Co-Op bank - £200 if you switch to them

System

Nath4n wrote: »

Halifax cancelled the DD and it started showing in Co-op, all good I thought. ... I checked vodafone to find my account had no record of a DD set up. I rang them and Vodafone told me they'd recently changed their policy on setting up new DD's without customer authorisation. So basically had received a cancellation request for the old Halifax one but did nothing about setting up the new Co-op one.

So it appears that staff at Vodafone, and possible other direct debit originators, do not understand and operate the procedure that BACS thinks it has set up for the seamless transfer of direct debits:
http://www.bacs.co.uk/Bacs/Banks/BacsServices/Accountswitching/Pages/TransferOfDirectDebitsAndStandingOrderService.aspx

It would be a kindness to other sufferers to report this particular muck-up to the Co-operative Bank and demand that they take it up with BACS, who in turn could attempt to educate Vodafone.

pqrdef

Four weeks after I submitted the online switching form, still no sign of land. The Co-op now tell me Santander are failing to supply the list of SOs and DDs, owing to a mismatch of records.

Apparently the online switching form generates a worksheet, which has to be manually keyed in to the main database. I suspect the Co-op mistranscribed my Cahoot account details at this point.

Either that, or they've lost my switching application altogether. It's odd that NatWest have been mentioned to me in two different conversations, although they don't enter into this at all.

Also odd that the guy on the phone said at one point that he'd never seen anything like it before.

Apparently the cure for all this now is that I send them a signed paper switching form. Not that there's any chance of me matching any signature that I might have given Cahoot ten years ago.

horngkai

Switched from Santander to Co-op. No problem at all with 2 DD, have switched 3 DD though so will have to wait and see what happen to the last one.

Wife switched from HSBC to Co-op, DD coming out alright as well

stewpot

I completed and posted to the co-op the requested transfer authorisation form 10 days ago. I then got an email asking me to complete an on-line form by Nov 20th.
I rang today to confirm all was OK and was told they had only received the posted form today and I was therefore 2 days too late to benefit from the £200 incentive. Apparently the postal service takes 10 days to get mail to the co-op, or, as the person I spoke to today intimated, the high demand might be the reason my form was delayed!
I have managed to get them, after 35 minutes on the phone, to cancel the transfer from my current bank. Unfortunately, their system cannot generate a standard letter to confirm the cancellation, so the lady I spoke to is having to send me one in her name.
Oh, and apparently the code number I generated has twice had to be changed to the number I originally thought I generated as they didn't recognise the number on both occassions I have rung them.

Gromitt

I wouldn't blame the co-op for late mail, thats the fault of Royal mail. I've received post and letters that were 2 weeks late and companies know this, now stating "Allow 14 days for delivery".

I also sent a credit agreement form about a month ago, and a week after I'd posted it, I received a phone call from the company concerned asking if was still interested as they had not received the form. After a further two weeks, the stated they had received the form but had already cancelled the documents and sent replacements.

Nadia123

stewpot wrote: »

I completed and posted to the co-op the requested transfer authorisation form 10 days ago. I then got an email asking me to complete an on-line form by Nov 20th.
I rang today to confirm all was OK and was told they had only received the posted form today and I was therefore 2 days too late to benefit from the £200 incentive. Apparently the postal service takes 10 days to get mail to the co-op, or, as the person I spoke to today intimated, the high demand might be the reason my form was delayed!
I have managed to get them, after 35 minutes on the phone, to cancel the transfer from my current bank. Unfortunately, their system cannot generate a standard letter to confirm the cancellation, so the lady I spoke to is having to send me one in her name.
Oh, and apparently the code number I generated has twice had to be changed to the number I originally thought I generated as they didn't recognise the number on both occassions I have rung them.

I completed the Switching Form and promptly posted it to the Skelmersdale address. Was surprised to receive an email requesting the same info and stating a deadline of 20th November to qualify for the £200. For some reason, the online application system did not recognise my new Co-op account details so I phoned Co-op on the 08000 284284 number (I refuse to pay 0845 charges!) and a very helpful lady sorted it all out for me....

Popped over to my local branch the next morning and deposited the £800. Had the text stating that the Co-op team has contacted Nationwide and am now awaiting the final confirmation letter/email.:)

gowgowuk

Just a quick note, positive this time. Someone from the Co-op called me yesterday to double-check the 2 direct debits for which they haven't received anything from the companies involved, which I thought was quite good.

ukdutypaid

All switched, all fine. I had a double SO go out (Co-op and Santander), but that's because it was still active. So as each DD goes out of the Co-op I'm deleting them from the active Santander account. I've now deleted all my SO's. It doesn't show the dates for the SO/DDs in the Co-op online thing but as they are paid the date of last payment shows up.
I've had letters from all my DD companies and one from the Co-op informing me of the companies for which they have not received confirmation (TV Licence, surprise, surprise).
Once I've had a month of everything going out, I'll close the Santander account. (anybody else noticed that on the Sand site there isn't enough time now to have it closed, so as to open a new one in order to obtain their incentive).
I genuinely don't understand how people have had all these c*ck ups. A DD/SO on two accounts should have meant it would have been paid from somewhere, assuming there were enough funds in both accounts. What an odd luck of the draw it appears to have all been......
Personally, I can't fault the whole process. I've got three useless Lloyds Advantage accounts to do something with now. Going back to Santander with one of them is out of the question now, so we'll just have to see if anything else pops out of the woodwork.. Virgin/Northern Rock perhaps?

dave76

had a letter from coop yesterday to say they have been monitoring my switched direct debits and had noticed the EDF one had not been taken - this may be due to it being quarterly or yearly or that EDF had not set up the new details but they had been told and I should call them as there was nothing else coop could do.

Fortunately I had also been montioring and sorted out the problem as soon as it happened last week as EDF has just done a cancellation - good to see coop are monitoring the process though

Frogletina

Has anyone tried to amend a standing order yet? I tried to earlier and it wanted a valid reference number - anyone knows what this is? The internet banking site is so basic and the internet guide is very poor in my opinion.