Advice needed please

faagble

Why does she keep agreeing to open new accounts?

pmduk

Some bank staff will open accounts without the customer's consent. I opened a basic account in Barclays and found out a week later that they had also opened a savings account and an ISA without even mentioning them to me. I was surprised as I thought they would have required a signature at the very least.

Nothanks

Depends on individual banks, especially for savings accounts they can open with just the customer's "verbal request" and no signature.

dancingdaisy

faagble wrote: »

Why does she keep agreeing to open new accounts?

Because she knows no better and thinks that as it is advice from the bank then it is the right thing to do!

Well just to let you all know that the bank manager was VERY defensive to start with but once I had assurred him that I would much rather sort this out in branch he calmed down quite a bit and was then very helpful.

Something fishy has definitely gone on, he was too defensive and he brought up the words 'Mis-sold' 'Mis-selling' and made the point very clear that in no way, shape or form would his staff do anything other than help their customers... I ended up feeling quite sorry for him, especially when he was told various things staff had said and done. To give him credit he checked everything on the computer, knew who had dealt with my daughter and I could tell he was very cross.

I left his office on good terms though with his promise that he would get to the bottom of the problems and do everything he could to get my daughter out of the spiral of bank charges by talking to collections and cancelling her business account, apparently as soon as the business account was open her account was taken from collections which mad eit tricky for him to sort out today as we had a late appointment.

He also managed to close down 2 of the accounts, 1 is a loan account and the other has money being paid into it so he has suggested that she waits until the money goes in and then he will do it.

I now have to wait and see if he is true to his word, but I have the faith, he was a lovely man who was obviously quite stressed. I guess bank managing isn't all about shiny desks and filtered coffee, not that I was offered one!

Thanks again to all of you who gave me advice, I felt I had the knowledge to back me up if I needed it.

opinions4u

he was a lovely man who was obviously quite stressed

I have great personal sympathy lol.

Jake'sGran

Hello again Dancingdaisy. Must say you sound like like a great Mum and very bright too! I was pleased to see that you had seen the manager already and in view of the way he reacted I feel it is almost a certainty that your daughter will received an apologetic letter and a compensation cheque from them.

If you do make a formal complaint in writing don't look at it as if you are being unkind to the manager. They have to deal with it in a professional way.

I received two lots of compensation from banks/BSs this year and and the problems were nothing like the ones your daughter experienced.

SocrateS_2

dancingdaisy wrote: »

Thank you so much for your help Socrates, a million thanks.

You're more than welcome, I'm happy I could assist in some small way.

I tend to listen to R4 quite a bit of late, especially the as mentioned 'Money Box' portion. Though right now I sound like an advertisement for the BBC, I assure you I'm not.

However, one important thing I did learn and that was that banks now owe customers a 'duty of care' that's to say they can't miss-sell, or create situations that are unfair to their clientèle. which probably explains the fraught nature of your meeting with the bank manager

ISTR there being a suggestions as I think I advised previously to call either the Banking Onbudsman or the FSA. Obviously I can't find a reference for this information and can't validate it to myself so am reluctant whether to post it or not. I think I'll leave it in as it will fit in with what I'm about to say. I also provided links to some financial websites. I did this as they all have pertinent telephone numbers so you may consider them worthy of a quick call, give them the relevant details and see what they have to say. Hopefully they'll tell you of the new rules and the duty of care that the bank owes your Daughter and then the problem should solve itself once you have that piece of information.

I do feel that the bank has failed my daughter on numerous occasions.
Yes, burying her head in the sand was a stupid thing to do but the effect of this will stay with her forever. She has gone from being a bubbly teenager into a depressed mess, and that is horrible to witness. It took ages to get it out of her and now I want to help, so I truly appreciate your help.

Well if you think back to when you were her age, you'll probably remember thinking that you knew almost everything about anything. Afterall, you were younger than your parents, unlike them you weren't stuck in their ways and you had a nice fresh outlook on life. So what you know must be whats required, as otherwise, you would have been told it or learnt it by now.

