make any payments towards the invoice until our review is complete, and we will write to you again with the outcome of the review. This position affects all claims with an outstanding breach of contract invoice only. Remedy of Breach You currently have the option to provide the items required and to have the breach of contract invoice cancelled entirely. To do so, you will either need to: complete, sign and return the documents required, or provide a copy of the final response letter/outcome from your lender which rejects/upholds the claim, or confirms that no PPI/charges were applied on the account connected to the claim. If you would like to resolve the breach of contract invoice, please contact us on any of the details below to discuss what is required for each claim. Notification on Claim If you have received a response or decision from your lender confirming no PPI/charges were applied, or rejecting/upholding the claim, please provide us with a copy of the letter which you can scan and email, or post to us. If the letter resolves the claim registered, your breach of contract invoice will be cancelled and we will write to you to confirm if this is the case. Next Steps Where you have received a breach of contract invoice from us, no further work is being undertaken on the claim. The outstanding invoice will be held until our review is complete. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us by: sending a text message to 07860018557 emailing us at support@bank-smart.co.uk calling us on freephone 0800 773 4344 to request a call-back; or writing to us at FREEPOST BANK-SMART (no stamp or address is required for the freepost address). You do not need to take any action if you do not wish to resolve the breach of contract. The invoice will remain on hold while we review the charges, and we will write to you again with an update before December 2021, although it may be much sooner. Please remember to include your Client ID with any communication and inform us if any of your details have changed. Yours sincerely, Client Support Manager Bank-Smart Support Centre Bank-Smart Processing Centre | www.bank-smart.co.uk COVID-19 UPDATE: Almost all lenders have stated they have now sent all final responses. If you have not forwarded us any final responses you should send them to FREEPOST BANK-SMART without delay. If there are any claims you have not received a final decision to and forwarded to us, please call the lender now and request a further copy to be sent to us/you and forward to FREEPOST BANK-SMART. Please continue to login to your Bank-Smart online claims account to keep up to date with the situation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We are lawfully processing your data under Article 6 (1) (b) of the GDPR. The information contained in this message may be CONFIDENTIAL and is intended for the addressee only. Any unauthorised use, dissemination of the information, or copying of this message is prohibited. If you are not the addressee, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and delete this message. Although this e-mail and any attachments are believed to be free of any virus, or other defect which might affect any computer or system into which they are received and opened, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that they are virus free and no responsibility is accepted by BankSmart for any loss or damage from receipt or use thereof. Please note that all e-mail messages are subject to interception for lawful business purposes. Any views expressed by the sender of this message are not necessarily those of Bank-Smart. BankSmart is a trading name of Symmetric Systems Limited and registered in England and Wales under registered number 3822846.

[EXC]

Lots of people are getting these.

Given the circumstances you've described I'd ignore it and continue to ignore anything they send you.

[Thread moved to Claims Management Forum]

[bhamoggy]

Thanks
but what about if they get MIL debt recovery in?
should I ignore their correspondence too if that happens?

[EXC]

They're just a debt collection company and in my considerable experience they don't (and can't) do anything beyond sending snotty demands.

If you've got breach of contract invoices you must make a formal complaint to BS about them and if they don't uphold your complaint or don't issue a final response within 8 weeks you need to take it to the Claims Management Ombudsman. During the complaints process Bank Smart are obliged to suspend all collection activity and so are MIL. If MIL continue then you must tell them that the 'debt' is in dispute and to stop hassling you pending the complaint outcome.

Once you've complained to Bank Smart your online account should show that the invoice are 'held' for 6 months to allow for the complaints process to run its course (there is a current backlog of 4 months with the Ombudsman).

Do you have access to your BS online account?

[bhamoggy]

I don’t have access as far as I know.
move never sent them any info so there was never any reason for me to look at the account even if there was one

[bhamoggy]

Hi
Ive just found I can access the online account.
they’re still awaiting for payment for breach of contract.
I have downloaded pictures of the online account.
I emailed them to send me copies of everything under GDPR which I’ve now received.
should I upload these screenshots I took?
what should I do for now?

[EXC]

Hi

I'd like to see it but Is the GDPR response you got on paper or electronic? I'm guessing it's quite a few documents?

Also do the invoices on the online account have a 'held by' date like this, and if so what's the date?

[bhamoggy]

Hi Nick.
yes they mailed it all through the post.
like you say, loads of it.
should I email you the screenshots and letter of authorisation privately?

[EXC]

Ok nick@legalbeaglesgroup.com

One more thing, apart from their response to your GDPR request have they chased you for payment since you got the email that you posted up in your first post?

[bhamoggy]

Hi Nick.
it wasn’t 7 years I thought it was.
I must have been thinking of another company I used years ago.
the LOA is dated August 2019.
there is another letter which I’ll forward to you when I get home from work. They basically say they will be looking for payment.
mill send screenshots now and the rest this evening.
many thanks

[EXC]

Ok thanks.

The 2 invoices on your online account are for claim no 480731 Abbey National and claim no 480733 i Group Ltd. If they sent you the fee sheets for those invoices (detailing the charges) can you send them too?

[bhamoggy]

Nothing received from them Nick.
I’ve emailed you some other info.
many thanks

[EXC]

Ok nick@legalbeaglesgroup.com

One more thing, apart from their response to your GDPR request have they chased you for payment since you got the email that you posted up in your first post?

Can you please answer this?

[bhamoggy]

Not since the first one but I can see they’re about to I presume

[EXC]

Ok.

On your point in your email about the last one on their list (the Nat West claim), that's for a PPI claim. The settlement you got from Nat West via Easy Reclaim is for a Packaged Bank Account claim, so two different claims.

You said you didn't have the fee sheets for the 2 claims for which you were invoiced but do you have fee sheets for any other claims? It would be handy to see one as I want to establish if your contract was assigned from Easy Reclaim to Bank Smart.

At the moment would continue to advise you not to do anything. The email you had in July said that they were reviewing the breach of contract invoices and your online account confirms that the invoices are held until December. My understanding is that the FCA have told them to do so, so until they notify you of the outcome of the review, there is no point in poking the sleeping bear.