Hi. Ok, into context we go. i hope there is no limit to text here.
The bank caused a big delay and started adding charges to my account, we were waiting for them to send us paperwork. It took a total of 14 weeks to get this paperwork sorted out (banks fault) they added charges to our account all the time. I told them i wont pay as the delay was their fault. The paperwork was to transfer our overdraft to an existing loan. When they eventually sorted it out they said we can now have the loan but it would now be a higher rate! this was because they had damaged my experian credit file when i did not pay the charges. The were now offering to refund all the charges.
I complained and stopped paying anything i owed them. During the 8 week period for their response they suddenly froze one of our accounts. none of the staff ever explained why and were very apologetic and promised to "unfreeze it", which took over ten days. We had all Direct debits cancelled too. we could not get to our cash to pay other bills so we got more credit damage.
We complained to the ombudsman. he told them to remove the credit damage. they now offered the loan at the normal rate but we knew we had been badly damaged (though it wasn't finished yet by a long shot). The ombudsman told us it is a Data Protection issue and to report it to the ICO.
While waiting for this investigation we tried several times but could not obtain any loans. (never had any credit problems before) we eventually took the last resort to re-mortgage. They told us we can only have a "credit repair mortgage". A few days before the cash went into our bank i discovered the bank had not removed its damage when told to by the ombudsman 7 months earlier. When the information commissioner completed his investigation he told us the bank had broken the data protection act.
i started a claim through the online courts service. My solicitor was dealing with the banks solicitor. This did not stop them hiring another THREE firms of solicitors to fight us for 2 sums of money. All this is against FSA Handbook rules on pressurising customers. My legal costs were inflated by the banks ilegal activities and i have now had to sack my solicitor as i cant afford him anymore. Fortunately i have ammended my claim which is now for unliquidated damages and i have requested that the courts consider this for the High Courts.
The bank admitted it was wrong to levy charges on me in the first place and in light of the OFT test case, i wonder how many people have not paid those unfair charges and received credit damage for it, which is now causing them big problems.
So it brings me back to my original question of, when exactly can a bank freeze an account. If it is not allowed then i am obviously perfectly within my rights to sue them. If it is allowed under banking rules, then my case is highlighting a conflict between banking rules and current data protection laws, which i have of course explained to the courts.
Hope this story is of interest to you and that you can advise me about the freezing rules, seeing as though the bank have successfully stopped me from having legal advice.
Thanks in advance
Dazza B
Last edited by
daz.b on Tue Aug 05, 2008 11:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
