**Won** Bank-Smart Fees

[LeafyClover]

Re: Bank-Smart Fees

Hi,
I have emailed the Invoice Status page to you :-)


The complaint summary looks good.
I would like to add that I have not heard from the debt collectors once i wrote to them and informed them that there was a mistake. This was after they sent the formal notice last year.


Yes, the formal complaint I made to Bank Smart was in February. Everything else is good.


Thanks
LC

[EXC]

Re: Bank-Smart Fees

Hi,
I have emailed the Invoice Status page to you :-)


The complaint summary looks good.
I would like to add that I have not heard from the debt collectors once i wrote to them and informed them that there was a mistake. This was after they sent the formal notice last year.


Yes, the formal complaint I made to Bank Smart was in February. Everything else is good.


Thanks
LC

The invoice status doesn't say much about the invoice does it?. Do you have an actual invoice? I'd like to see the breakdown of the charges and see if it actually says what term in your contract you breached.

In the meantime I'll work on the complaint details and post a draft in a day or two.

[LeafyClover]

Re: Bank-Smart Fees

Hi,

I do have an invoice from Dec2015 but there was no breakdown.
I had to specifically ask for the breakdown before they sent it. Its quite comical what they charge fees for.
The breakdown is until the end of 2015, so i am sure it has built up since then for this years "fees"!
I'll leave you to decide what to make of it. :-)

Appreciate the help and as always, thank you

LC

[EXC]

Re: Bank-Smart Fees

I've updated the complaint in post #30 if you could have a look and check for accuracy.

I'll do the final section on Bank Smart's complaint response tomorrow.

[EXC]

Re: Bank-Smart Fees

Here's the draft if you could check it.

You'll need to attach all the relevant documents with a key to what they are.

Complaint Summary

My complaint concerns unjustified and speculative fees being levied against me by Bank Smart and in turn their debt collectors, MIL Collections, for an alledged ''breach of contract''. The contract was originally formed in 2011 for which Bank Smart were to evaluate any potential PPI claim I may have had in respect of loan account I had held with Lloyds.

In the event it was clearly established in 2012 that there was no PPI policy attached to the loan and as such there was no PPI claim to be made. It is my firm belief that the contract concluded at that point, yet in the subsequent years to date I have been inudated with a constant stream of requests for information for the loan account (and other accounts I may have held for which no contracts exist) and demands for non payment of charges levied for ''breach of contract''.

I made a formal complaint to Bank Smart in February for which their response was inadequate, poorly articulated and unsatisfactory. Through Bank Smart's unjustified conduct I have suffered stress and anxiety over a sustained period. Menacing threats of ''door step visits'' from debt collectors demading money I do not owe have caused me a great deal of concern and worry.

I trust that the Legal Ombudsman will uphold this complaint and remedy it by cancelling all the alledged fees owed and awards me compensation at a level which reflects the detriment I have suffered.

Timeline of Events

In 2011 I made an enquiry to Bank Smart about the possibility of extablishing whether I had PPI attached to a loan I had with Lloyds and if so, if it could be claimed.

On 6 June 2011 I signed the relevant Letter of Authority and contract.

During the following months Bank Smart sent me a number of forms to fill for any other unrelated potential claims and requests for information for all my banking history for which I had no interest in providing.

In March 2012, due to no apparent progress being made on Bank Smart's enquiries with Lloyds I decided to contact Lloyds directly who informed me that I did not have a PPI policy attached to my loan. I contacted Bank Smart by telephone informing them of this and assumed that would be the end of the matter.

During the subsequent years to date I received further requests for information and forms to sign and return about the Lloyds loan account and other loans and credit cards I may have had to which I did not respond.

In June 2015 I received a demand for £399.40 from MIL debt collectors on behalf of Bank Smart threatening a ''door step visit''. I wrote to MIL informing them that this must be a mistake. I also wrote to Bank Smart asking them to stop harassing me as I had already informed them in 2012 that in I had confirmation from Lloyds that I did not have a PPI policy attached to the loan and so there was no compensation due. I also requested that they do not perform any further action that may incur any fees. Bank Smart asked for evidence of Lloyds confirming that there was no PPI on the loan, which I provided with a photocopy of the letter. They then took this as a cancellation of the contract and charged me a cancellation fee. I wrote back and said that i did not agree with this to which they responded that my only option was to continue with my claim.

As I understand it Bank Smart then contacted Lloyds themselves who confirmed that no PPI existed on the loan but that I had PPI on several credit card accounts which Bank Smart wanted to pursue. I informed Bank Smart I did not wish to pursue any other potential claims with them and they confirmed that I am under no obligation to do so.

Despite this in December 2015 I received an invoice from Bank Smart for £480 for ''costs'' incurred for ''Breach of contract''. The invoice provided no indication as to what contractual term was alledged to have been breached or what the costs were and in respect of. On request Bank Smart sent me an itemised list of chargeable items which appear to relate to not only the correspondence issued on the original Lloyds loan account which had no PPI attached but speculative correspondence and actions they claim to have performed in attempting to establish if I had PPI on other accounts and credit cards that I did not ask them for and had in fact explictly informed them I did not wish to pursue.

