Sterling Card Problems - PLEASE HELP!

bananz

Hi everyone,


I'm really in need of some help here - sorry this is gonna be long...

So I opened a Sterling Pre-paid Mastercard thinking to use it in the future for car hire as I don't want a normal credit card. I didn't have my passport with me when I did the online application but it said that you could easily send identity details at a later date so I went ahead. They only stated that you couldn't top up by more than £1500 or make a single payment of over £600 until you had been verified so I thought it would be fine when I transferred £300 to the card to use in the meantime.

When the funds hadn't appeared on my balance a few days later, I phoned customer services and was told that while I wasn't verified, the funds could not be made available to me. Nowhere in their Help section or in their terms and conditions does it make this clear. They said that the quickest way for me to have access to the money was to send in the appropriate proof of identity. I then found out what I needed to do this and got the copies properly certified by a friend who is a solicitor and notary public and sent them off straight away.

I was away for a week and came back expecting for everything to have been approved and to finally have access to my money, but no - my account balance was still saying 0. So I phoned this morning to see what was going on and was told that the documents hadn't been properly certified because there was no stamp on them. I assured them that there was (it was an official embossed stamp) and they said that it wasn't showing up on the scanned copies they had in their system and so it wasn't acceptable. I asked them well, couldn't they look at the originals? and was told that they are shredded as soon as they are scanned and that I would have to resend the copies with an ink stamp on them. I said that I wasn't very happy with this and that I was also very unhappy that I could not access the money I had put on the card as it was in no way made clear that this would be the case before I transferred it. The guy drew my attention to the following clause of the terms and conditions that apparently outlines this, but I completely disagree that it is made clear...what do you think?

"2.3 - You may apply for some of our Prepaid Mastercard Cards online or by phone. If you opt to have the cash access and cash sharing facilities on your account we will need to verify your identity..."

Neither of the terms "cash access" and "cash sharing facilities" are set out in the definitions and to me cash access implies being able to withdraw cash from a machine and does not imply you can not make any transactions whatsoever. Furthermore, I've not seen anywhere any reference to having to "opt" to have these services - it is implied these are standard.

I asked for them to refund the £300 to my bank account asap and was told that there was no way to do this in under 14 days and that the quickest way to get access to my money was to re-send my proof of identity.
I'm really unhappy that they are practically holding my money to ransom and seem completely unwilling to help. I've had a pretty expensive month and I really need access to that money asap as I don't get paid until 15th of the month. I asked for details of their complaints department but they could only give me an address and no email or telephone number which obviously means it's going to take even more time. I'm really stressed out by this. Has anyone had a similar experience or can offer any advice?

Thank you so much in advance for any help,
B