Switching bank accounts

[Pastis]

Just the usual   

After 7 weeks from opening the business account they STILL have not completed the arrangement and put the free OD facility in place. They tell me over the phone that the process is complete and a final letter has been sent out letting me know ...

I am awaiting a call from the woman at the local branch whose lunch break finished 5 minutes ago ..... 

It's a bloody good job I have funds in that account 

[Pastis]

Yesterday my IFA went  at Legal & General for sitting on a cheque for 10 days which was to go from one desk to another inside the same company. Not just a little cheque either... around £30K

He's going after them 

[Snoopy]

They'll prolly give you a fiver for "lost interest" and tell you it is a Goodwil Gesture.

[Pastis]

Sadly, probably true but it'll be interesting to see how the IFA fares ~ he's got rather sharp teeth.

[Snoopy]

I.O.U.

Here's your missing l   

[Pastis]

As if switching bank accounts wasn't hard enough!

Trying to close down the old one ... !!    The laydee on the phone actually admitted they were making it quite difficult 

[Barman]

As if switching bank accounts wasn't hard enough!

Trying to close down the old one ... !!    The laydee on the phone actually admitted they were making it quite difficult 

Those people at Coutts hate to lose a millionaire... 

[Snoopy]

As if switching bank accounts wasn't hard enough!

Trying to close down the old one ... !!    The laydee on the phone actually admitted they were making it quite difficult 

Those people at Coutts hate to lose a millionaire... 

Coutts my arse ~ As I keep telling Dippy Coutts has long since been a very small subdivision of the Nat West which is now owned by The Royal Bank Of Scotland which is in turn 80% owned by the British taxpayers. Might as well put your money in a National Savings Account (better interest too).

[Nick]

Just received!

Dear Nicholas, we know you won't move your main current account without good reason. That's why we're giving you plenty of good reasons, starting with £100 when you switch to Santander - as well as an impressive interest rate of 5% AER fixed for 12 months.      

    
Our dedicated team will take care of everything and make the whole experience simple and straightforward for you.
- We'll transfer all of your existing
standing orders, bill payments and direct
debits from your old bank to your new
Santander account.

- We'll help you through the switcher
process by giving you a 0% EAR typical
Arranged Overdraft for at least four
months (19.9% EAR (variable) thereafter).
Overdrafts are subject to status (see note 1).   - We will match your existing overdraft
(up to £5,000), depending on your
circumstances (see note 2).

- We'll let you choose the date you want the
switch to start, up to 60 days in the future.

- We promise to keep you informed
regularly throughout the transfer process
so you know exactly what's happening.
    
 

[Snoopy]

Given the problems experienced by both Pastis and myself with these people I wouldn't bother. That said I did it differently to Pastis. I opened the account with Santander and simply transferred some funds. They are now welching on their promise to credit £100 because I "haven't transferred ALL my business" to them. I am letting Trading Standards deal with them.


Much depends on how you define "Main Account" ~ they seem to feel it means ALL ACCOUNTS ~ I disagree.

[Darwins Selection]

Given the problems experienced by both Pastis and myself with these people I wouldn't bother. That said I did it differently to Pastis. I opened the account with Santander and simply transferred some funds. They are now welching on their promise to credit £100 because I "haven't transferred ALL my business" to them. I am letting Trading Standards deal with them.


Much depends on how you define "Main Account" ~ they seem to feel it means ALL ACCOUNTS ~ I disagree.

Good man, keep us posted.

I wonder if they define "main" current account anywhere?

I would take it as the one with the largest sums passing through it, which in my case is the one with 3 standing orders per month to "secondary" accounts with a minimal, yet always positive, residual amount left in it.

Not at all what they want, but 'main' by my standards.

[Pastis]

A postscript.

As far as I'm concerned one of the main benefits of online banking is the ability to move money from one account to another at the click or three of a mouse. I haven't had occasion to use it until today and when I tried ~ from the extensive menu of options ~ it was declined 
Tonight's call centre bunny (Belfast by the sound of it) had to go off and investigate and came back to explain that the 'Move Money' option had not been included for some reason. To her credit she was incredulous as I was and altered the settings (?) immediately and apologised profusely. She then moved the monies, er, manually (?) over the phone.

Otherwise all appears to be working; no charges for the service and interest (tax deducted  ) added on time. How long will this last I wonder 

[Nick]

We are surrounded by bankers 

[Pastis]

Right.    Looks like the gloves are off this time, and not with the new bank but the old one. 

I'm even wondering if posts on an internet forum are admissible as evidence in court  , because if Barclays don't sort this one out it's going straight to the Banking Ombudsman. In spite of requests to close down my three old accounts there remains one which apparently they have failed to close and they reckon I owe them 90 quid! 
Now, I've done this by the book and to the letter, closing down the personal account in person at my local branch, by phone for the investment account and by letter for the trading account. Eventually after two calls to the online team this week I get a return call from my "Relationship Manager" whom I have never spoken to before in my life.  I have never heard someone who is supposed to be in a responsible position (by her own admission she has 600+ portfolios to deal with) stutter and stumble through a conversation  . Umming and erring wasn't in it... 
Apparently she has moved branches to one a mile or so away and never received my closure instruction. Is that my fault? 

This will resume next week 

[Snoopy]

I hate Barclays.
B@st@rds begged me for my business account when we took on the first pub.
For those that don't know publicans have to trade on an overdraft whist keeping their working capital in a second account and their VAT and alcohol duties etc in a third. It does make sense as Brewery/landlords insist on debiting accounts for supplies of stock on a system of their own whilst the VAT and HM Customs (Duty) have different methods of extracting cash.
Anywhoo Barclays, having watched the business grow for two years, suddenly and without informing us started switching money between accounts "to remove the overdraft" leaving insufficient funds in the VAT account causing the VAT man to shit bricks and the brewery to withhold supplies. They then,following a bellow from me promptly emptied our personal account, froze all other accounts and would not cash any cheques issued. I was forced to borrow against the business from another bank at very high rates of interest just to pay the bills. Meanwhile Barclays sat on £45k of our money for three months and would not release it until I had gone to solicitor and issued a High Court writ. Their final excuse? "Human error by a person no longer in our employ"