Co-op bank account - serious advice needed!

jennikitten

Hi Money savers!

I've been lurking for a while on the forums, but now I really need some help if you could spare me somne time please!

I decided that a good way to avoid wasting money on rubbish was to open a basic current with another bank and transfer £200 a month into it from my main current account, and just spend that every month.

I chose the Co-op because of their ethics, and went to sign up at the weekend. The woman was very friendly, but told me that to open an account with them I needed to get a credit card and savings account with them too. I found this a bit annoying, but agreed. I was then charged £10 which I was told would be put in the savings account.

After all the paperwork had been filled out, she told me that I would have my accounts within the week. At no point did she ask me if it was ok to do a credit check, but I assumed they'd be doing it anyway so I let it go.

Fast forward to today, when I get home to 2 letters rejecting my application(s) 'based on the credit information from Experian'.

I logged in to check my credit report and score. My score is 859, according to Experian this is 'fair', and better than 62% of the population. All my open lines of credit (5) are rated the top 'Satisfactory'. I have a mortgage, and 3 bank accounts with another bank in addition to all positive balances and good credit histories with 2 mobile phone companies.

I've never had a problem getting accepted for anything before, and I'm employed full time on a higher salary than their minimum requirements. Plus, I'm only 22.

So why would they reject me for a basic current account, and a credit card with a limit of £500?? I told the woman at the time I had savings to the tune of £10k, and they could see from my credit report that I wasn't in my £1,500 overdraft (which would easily clear it).

My other issue is that one of the things that brought my credit score down was the number of credit checks in recent months. Confused, I checked my report only to find that the Co-op bank had made a total of SIX credit checks on the same day!! Is this normal??????? A lot of them were just given the explanation 'Generic' underneath, but this seems excessive to me...

Plus, I'm out £10. I've just read the small print in the copies of the forms they gave me and it says I only need a balance of £1 in the savings account, so why did she tell me it was a minimum of £10? I've now lost the money presumably.

I'm going to print out the screen shots I took of my credit report and go and ask them about it this weekend. How should I approach everything? Is it common to be rejected for something like this? And is it really normal to have 6 credit checks made in one day?

Bosie

Never heard of the co op saying you must open a credit card and savings account? Misselling big time
sounds so odd to be honest.

Chadsman

When you say you are £10 down did you mean you opened a savings with £10? If so and you wanted your £10 back is there anything to stop you closing the account?

p00

Ive been with the co-op for 20 years and never had a problem really. If you have a receipt for the £10 - which you must have - just go in the bank and ask for it or ask how they intend to refund it. I cant see that a bank like the co-op would keep your £10 if they wont give you an account.

xxp00

jennikitten

Chadsman - they told me they needed £10 from me to put into the new savings account to open it (which was a lie as far as I can tell), but since I got rejected for the account I'm not sure I can get my money back.

p00 - I'm glad you have had a good experience, I'm more disappointed than anything else because I had a lot of respect for the Co-op before this fiasco. I have a receipt and will try it this Saturday, but I do vaguely recall her saying is was non-refundable, which I was surprised at because I was thinking 'it's going in my savings account...why would it need to be refunded??'

I'm partly thinking that maybe I was just really unlucky and ended up with a horribly incompetent staff member. Should I ask for the manager or something on Saturday?

KSoni

Generic Checks will not be seen by the future lenders. Such searches do no not leave foot prints on your reports. So, don't worry about them. I had 3 checks on the same day by camelot when i opened online lottery account.

jennikitten

Ah okay, thanks. Well that's good because I have 3 generic checks! However, the report has still told me that having too many checks in the past 6 months has lowered my score (they are all the ones from the co-op, I've had no others)...which presumably makes me less likely to be accepted for things in the next six months...

Paul_Varjak

Something seems to have gone wrong somewhere. Maybe the checks are failing for some other reason? Maybe that is why there are six credit checks in one day? Maybe the Co-op did a check, but never received answers back from Experian, so kept on checking in the hope they would get an answer?

Looks like they finally gave up trying to get an answer after the sixth attempt and rejected you, not because of a bad record, but because they did not get the report at their end?

realaledrinker

jennikitten wrote: »

Hi Money savers!
...open a basic current account ......The woman was very friendly, but told me that to open an account with them I needed to get a credit card and savings account with them too. I found this a bit annoying, but agreed. I was then charged £10 which I was told would be put in the savings account.....recall her saying is was non-refundable......

Sorry I work for the Co-op bank and this is either a wind up or someone has been giving you seriously bad advice.

If not the former, I would cut out the crap & write direct to:

Neville Richardson
Chief Executive Officer
Co-operative Financial Services
Miller Street
Manchester
M60 OAL

jennikitten

I don't know, I have 3 'generics', an 'enquiry', a 'credit card' and a 'current account' check.

I think she must have checked them there and then because they are all dated Saturday 28th, which is when I went in. I went in about 12 and left at 1 when they were closing. Unless they process through the system over several days and it's just marked on the report when the check was initiated...?

Not sure why the attempts would have failed or seen to be failed - when I renew my mobile contract, they check in the store, confirm straight away and never have a problem. In the co-op she didn't tell me I might be rejected, nor did she ask/tell me she was doing a check so I don't know.

jennikitten

realaledrinker wrote: »

Sorry I work for the Co-op bank and this is either a wind up or someone has been giving you seriously bad advice.

If not the former, I would cut out the crap & write direct to:

Neville Richardson
Chief Executive Officer
Co-operative Financial Services
Miller Street
Manchester
M60 OAL

Thanks a lot for the info, I think I will go down to the branch on Saturday and speak to the most senior person I can, and then if I can't get it resolved for whatever reason, I'll write direct.