Hi Roy,

Given your situation I would also consider writing to the media (like the mail, times or telegraph) to get some advice / help, as the abbey will not want to appear in the press with this negative image, especially given your situation using the interest as income to pay bills etc.

I would also write to someone senior within the bank (not sure who - CEO of the retail bank or investment bank?) about your complaint.

Good luck

Sparky.

Thank you jalexa and access for your welcome replies to our plight.

So far we have done everything correctly.. ie waiting 8 weeks before referring our problem to FOS. First we telephoned FOS and they sent us a complaint form within 48hours. All filled in with all the copies of the letters etc... We did read their form you kindly mentioned.... In for a long wait no doubt.

We will watch the termination of the bond and a letter will be sent to Abbey well in time requesting the capital be returned by cheque . Nothing on this earth would every persuade us to take out another bond with Abbey, regardless of interest rates.

I will list further postings on this to alert other people of the pitfalls with these people and the disgusting way we have been treated with this bond.

Roy

Sorry I forgot to mention your backstop of "small claims". I certainly second Jalexa but would, if it was me, not even consider it. By the time Abbey have probably quite genuinely unintentionally mucked you about something rotten you will be biting the carpet - much better off to keep on top of the FOS.

Roy Saunders:

Nothing surprises me about Abbey, or indeed most parts of the financial industry.

I'm a strong advocate of using the Financial Ombudsman Service, partly because of the hefty case fee the organisation is hit with regardless of the outcome and the potential for criticism.

Unfortunately its unlikely the FOS will make a decision for months and it could be nearly a year.

I understand how worrying and frustrating this is but I would focus your energy on ensuring the repayment arrangements are in place for when the bond matures. There will be something in the Terms & Conditions probably. I would expect a communication offering a range of options. You need to ensure that any default options is not to roll-over into a new fixed term bond. The possible vulnerability is that no letter arrives but Abbey claim to have sent a letter. Sorry I know that's not want you want to hear but you need to be alert for that possibility.

In time the FOS will make a decision about the monthly payments and compensation if due. I would hold off legal action until then.

First let me say that your plight infuriated me just reading it. big picture it's "a" Government's fault over many years but governments neither know or care about detail. The key in this case is for it to be legally binding to sort out this sort of thing in say seven days and if not swingeing daily fines etc...

Back in the real world I don't know if you were technically allowed to submit your complaint to the at best mediocre FOS which sees as its goal putting things back to where they were before the problem and up to £100,000 compensation. the FOS was taking about six months to process claims last time I was involved with them. You say with a flourish that you've handed over the claim thinking they'll bang heads together, so did I they don't. I suggest you phone the FOS and get as much "real" info out of them and dig in for a long campaign and be delighted if Abbey sort it out "tomorrow". If you haven't already used the site click on the link to put flesh on the bones...

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/PUBLICATIONS/consumer-leaflet.htm

In October 2008, my wife & I opened a 1 year Fixed Rate Bond paying monthly interest at 6.5%. our initial sum was £57,000.00 .. All OK until the end of April 2009 . We received £308.75 interest per month9(Bradford and Bingley Bond)

For the month of MAY 09 NOTHING. For the MONTH of June 09 NOTHING ..Apparently so we found out later all the Bond monthly payouts with B & B had been transferred over to ABBEY. Customers were not informed of this change.

After many many letters and phone calls ( including lies, not being called back as promised, letters not received etc.All the usual excuses we took our complaint to the next step ABBEY COMPLAINTS at Milton Keynes.

In fairness they got us a payment for £620.87 (18th July)and confirmed with apologies that everything was now in order and our monthly payment would be paid into our current account as before.... PROBLEM SOLVED..(so we were told).

The 4th August came ... NO JULY payment made... Back to square 1 . Not being able to get any sensible information out of ABBEY in Bradford and ABBEY COMPLAINTS in Milton Keynes. I rang Bradford and Bingley. I was surprised to hear that Abbey could not set up any interest payments on old Bradford & Bingley Bond accounts due to IT problems with CAHOOT .. Cahoot is our current account provider.... The reduction in our monthly income of over £300.00 is quite a blow to us as we are both over 70 and living on the state pension.. The £57,000 is our life savings.

We have had enough. I have passed the whole matter over to the Financial Ombudsman and requested that they arrange for ABBEY to return our full capital immediatey PLUS the monthly interest up to the 22nd October 2009 when the Bond expires.

Abbey have broken the terms of their contract with us TWICE and we are very worried.

We have never dealt with the Financial Ombudsman in the past and as you can imagine we have no confidence whatsoever with ABBEY. Obviously no member of our family will ever deal with them again.

Has anyone out there had any similar experience ? Or experience with the Fianacial Ombudsman's Office.?. Apart from going to our Solicitor and taking this through the small claims court we are at our wits end....

Any help appreciated... We await communication from ther Ombudsman on a daily basis.

Roy