M
Marie
Guest
I would be very grateful for any comments, advice or even (last resort!) commisseration on the following draft of a letter the finished version of which I posted to my bank today.
Dear Sir/Madam
On 23rd December 2004 I entered into the above contract as a solicitor in Ireland had notified me of the imminent dispersal of my late mother’s estate and urgently requested bank and account details for transmission of an inheritance. You will note the contract specifies purchase of EURO at a “fixed rate” of 1.4518 at any time between that date and 23rd March 2005.
The solicitor e-mailed me on 19th January that she had transmitted my legacy electronically to the bank to the details given. On Monday 24th January Lloyds Foreign Exchange in Birmingham informed me – when I telephoned for the fourth time enquiring if they had yet traced the transfer made six day previously and which they had no idea of the whereabouts – that the funds had arrived in my account (details above) in STERLING which is why they had been unaware of its existence!
I was informed that I had broken the exchange contract and the penalty charge was £2,336.33 (difference in the Euro/Stg exchange rate on 21st to 23rd December and 19th and 24th January……….none of these dates were clearly specifiable to me throughout this saga, despite also being told the rate of exchange was ‘time-critical’ and not negotiable). I was informed this charge would be deducted immediately from my account.
I asked to speak with the Supervisor who said negotiation was not an option. If I wished to take a chance and not close the contract immediately but wait until the end of the contract period the percentage of the penalty charge might be less but might be greater.
I closed the contract then on the basis that this decision was without prejudice to further action on my part and subject to further attempts to negotiate with Lloyds at another level.
In accordance with Lloyds process for complaints-handling (cited on your website) I am writing to you in the first instance. There are a number of issues involved in this extraordinarily punitive charge.
1. I was directed by one of your in-branch employees that the process for receiving funds from abroad was to contact Lloyds Foreign Exchange Services as Euro would not be accepted into my sterling account. I was given a bit of paper with the relevant phone number. I was not seeking currency exchange at that point but attempting to notify my branch to expect a large amount of money in Euro and to contact me on receipt. I approached your agents at every stage in good faith for advice on the premiss you worked in your customers’ best financial interest. There is no information available on transfer of funds from abroad on your website (aside from offshore banking which I did not require) or elsewhere in your organisation nor did your agents at any stage indicate there were alternative ways to exchange currency for deposit into my account – for example the method used by the solicitor which was in fact the optimal arrangement for transfer of these funds and did not require any Forward Contract!
2. I did not “break the contract”. The estate solicitor gave me a figure in EUROS immediately prior to closing her office for a two-week holiday. On her return she arranged the transfer in the best interests of the estate and the beneficiaries involving changing the currency from the estate end at the most favourable rate to her client in co-operation with an Irish bank which was acting in the best interest of its customers and which “held” the payment until the rate was more advantageous to me. The solicitor had not identified that the funds “must” reach my bank-account as Euro.
3. You did receive the funds within the contract period and very cheaply. There never was any element of “risk” as was communicated clearly to your agents. They were my funds “in Ireland” coming into “my” account in England. I am not a business or benefiting from exchange fluctuations but a private individual and a customer of your bank constrained to make arrangements in a financial domain which contrary to all the financial control legislation in this country apparently provides no information on which the lay public can make an informed judgement on how to best manage their financial affairs;
4. In my view Lloyds appears in this case to be penalising a private individual for an occurrence outside of her (or anyone elses!) control but which has incidentally beneficially identified weaknesses in your F.E. monitoring procedures – work which would have cost Lloyds massive sums in consultancy fees.
There is much more I could say but let that suffice for now. I am distressed and disappointed that a bank with has benefited from my financial business for 26 years thinks so little of customer loyalty that present gain at any cost is paramount. I am even more distressed that after four long years of exhaustion organising my late mother’s hospitalisation, nursing-home placement, funeral and probate from the other side of the Channel I am now faced with a battle to retrieve this (to me considerable!) sum of £2,336.33 of her legacy which I consider to be most unfairly appropriated.
This letter does not pre-empt any necessary further applications to - for example – The Financial Standards Authority, Financial Ombudsman Service or the Office of Fair Trading – for redress and I am interested to hear your comments.
Yours faithfully
Dear Sir/Madam
On 23rd December 2004 I entered into the above contract as a solicitor in Ireland had notified me of the imminent dispersal of my late mother’s estate and urgently requested bank and account details for transmission of an inheritance. You will note the contract specifies purchase of EURO at a “fixed rate” of 1.4518 at any time between that date and 23rd March 2005.
The solicitor e-mailed me on 19th January that she had transmitted my legacy electronically to the bank to the details given. On Monday 24th January Lloyds Foreign Exchange in Birmingham informed me – when I telephoned for the fourth time enquiring if they had yet traced the transfer made six day previously and which they had no idea of the whereabouts – that the funds had arrived in my account (details above) in STERLING which is why they had been unaware of its existence!
I was informed that I had broken the exchange contract and the penalty charge was £2,336.33 (difference in the Euro/Stg exchange rate on 21st to 23rd December and 19th and 24th January……….none of these dates were clearly specifiable to me throughout this saga, despite also being told the rate of exchange was ‘time-critical’ and not negotiable). I was informed this charge would be deducted immediately from my account.
I asked to speak with the Supervisor who said negotiation was not an option. If I wished to take a chance and not close the contract immediately but wait until the end of the contract period the percentage of the penalty charge might be less but might be greater.
I closed the contract then on the basis that this decision was without prejudice to further action on my part and subject to further attempts to negotiate with Lloyds at another level.
In accordance with Lloyds process for complaints-handling (cited on your website) I am writing to you in the first instance. There are a number of issues involved in this extraordinarily punitive charge.
1. I was directed by one of your in-branch employees that the process for receiving funds from abroad was to contact Lloyds Foreign Exchange Services as Euro would not be accepted into my sterling account. I was given a bit of paper with the relevant phone number. I was not seeking currency exchange at that point but attempting to notify my branch to expect a large amount of money in Euro and to contact me on receipt. I approached your agents at every stage in good faith for advice on the premiss you worked in your customers’ best financial interest. There is no information available on transfer of funds from abroad on your website (aside from offshore banking which I did not require) or elsewhere in your organisation nor did your agents at any stage indicate there were alternative ways to exchange currency for deposit into my account – for example the method used by the solicitor which was in fact the optimal arrangement for transfer of these funds and did not require any Forward Contract!
2. I did not “break the contract”. The estate solicitor gave me a figure in EUROS immediately prior to closing her office for a two-week holiday. On her return she arranged the transfer in the best interests of the estate and the beneficiaries involving changing the currency from the estate end at the most favourable rate to her client in co-operation with an Irish bank which was acting in the best interest of its customers and which “held” the payment until the rate was more advantageous to me. The solicitor had not identified that the funds “must” reach my bank-account as Euro.
3. You did receive the funds within the contract period and very cheaply. There never was any element of “risk” as was communicated clearly to your agents. They were my funds “in Ireland” coming into “my” account in England. I am not a business or benefiting from exchange fluctuations but a private individual and a customer of your bank constrained to make arrangements in a financial domain which contrary to all the financial control legislation in this country apparently provides no information on which the lay public can make an informed judgement on how to best manage their financial affairs;
4. In my view Lloyds appears in this case to be penalising a private individual for an occurrence outside of her (or anyone elses!) control but which has incidentally beneficially identified weaknesses in your F.E. monitoring procedures – work which would have cost Lloyds massive sums in consultancy fees.
There is much more I could say but let that suffice for now. I am distressed and disappointed that a bank with has benefited from my financial business for 26 years thinks so little of customer loyalty that present gain at any cost is paramount. I am even more distressed that after four long years of exhaustion organising my late mother’s hospitalisation, nursing-home placement, funeral and probate from the other side of the Channel I am now faced with a battle to retrieve this (to me considerable!) sum of £2,336.33 of her legacy which I consider to be most unfairly appropriated.
This letter does not pre-empt any necessary further applications to - for example – The Financial Standards Authority, Financial Ombudsman Service or the Office of Fair Trading – for redress and I am interested to hear your comments.
Yours faithfully