Because This is Money’s consumer champion, it’s my job to help our readers solve their toughest financial problems.
Every week people send in their concerns and I get to work talking to the company in question, finding out what went wrong and trying to get justice.
From banks to retailers and energy companies to insurers, there is no institution too big or too small for me to investigate.
Since 2022, I’ve won back £1.44 million for readers.
Over the past twelve months I have put many organizations in the spotlight. Some stories are sad, some are mind-bogglingly complex, and others are downright bizarre.
Here are some highlights from the Crane on the Case column in 2024…
Phone robbers plunder readers’ money
Anyone who lives or works in a major city will be aware of the phone theft epidemic sweeping the streets, leaving us gripping our devices with an iron grip.
Rather than the expensive phone itself, the main motive for the criminals is the chance to hack into owners’ financial apps, potentially siphoning off thousands.
Several This is Money readers have contacted me to tell me they had fallen victim to this, but their banks refused to refund them because the transactions were ‘not suspicious’.
Sometimes banks insisted there was no evidence of fraud even when the theft was investigated by police.
I didn’t think that was good enough and told the banks so.
In one case, I contacted Revolut and convinced it to refund a reader £2,050, as well as a goodwill payment of £250. In another case it refunded £3,900 and a goodwill gesture of £150.
In a third case, I got £2,200 back for a reader from crypto app Coinbase after being scammed via SIM card fraud.
Stay safe out there – and check out these tips to turn your phone into a Fort Knox.
Energy companies still tamper with bills
Fortunately, energy bills have fallen from their record highs this year, but the way companies treat their customers still leaves a lot to be desired.
The worst case I intervened in this year was at a small children’s dance school in the West Midlands. The owner received a shock energy bill from the supplier, Eon, saying she owed £95,000.
At the previous rate of £200 per month, £95,000 would be enough to pay the studio’s bills for 39 years.
Eon eventually installed a smart meter and the bills came back to around £200 every month, but not before he made a song and dance about the whole thing.
Take a step wrong: Eon gave a small dance school a big energy bill (stock image)
Seriously ill customers refused their cash
The saddest cases I’ve dealt with this year have been those where people contacted insurers, pension companies and banks while struggling with a serious or terminal illness, and were denied the money they were entitled to – or forced to waste time that they didn’t have to wait for an answer.
One reader suffered the devastating blow of being diagnosed with motor neurone disease, a life-limiting condition for which there is no cure.
But when he tried to claim his pension early from Railpen due to ill health, it took nine months – and my intervention – to finally get him the lump sum of £10,600 he was owed, as well as a small annual spousal pension for his parents . woman.
Another reader suffered a stroke at a relatively young age and made a claim on her £65,000 life insurance policy to help support her young children.
Legal and General tied her up in administrative knots for six months, and she worried about how she would pay the bills. But after I contacted her, the money was in her account within three days.
A third reader was unable to access his £100,000 savings at Barclays after he recovered better than expected from a stroke and the bank took a year to register that his wife no longer needed control of his account.
Banks must reinforce their ideas when dealing with seriously ill customers in 2025.
Lost your parking ticket? That will be £300
Private parking companies are a constant bugbear of our This is Money readers, and this year was no exception.
The worst case occurred when a reader parked in an NCP car park at Birmingham International train station during a weekend away in London.
When she lost her parking ticket, she was told the fine for losing that little piece of paper would be £300 – and if she didn’t pay she couldn’t leave.
This happened despite CCTV footage showing her entering and leaving the car park, which showed she had not stayed too long.
When I got involved I discovered that the fine should have only been £100, and it was waived as a gesture of goodwill.
No exit: Reader was told she could not leave the car park unless she paid £300
Some VERY long forgotten bank accounts
One of the things I learned while writing the column this year is that financial institutions do indeed have very long memories.
In one case, a reader from Grimsby was denied a £200 bank switching bonus by HSBC… because he had an account with its predecessor Midland Bank 21 years ago.
And there was also a reader who discovered he’d been charged fees on an American Express card he canceled seventeen years ago.
While I won some money back for both readers, this is a timely reminder to keep track of dormant accounts – and if you ask for them to be closed, make sure they actually are.
The 85-year-old accused of shopping late at night
Often the problems I describe can be traced back to someone, somewhere along the line, which shows a lack of common sense. Yet this was an extreme example.
A reader’s elderly father, who had recently recovered from heart surgery and was suffering from the onset of dementia, had his bank account unexpectedly debited for £5,523.
The payments were made 80 miles from his home, in the middle of the night, at gas stations and expensive jewelry stores – even though this man typically only goes as far as his local high street to do a food shop or visit his social club.
But HSBC stood firm, saying it had spent the money and could not be reimbursed.
Because the father quickly became confused, it’s difficult to find out what actually happened, but thankfully, after I made contact, HSBC accepted that midnight shopping simply couldn’t be the case.
It paid him back the £5,523, as well as £850 in compensation and interest. Furthermore, the Financial Ombudsman also changed its decision on this matter after HSBC discovered new information.
Which companies got on your nerves this year, and which ones did a good job? Contact me and let me know at helen.crane@thisismoney.co.uk.
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