Tier 1 dependent visa refused - Appeal or fresh application?

[pavanbarnala]

People,

Need your advice on choosing between appeal and fresh application.
I'm in UK on Tier 1 (General) since Nov 2011 and my spouse applied for dependent visa on 13 July 2012 from Bangalore VFS. We received refusal letter from Chennai Consulate on 30 July 2012 with reason as 'no sufficient funds'.

Here are the details of the proof that we submitted for fund maintenance:
30 March - 16 April: Barclays statement, having funds greater than required
16 April - 30 June: Citibank statement, having funds greater than required

We have clearly mentioned the date details in the cover letter that we submitted and also highlighted in the statements by drawing lines with blue ink at start and end dates since the statement has few transactions/dates before start date and after end date. So over a period of 90 days, on any given day, the funds across the accounts is more than required (both the accounts are my own accounts - Barclays in UK and Citibank in India).

But they have considered these statements individually and stated for each of these separately that the period does not cover 90 days and in the second statement, they highligted a date before 16 April where balance was less than required and stated that it is less than minimum required.

That means, whoever handled our case, neither looked at the covering letter nor made any sense out of those lines that we have marked for highlighting the dates to be considered.

I have checked the policy guidelines thoroughly and also looked at discussion threads in this forum about showing more than one account as part of fund maintenance. Nowhere I have found that this is against any policy laid out by UKBA.

More than disappointment about the decision, I'm really frustrated with such poor evaluation that is being carried out on genuine applications like ours and being refused with no sense of responsibility, specially after charging unreasonable amounts in the form of application fee.

Based on what people are sharing on other threads in this forum, looks like Appealing would take minimum of 1.5 month, which could extend to as long as 6-9 months. I cannot wait for that long since I'm eagerly waiting for my partner to come here. I really don't mind going for a fresh application by paying the application fee again.
I want your expert opinion/thoughts on my case, as to which option would be more suitable/recommended and more likely for successful visa?
And those who have gone though similar agony, it would be great if you could share your experiences so that I get an idea about the expected timeline

Look forward to your advice...
My email (just in case): pavan.barnala@gmail.com

[vinny]

Do both, if you wish.