Banks And Estate Agents Cop Record Complaints
WE may somewhat revel in our image as a nation of whingers, but when it comes to banks and their petty thievery we are totally justified in complaining and, according to the Financial Ombudsman Service, we are now speaking up for ourselves in record numbers.
The FOS has revealed that this year it was currently handling about 1,000 complaints a week concerning those pesky bank charges, compared to the 10 it received on average last year.
Another popular group of people, estate agents, have also been targeted by consumers, with the Ombudsman for Estate Agents revealing that he had received 8,472 calls from consumers in 2006, an increase of 41% from the previous year.
However, despite the rise in enquiries, ombudsman Christopher Hamer reveals: “When viewed against the number of house sale transactions in a year, frequently quoted at 1.2m, the number is still thankfully small.”
I say we target lollipop ladies next. Just for the laugh.
Labour deputy leadership hopeful John Cruddas kept things rather low-key when he launched his campaign in a hall which cost just £31 to hire. How very humble. How very un-New Labour.
Posted: 23rd, May 2007 | In: Money Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
- yampster on Jamie Cullum Sings The Pursuit, In Pictures
- June on Global Warming: Every Time You Breathe A Bangladeshi Dies
- June on Susan Boyle Weeps As The Press Set About Destroying Her
- Bat E Bird on Jamie Cullum Sings The Pursuit, In Pictures
- Anorak on Susan Boyle Weeps As The Press Set About Destroying Her
Middlesbrough fans boo Top Gear presenters for wearing Newcastle shirts
The Football WAG Index No.18: Zaira Nara
Classic Moments: Gary Lineker scores hat-trick for Barcelona against Real Madrid
What happened to Nicky Shorey?
May 24th, 2007 at 9:12 am
The thing about this is that complaining works - I helped my flatmate just recently claim back £1600 in bank charges from a well-known high street bank. All we did was get back the past five years of statements from his bank (they’ll charge you for this, of course), go through them, highlighting all the bank charges, totalled them up and submitted a formal claim to have the money reimbursed. Within a month the bank agreed to repay over half of our claim (around £2200) and paid the money direct into his account.
We used this website http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1141050760,24632,
It’s totally free and has loads of helpful info - there are template letters to download and use in your claim.
The banks, despite the recent (completely irrelevant) district court ruling in their favour against a claimant, still do not want this tested in a high court (where a judgement in favour of a claimant could set a nationwide precendent in law) as they cannot prove that charging customers £30 a time for going £1 overdrawn is justifable in any rational way.
If you think you’ve been robbed by your bank I suggest giving it a go - and don’t get intimidated by them if they try getting stroppy!