Birmingham Midshires Error on Fixed Rate Bond Interest Calculation

slickrock

It might be worth checking the interest that you received on your fixed rate savings.

After three letters from their Savings department, assuring me that they had not calculated the maturity interest on my 11 month bond incorrectly, I finally convinced their 'Office of the Managing Director' that they had made a mistake.

The first letter from them included a spreadsheet extract that differed from what their online banking was saying for my account - both dates and interest rates. The second letter told my I was still wrong and the third confirmed that the second letter was correct, not the first.

It boiled down to them not having the correct start date for the bond, but eventually a correction was made to my account. This was however not back-dated, so I still have an outstanding gripe.

The process of trying to rectify the original problem was not helped by the fact that if you telephone you speak to one team, which is not the same as the one that writes to you. I would suggest just writing letters, or alternatively contacting the complaints area from the outset and bypass the savings team.

ad44downey

HBOS and their subsidiaries are incompetent and clueless. You've got to expect this sort of thing if you save with them. Just look at their share price, it don't tell no lies

backfoot

Your story doesn't surprise me in the slightest. I will check back my records to ensure there is no error on my bonds.

I have had several run ins with BM and its associates Saga, AA. Despite writing in detail regarding each problem,their opening letter contains the infuriating response ' on this occasion I am unable to uphold your complaint' :mad: .

Yet subsequent elevation of the issue has them grovelling to understand why the response was so. In fact, on each occasion I have embarrassed them enough to offer me £50 compensation.

Another set of jokers.

mrBlue

Ah, I see that my wife and I are not alone in having problems with this bunch of sheisters. The reason I came onto this forum was to find out if anyone else had had problems with this organisation. My wife's experiences over the last 2 weeks with BM are, in my opinion, grounds for the FSA withdrawing their licence to take deposits, and for BM to be wound up. My wife appllied for their 1 year internet 5.4% fixed rate bond on the net. Their process demanded that the money be paid by cheque rather than electronically. They sent the paperwork within a day, asking for proof of ID as well. We responded on the same day it arrived. 6 days later, 10/12, the cheque was still unpresented, so a long 0845 phone call then ensued during which they said they were unable to accept a printed statement from a UK internet-only bank as proof of ID, but they hadn't bothered to tell her. They then said they had sent all the documents & cheque back the day before (9/12), and that if they didn't receive the correct paperwork back by 12/12 it would be too late. Their letter arrived yesterday, 15/12, dated 12/12, saying nothing except that it was too late. They are therefore guilty of lying deliberately to my wife and denying her about 10 days interest on this money.
Between us , we are intending to complain to the banking obudsman and the FSA and this epesode will therefore cost them at least £1000 to deal with it. I would prefor thast it cost them £750,000 in fines. Ideally they should be closed down as being not trustworthy to be a financial institution.

backfoot

I have every sympathy for the frustrating experience.

I don't think you will get very far with your complaint, because I suspect they will have a good defence under the Money Laundering Regulations.

They are careful in their terms and conditions and letters to warn that there may be a five day delay in processing applications.

I wish you good luck and do hope you win but if I am honest it's one I would put down to experience or get hold of a Senior Customer Relations Manager there who I have found to much better than their Administrative procedures which are pitiful.

mrBlue

I agree with you Backfoot. I don't think I stand any chance of getting any satisfaction from BM. However, I do think I can cost them £1000 in dealing with the aftermath. And I intend to do precisely that.

ed123_2

...BM are B......M.....they shut down my 1 year account when I asked them to roll it over to another year, I sent the cheque back and asked for the lost interest to be added......several times...still no joy......this may be policy dispite them saying they would reinstate the interest..

backfoot

Mr.Blue,

Let me preface the comments below by saying I fully understand your frustration and annoyance at BM's pitiful procedures.I have experienced them first hand on more than one occasion.

I would also say that I am probably the last person to 'let things drop' when I believe something is wrong.

I do just wonder about your tactic at this stage. I have used the FOS succesfully myself against Nationwide B.S. and won my complaint hands down. I have recorded the fact on this website in another thread.

To use the FOS you have to have exhausted the Company's internal complaints procedure and received their 'final position'. Until that stage is reached the FOS will not look into your case.

There are case fees involved of £450 if the case gets past the front line staff at the FOS. Until then,BM would not be charged the Case Fee.I have found the attached document setting out the rules.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/QG1.pdf

I have to say that I think you will be fighting a very tough battle on your complaint,even to get to first base, and however much I agree with you in principle the nuisance value/cost may not materialise as you first anticipated.

Entirely up to you,but my advice would be to take a very deep breath and put this one down to experience and avoid Halifax, BM and its associates in future and take pleasure in putting your funds with someone who will deal with them efficiently.

Your comments on here combined with others I have seen sends out a powerful message to BM which I am pretty sure will get back to them.

If you do pursue it please keep us informed.:beer:

mrBlue

Thanks, Backfoot, That's very helpful. Was going to commence correspondence escalation with BM first anyway.

Cheers,

savetilibleed

slickrock wrote: »

It might be worth checking the interest that you received on your fixed rate savings.

After three letters from their Savings department, assuring me that they had not calculated the maturity interest on my 11 month bond incorrectly, I finally convinced their 'Office of the Managing Director' that they had made a mistake.

The first letter from them included a spreadsheet extract that differed from what their online banking was saying for my account - both dates and interest rates. The second letter told my I was still wrong and the third confirmed that the second letter was correct, not the first.

It boiled down to them not having the correct start date for the bond, but eventually a correction was made to my account. This was however not back-dated, so I still have an outstanding gripe.

The process of trying to rectify the original problem was not helped by the fact that if you telephone you speak to one team, which is not the same as the one that writes to you. I would suggest just writing letters, or alternatively contacting the complaints area from the outset and bypass the savings team.

I'll be interested to know how the interest is actually, or should be calculated, as we will be getting out first full month of interest for December, paid early in January. Do you have a spreadsheet that will calculate it - or can you tell us how? My understanding is that the interest is calculated daily so on a fixed interest and unchanging balance it ought to be fairly straightforward. Would it be say for a full December :- £££ x interest (as decimal) x 31/365 ?

Susanjane_2

I also had an 11 month bond which matured in September. I noticed that in seemed about £100 less than I was expecting, so wrote to them. I sent the letter off in October and then sent 4 emails and heard nothing.

I then wrote to them again a couple of weeks ago saying I was going to complain to the ombudsman and they replied saying that they need another 4 weeks to look into it. Seems from the above, it will take a lot more effort to actually get the interest corrected.

Perhaps I shouldn't have given them another chance when they lost my £17,000 cheque when I first started saving with them.