B & B £100 penalty

oldgreymare

My 80yo mother had savings in B&B with 4 month notice which she gave in August. Las week she asked me to take her to withdraw them. She was told there would be a £100 penalty for not collecting the money in the dates they said were in the passbook, or give another 4 months notice. She can hardly read and does not recollect them telling her to do this. She did withdraw and close the account as she needs the money now not in 4 months. It is absurd that she is penalised FOR LEAVING THE MONEY IN LONGER ! What if anything can I do to help?:mad:

alanq

In my experience after a period of notice one gets a couple of weeks to make a withdrawal before the notice lapses. If a time limit was not in place people could open a notice account, give notice soon after and in effect have an instant access account at a high interest rate.

If the dates are in the passbook and the bank is applying the Ts&Cs of the account you can only ask for a goodwill gesture on the grounds of your mother's infirmity. On the plus side if interest rates were as high as they were a few months ago the penalty would have been much higher.

opinions4u

As alanq says, if a customer gives notice and then expects it to be open ended they have sneakily found a way to operate an instant access account. Open an account, give notice and enjoy the higher rate offered with the knowledge that the notice given applies forever! Not really fair.

I think in this case she should write to B&B and request reimbursement on the basis that she doesn't withdraw regularly and feels that, given her age, they should have explained the time frame required for the withdrawal. Perhaps throw in a little bit of "infirm" and "forgetful due to age" as well.

I don't think they will waive the penalty.

I don't think they should waive it.

But in the name of goodwill, it's worth asking.

dunstonh

Technically they are correct in having the window. However, the branch manager has some discretion and seeing as the window would have started some time in December, you would expect them to waive the fact the window was missed by a small amount.