Poor Cust Service with Principality

dmcpherson

I took Martin's advice on Bonds a few weeks ago and applied with Principality. Turns out that I didn't enter the correct ref on my bank transfer and money was returned to me. I only discovered this by looking at my bank statement. I called them to query it and why they hadn't emailed me to tell me there was a problem. The advisor was unhelpful and told me that 'it wasn't worth their time as they have hundreds of orders to process'. With that attitude they aren't going to get my money. Have now applied with Newcastle Building Society who have a far easier online application process and the 180 withdrawl gives me far more flexibility.

ChiefGrasscutter

One day you will enter up the wrong number/ref on a bank transfer and it will go totally somewhere else to someone elses account.
Then, as many in the UK including some posters on this site have discovered getting your money back is not so easy - and in some cases virtually impossible. The money can become lost to you as it was you who entered up the incorrect information.

Be thankful that in this case the mistake resulted in the money simply being returned to you and in all seriousness be very careful in future abut getting numbers (sort code, account No and the reference if required) in bank transfer details perfectly correct.

No financial institution anywhere in the UK will EVER email you to discuss some aspect of your finances as emails are regarded as not secure and depending on things could be read by others in your house etc.

You also need to realise that the huge amount of business/deposits these institutions have coming in and going out on a daily basis let alone those deposits held by them means that your individual £XXXXX is actually quite inconsequential to them. Bradford and Bingley Building Society for instance had £20 BILLION total in customer deposits when it was closed down.....so if you want to go elsewhere I doubt they'll be bothered.

That said I've certainly found Principality 'difficult' in respect of ID requirements in the past!

anamenottaken

dmcpherson wrote: »

. . . Newcastle Building Society who have a far easier online application process and the 180 withdrawl gives me far more flexibility.

But have you tried providing incorrect data to see what happens then? Would they do anything differently than Principality?

Essex123

If the payment had an incorrect reference number on it, how would they even know who to contact to tell them it was wrong? :mad:

ChiefGrasscutter

Essex123 wrote: »

If the payment had an incorrect reference number on it, how would they even know who to contact to tell them it was wrong? :mad:

Yup,
I'd suspect that Principality(PP) relies on a clearing bank to process its incoming transfers. So you, the user, put in the sort code and account number of PP's collection account at whatever clearing bank they use. PP then use the details in the reference field in the payment to allocate the payment to correct users account with them.
Those than run this system clearly tell the user to put the account number in the reference field.
Unless PP had as part of the ID verification process details of the user's bank account to match up against their user records...as you say all they would have is an unknown payment coming from an unknown source without the correct ref number on it to ID it. So pp/the clearing bank sent it back to the originating account.
As I said earlier be thankful they did otherwise if the OP had got the ref number wrong but by accident put a valid ref number for someone else's account then it would have allocated to someone else's account.....

Robert_Sterling

Perhaps it is a matter of principle.

fatbob10

Chortle :rotfl: