Help - advise needed re Northern Rock Account

lindadykes

When my three daughters were young their paternal grandmother opened a Northern Rock Instant Access Savings account for each of them, depositing £1000 in each and naming herself as trustee. Her intention was always that they could have the money on their 18th birthdays. The 2 eldest had no problem as their grandmother was still alive at the time, and she simply signed a form giving them access to the account. Unfortunately their grandmother died two years ago and my youngest daughter was not 18 until March this year.

Two weeks before her 18th birthday she rang Northern Rock to ask how she could access the money - their reply was that she needed her father to write to them allowing her access. she was upset at this as she is estranged from her father and didn't want to contact him. I offered to ring Northern Rock and explain the situation, which I did. The person I spoke to apologised and said that she had been given the wrong information and that all she needed to do was to write to head office stating that she wanted acces to the account on her 18th birthday. I asked if she would need to send in a death certificate or any other documentation and was put on hold while he checked with his manager. He came back on the line and said he had checked, but no the letter was all they needed.

My daughter sent off the letter on 9th March. Shortly afterwards we received a letter dated 13th March asking for a copy of the death certificate and for the pass book to be returned. I again rang Northern Rock and complained that we were originally told that a death certificate wasn't needed, again the apologies, but yes a death certificate was needed along with the pass book. I checked that this waas all that would be needed and was told yes, once they had these documents the account would be closed and a cheque sent out. My daughter spent her 18th birthday travelling the 60 mile round trip to the Registry Office for a death certificate as this was her only weekday off work - as she said to me "It's not very nice mam having to go on your 18th to get a death certificate for someone you loved".

The Certificate was sent off and was returned with a letter dated 19th March, now asking for three forms of identity to confirm the identity of my daughter. The list of items that were acceptable as identity for an over 18 year old only included only two items that my daughter had, this being her driving licence and a bank statement, so we again rang Northern Rock and again they apologised for giving us the wrong information and then said that the third item could be from the list for under 18's. We sent off the documentation, but then heard nothing, so after 8 days we rang Northern Rock, my daughter was told everything was being processed and that they expected to send out the cheque by Friday 3rd April at the very latest. When no cheque arrived by Tuesday 7th April we again rang Northern Rock - again apologies, their investigations department had completed investigations confirming my daughters identity but had forgotten to remove the stop from the account, the lady I spoke to on this occasion said she would get the stop taken off the account and ring me back to let me know all was well. She rang back half an hour later, the cheque would be posted out that day.

Well one week later, today still no cheque. My daughter is at work till late so I rang up for her. The lady on the other end took loads of details then said she couldn't tell me anything because it wasn't my account, but said my daughter needed to write in to Northern Rock to verify her identity. I told her point blank my daughter isn't going to do any such thing and we wanted answers as to why every time we ring we are told something else that is apparently wrong. I asked if the cheque had gone out, and she mumbled about stops being put on accounts, so I said it obviously hasn't gone out, but she refused to confirm. She has said she will speak to the team dealing with the case tomorrow as they had gone home for the night and call my daughter at work, though I doubt she will. I have rang my daughter and she is trying to see if she can get finished work early and home before 8 when the help line closes, but she is now just close to tears.

Does anyone know who we can complain to? or how to get through to someone at Northern Rock who has the authority to sort this out? sorry it's such a long post but the whole thing is just turning into one long farse.

Baldur

See http://companyinfo.northernrock.co.uk/legal/#complaints

Northern Rock plc operates an Internal Complaints Procedure. You can request a copy of the Guide to our Internal Complaint Procedure or alternatively, you can download a copy. This guide outlines our complaints handling procedures and the availability to customers of the Financial Ombudsman Service scheme, which provides for independent adjudication on any complaint which cannot be resolved through the Company's Internal Complaint Procedure. Their contact details are as follows:
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)
South Quay Plaza
183 Marsh Wall
London E14 9SR
Helpline: 0845 080 1800
Switchboard: 020 7964 1000
Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

withnell

Probably not the answer you want, but why not contact her father? I would assume that he took over the trusteeship on the death of his mother, and will be able to unlock the account very easily.

Most banks aren't good at dealing with trusts at the best of times, so complicating it by going against the standard procedure normally ends up with the situation as you have described!

lindadykes

withnell wrote: »

Probably not the answer you want, but why not contact her father? I would assume that he took over the trusteeship on the death of his mother, and will be able to unlock the account very easily.

Most banks aren't good at dealing with trusts at the best of times, so complicating it by going against the standard procedure normally ends up with the situation as you have described!

Her father wasn't the one who took over trusteeship, it was his mother's sister in law, she contacted Northern Rock at the branch in person prior to our saga and was told only that Natasha needed to contact the head office as officially there had been no changes made to the account and her gran was still the officially named trustee.