In January 2016 I received a form from Bank Smart requesting information about any charges I may have incurred on the Lloyds loan account. I filled out the form indicating that I had no charges that I wished to pursue and signed and returned it on 4 January 2016.

In February 2016 I made a formal complaint to Bank Smart which dealt with 2 distinct issues: The original potential PPI claim I had on my Lloyds loan account and the subsequent requests for information that Bank Smart made for other potential PPI claims.

Bank Smart's Response

In April 2016 I received Bank Smart's final response which is confusing, poorly articulated and wholly inadequate.

The response misleadingly makes repeated references to my ''claim'' and ''claims'' but no actual claim has been made.

On the first complaint ground Bank Smart concede that there was no PPI claimable on the Lloyds loan account but that ''we are now investigating the lender for default/unfair charges''. I never wanted or instructed Bank Smart to investigate charges, only PPI.

Moreover, as indicated above, I specifically informed Bank Smart in January that I did not have any charges that I wished to pursue which has been disregarded. For them to argue that they are ''now'' investigating charges 5 years after I first contracted with them and 6 months after I informed them that I had no charges I wished them to pusue is simply ridiculous.

On the second complaint ground about the other potential claims Bank Smart appear to be saying I can cancel the ''claims'' without liability. However there is no contractual agreement in respect of the other potential claims to cancel. But this hasn't prevented Bank Smart from charging me for work they claim to have done on the potential claims as many of the entries listed in the chargeable items which make up the £480 invoice clearly pertain to them. In short they are charging me for ''breaches'' of contacts which don't exist and for work I did not ask them to perform.

[LeafyClover]

Re: Bank-Smart Fees

Hi,

This is great. The draft is definitely better than anything I could have written and i appreciate this very much.
I will get together copies of all the letters and submit it to the financial ombundsman.
Would you recommend sending this all via the post or is it ok to do it electronically online?

Many many thanks
LC

[EXC]

Re: Bank-Smart Fees

It's probably better (and easier) to do it online.

Details about half way down this page http://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/cmc/

Any problems their number is 0300 555 0333. They're actually very helpful.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[LeafyClover]

Re: Bank-Smart Fees

Hi All,

So a long overdue update and I am happy to report that after raising a complaint with the Legal Ombudsman, they sided with me and got Bank Smart to waive all fees and close the case!

The process itself took over 6 months from initially submitting the complaint to resolution, but with the overall outcome I am very happy and would like to thank everyone here on the forum.

For anyone that is going through a similar process or is interested in the time of events, here a summary and I hope it helps others.

- Early Aug
Submitted complaint to the Legal Ombudsman whom acknowledged the complaint and asked for evidence that I had officially complained to Bank Smart first, which i sent back.

- Mid Aug
The Legal Ombudsman accept my complaint and reply with a summary of what they have taken my complaint to be and submit it for an investigator.

-Early Sept
The Legal Ombudsman contact me to say they are experiencing high volumes of complaints and that my case is still waiting for an investigator.

- Late Sept
I contact the Legal Ombudsman to find out if they have manage to get someone to look into my case.

- Early Oct
The Legal Ombudsman contact me to say they are still going through the backlog and waiting for an investigator.

- Late Nov
An investigator has been allocated to my case and contacts me to request all the evidence i have regarding the complaint.
I create PDFs of every letter and email i have sent and received between Bank Smart in date order and send over (111 PDFs)
The investigator acknowledges receipt of the evidence and indicates it will take 3-4 weeks to review.

- Late Dec
The investigator contacts me to say they have reviewed the evidence and agree that the service Bank Smart have provided is bad and that the claim should have stopped at the point they were no longer able to continue with the claim and that they will ask for the fees to be waived and the case closed.

- Early Jan
The investigator contacts me to say that Bank Smart do not agree with this outcome and so the case will now go to a senior investigator.

- Late Jan
The senior investigator contacts me to say they agree with the first investigator and that they will contact Bank Smart to inform them of their decision.

- Mid Feb
Bank Smart agree to waive all fees but I had to get the Legal Ombudsman to chase them and confirm that along with waiving the fees, the case was now closed and that I would not be contacted again.

Throughout this whole process, Bank Smart were still chasing for me to sign their LOA's to look into other accounts that they claim i had and then threatened me with breach of contract fees!

For anyone going through or thinking of complaining, i highly recommend you do as Bank Smart should not be allowed to get away with the way they do "business".
The Legal Ombudsman were very professional and helpful and communicated with me a on frequent basis and importantly made themselves approachable.
Having said that, it was with the help from this forum that got me to here, so many many thanks

LC

[enaid]

Re: Bank-Smart Fees

Well done, I know EXC will be over the moon x

[EXC]

Re: Bank-Smart Fees

Congratulations LC! I'm very pleased for you.

Thanks for taking the time to update us.

I'd be grateful if you could e-mail me the final decisions of both the investigator and senior investigator as I'd like to fully understand their reasons for upholding your complaint so I can better help others in your position.

[Amethyst]

Re: Bank-Smart Fees

Great - congratulations Leafy

Do we know if the LegalOmbudsman share data with the Ministry of Justice CMR ? If not, they should, and if not then it may be worth sending a copy of the file/adjudication over to the MOJ to help with their current investigation.