I shouldn't be too hard on her, some people learn from reading books, listening to broadcast media, others through friends experiences and there are those that just don't learn anything at all. Period! In reality you have no idea what this experience means to her, you can only hope she learns from it. She maybe depressed because she knows she's done wrong, or that she's made a small mess somewhat larger. Or she may just want a quick and easy way out of this mess so she can get back to enjoying her carefree life. Rarely will anyone shouting at her have any affect, remember the many times your parents shouted at you? You remember what they were all about? I know from experience and from my own recollection I don't remember half of what was supposed to be communicated to me using that method. Perhaps if things had been calmer, I might have learnt more quicker

Chances are she'll learn from this, what she takes from it only she'll know, but who knows she may end up advising one of her friends whose about to make a similar mistake and from that, who knows what can happen? It's only a single piece of her life, a single element when you think of the number of things you experience in a single hour, day, week a month and so on its hardly anything really. That said, she'll most probably not wish to repeat this epsosude due to the negative effects and consequences. I know I never wish to be in debt again after I experienced it. That said, it can have unforseen affects, she may have a deal of a lifetime land in her lap, an offer not many can refuse. However, if the affects of this are too uncomfortable to remember she'll pass it by and she may end up struggling for the rest of her life on a pittance of a wage, all because she made one financial mistake when she was younger and the consequences are too dire to repeat. Teach her responsibility and that with money there are many negatives as she'll have found out by now when you don't have sufficient of it. Then teach her its her life and as long as she's not expecting you to come and rescue her financially the mistakes she makes are her own and she'll have to deal with it. Once those lessons sink in she'll be hopefully more mature.

I am loathe to call in an ombudsman as it is her silly behaviour which has caused this, yes the charges I believe are unfair and yes I do think that they have a responsibility to look after their customers, but it would not have gone as far as this if she had spoken to me about it in the first place. A hard lesson learnt methinks.

Indeed, but as I said previously the banks now do have a legal responsibility and duty of care towards their customers. It maybe a difficult lesson to learn not only on behalf of your daughter, but also for the banks. They afterall are in it to make money, they care for nothing other than the numbers of their balance sheets. If they can make you feel as though its your fault so that you'll accept responsibility and they win then they shall do so. You and your daughter afterall are just another set of feet to pass through their doors, nothing more than another opportunity extract profit from.

After insisting on a meeting with the bank manager, as I said I want to go in armed with all of the facts, make a case for her and hopefully the bank will see sense on this matter and she pays off the debt with my help and I get my happy daughter back.

Well hopefully you'll have sufficient information to do so. I suggest ringing the phone numbers on the websites I referenced earlier, ask for the latest information they have regarding Banking Charters and their responsibilities. Its afterall not a small 'error' that she approached them and they didn't assist, instead they put her further into debt. Had you not realised and your daughter come clean before it was too late she could have ended up paying much more back. As was explained on the programme on R4 'gone are the days when banks can simply turn their backs on clients in trouble, they have a legal responsibility to assist them in solving their problems for all their sakes'. As lets face it, your daughter could have gotten deeper in debt then simply gone for bankruptcy leaving the bank with a negative balance. At least this way they stand a chance of retaining a customer and her relative a longer term relationship will be more beneficial for all concerned.

Anyway, best of luck.

dancingdaisy

Hi all
So sorry that I haven't been back since the latest development, I took my daughter away to Cornwall overnight to see in the new year with family.
The lovely bank manager has basically written off her charges and now she only has her loan to pay, no vicious spiral of charges and the only account she now has is in credit and her account has been credited, so a total result! She is happy, I am happy and all is good.

Again, a million thanks for everyones advice and kind words. Yes, I am sure we have a 'case' against the bank but at the end of the day it has been sorted amicably, we have the result that we wanted and I have to say that the bank manager was fabulous in the end. I can understand his upset, after all I was about to drag his bank and workforce in to all sorts of hassle, but he did listen to reason and all's well that ends well.
It just goes to show that a sensible chat with some straight talking can solve problems and result in a happy stress free outcome.

Don't get me wrong, I would not have backed down on this, but the right thing was done in the end. Also the bank manager has told my daughter that any banking issues that she has in the future he will deal with directly, that she is always to ask for him, and if ever she cannot make a payment on her loan then she must go in and chat to him before the due date of the payment, although this won't happen as I have taken over the repayments as I don't want to see her go through this again and yes, she will be making those payments to me. I have got a little cash book and I am teaching her how to budget, make repayments on things and teaching her a valuable financial lesson and she certainly won't get away without making her repayments to me.

Although I am not in debt now I have been in serious debt in the past and it haunts me to this day, I cannot get credit at all and I am one of the lucky ones as I earn a great wage now, but I still cannot get a mortgage, car finance, credit card (not that I would want one, but hopefully you understand what I mean) and at 41 years old my financial history has me in a hole. I don't want that for my daughter.


Anyway I am wittering so I will stop here.
Thank you all. You're superstars Xxx