Urgent Advice - Falsely advertised mortgage deal....

ramzey1

Hi All,

Would appreciate a little bit of advice on a situation that has accured today with Bank of Scotland and a Firt Time Buyer mortgage promotion that is advertised on their website.

We have started the process of taking out a 2yr fixed tracker mortgage and hold our current accounts with this bank.

Link to the promotion can be found on bankofscotland.co.uk and it is the main advert "We are giving first time buyers a helping hand" click on the find out more tab and then Exclusive offers.


The "Exclusive offer for current account customers" is advertised as at least a 0.2% reduction on your initial fixed rate and an additional £150 cash back.

We called the mortgage contact centre this morning to find out more about this offer and to ask for it to be applied to our mortgage and was told:

"that they new nothing about this promotion but as it is written on the website in black and white we are entitled to it and the branch can apply this offer to our mortgage"

The advisor said they will check with their manager though first and call back. He called back and we have now been told that the offer advertised is an old promotion and they have removed it immediately from their website (it has still not been removed!!!) and they will not be extending this offer to us because they don't have to honour it.

Can they legally do this???? they are advertising an offer and are telling us we cannot have it as it is an old promotion.......surely this is not legal especially when it is their main promotion on their websites home page, plus they have failed to remove this promotion from their website after we have brought this to their attention, dispite telling us this morning that it has been removed immediately.

Appreciate any advice that anyone can give on this.........

Thanks

danielanthony

Until you get a mortgage offer which states the rate you have been offered there is no legally binding contract between you and the bank, if you have already got this then that is the rate you will get, they are under no obligation to apply any further reductions as you agreed to the original rate

ramzey1

Hi, Thanks for your reply and I agree with your comments in the fact that we have agreed to the mortgage rate offered, but this is because we never knew this promotion was being advertised snce we signed up in the branch.

The mortgage application was only done on Saturday morning and we went home and found this offer advertised on the Saturday afternoon when we went to log on to our online banking.

My issue with the bank is that they said that this promotion ended 3 weeks ago, so why has this offer only just appeared on their website. I get the feeling that this is a current offer and they just do want to give us it, plus they are still advertising this offer on their website dispite telling us yesterday that they had removed it immediately. So surely if we brought the problem to their attention and they know they are misleading people, they should be head accoutable for knowingly misleading people?

It is a matter of principle I guess, but if there definitely is nothing I can do about this then i suppose we will just have to live with it but I just think that it is bad practise.

In the retail industry, if they knowingly continue to advertise a product at the wrong price after we have brought it to their attention, then we would be entitle to the product at the cheaper price, so why not the bank industry.

CautiousWithMoney

You can take your business elsewhere if you feel that strongly?

Are you sure that they are even offering the best rate/product for your requirements? It's rare that your 'own' bank does in my experience.

Why not post your details up here and I can have a look at the market as I've got a spare hour or so...

kingstreet

If you complain to the ASA, the end result will be the advert being taken down. The bank has said it will do that, so you'll end up back at square one.

Mortgage products change all the time and there are occasionally overlaps where it appears one product is available when it has actually been replaced by another. It's frustrating, but something we all have to live with.

A price on a product is an offer to treat, not necessarily an offer for sale, so a retailer does not have to honour the advertised price of a good.

dunstonh

My issue with the bank is that they said that this promotion ended 3 weeks ago, so why has this offer only just appeared on their website. I get the feeling that this is a current offer and they just do want to give us it, plus they are still advertising this offer on their website dispite telling us yesterday that they had removed it immediately. So surely if we brought the problem to their attention and they know they are misleading people, they should be head accoutable for knowingly misleading people?

Someone probably will end up accountable for this error (assuming it is an error) and their annual performance review will probably be hit and they will get less pay because of it.

It is a matter of principle I guess, but if there definitely is nothing I can do about this then i suppose we will just have to live with it but I just think that it is bad practise.

What you do is take a copy of the webpage. Make a note of the date and time and name of the person at the bank who told you it was an error and what they said. Then in a weeks time, you see if the advert is still there. If it is still there, you make a formal complaint to BoS (using the complaints team, not the branch) telling them you believe you were lied to and give them the evidence you have.

In the retail industry, if they knowingly continue to advertise a product at the wrong price after we have brought it to their attention, then we would be entitle to the product at the cheaper price, so why not the bank industry.

You made them aware of it on a non-working day. The advert would have to be pulled within a reasonable timescale and expecting a bank to do something on a non-working day would be unreasonable. It should vanish Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

CautiousWithMoney

ramzey1 wrote: »

In the retail industry, if they knowingly continue to advertise a product at the wrong price after we have brought it to their attention, then we would be entitle to the product at the cheaper price, so why not the bank industry.

This isn't actualy true. Many companies will charge the price it cone up at the till, the advertised price does not legally have to be honoured, but some do for customer good will.