Case overview – loan set up wrongly

Claire and her business partner managed a local business.  They came to the BBRS with a complaint that their bank had set up a loan wrongly. A monthly standing order payment was set up at a lower rate than it should have been, meaning that there would be an outstanding debt at the end of the loan period. The loan was agreed prior to 2019 so this case was considered under the historical scheme.

Achieving resolution 

The case assessor reviewed the eligibility of the complaint and found that the customer had the opportunity to register with another appeals body at an earlier stage. The appeals body had not been able to help them due to the date the loan was agreed. After consideration, the BBRS asked the bank to look at the complaint as a concessionary case.

Claire and representatives from the bank were able to resolve the complaint outside the BBRS’s formal adjudication process. In recognition of the error, the bank repaid the underfunded amount in full, along with compensation.

On having their case resolved Claire said: “The BBRS gave us confidence to move forward and challenge the responses I had first received when going to our bank directly. They listened to my concerns about how the bank had handled our initial complaints. The BBRS re-enforced that our causes for concern were justified. After having been repeatedly put down by the bank, I was beginning to believe I was just one of the ‘little people’ with no chance of challenging a corporate giant.

“Our complaint has now been recognised by the bank and we have achieved what we originally wanted to resolve. This would never have happened if the BBRS had not interceded for us.”

This testimonial is anonymised with names changed but is an account of a real customer experience. Each case that reaches the BBRS is different and customer outcomes will vary.