Switching accounts gone wrong - who is ay fault?

FattyBettyBoo

I've just switched bank accounts (from Santander to Halifax) and none of my DDs have been paid, resulting in defaults on my credit cards.

I have managed to fix most of the problems, but I'm stuck with Natwest. They say that will not remove a £12 unpaid DD charge and default as they did not receive their money (I paid manually the following day but that doesn't count). Natwest say its Halifax's fault and they need to refund me.

Halifax say that it is Natwest's fault as they sent them notification of change to DD 12 working days before the DD was due. When I pointed none of my DDs were paid - so they must have been at fault in some way, they said that it was Santander's fault for cancelling them from their end before they were told to.

Apparently halifax sent notices to all my DDs on 15/06/12 and they were all due to be paid between 3 and 6 July.

So who is actually at fault, Natwest (for that one transaction), Santander or Halifax?

My phone bill for this month is going to be horrendous this money so if I can work out where it went wrong I can perhaps claim compensation for that too.

Thanks for any help - hope that wasn't too confusing!

dunstonh

Direct debits rarely get transferred smoothly. The system of transferring banks has many flaws.

In this case, neither is at fault. It just happened to close to the time that the credit card company could make an adjustment. That said, both are at fault in a way because the new bank should have warned you that direct debits frequently get mucked up and the old bank should ideally not cancel the old instructions as quickly as they often do.

Rooster72

I am in the process of switching from Santander to First Direct, using FD's switching service. Unfortunately, we have missed one transfer date and we are in danger of missing another. And it's ALL Santander's fault. :mad:

FD have been trying to contact Santander on a weekly basis for my DD details and their requests are being ignored. I understand that Santander now refuse to take calls from FD and so they are forced to fax requests which are probably going straight into the bin!

Having got fed up with the carry on, I decided to ring Santander myself and, despite saying I was switching FROM Santander I was put through to the Switching IN team three times. When I complained that I was being sent to the wrong team each time, I was told they could not put me through to anyone dealing with switching OUT because it was a "back office" operation and they did not have any contact details, insisting that my new bank have to contact them. I got very frustrated and angry.

When joining Santander (well, A&L, actually) the switching service worked really well. However, it seems when you want to leave they make it very difficult for you.

SANTANDER - VOTED BEST BANK IN THE WORLD according to their phone on-hold message!!!! LOL!!!!

I'm going to cancel all my DDs with Santander and set them up again with FD before closing my old account altogether. I suggest other Santander account holders do the same.

wallydogking

I'm glad I'm not alone on this one. A word of caution to everyone!

I switched from HSBC to Halifax to take advantage of the £100 joining bonus and the £5/month payment.

We were promised a fee-free over draft for three months and that all of our direct debits and credits would be automatically switched for us.

1. We didn't get the overdraft :mad:
2. All direct debits were transferred over
3. No credits were transferred over :mad:

The end result of this was that there was only £100 pounds in the account (the joining bonus) and with all the DD being in there the money was quickly used up. I had to then spend my time making manual payments to BT and O2 for my phones - due to returned DD. Which may or may not impact on my credit rating.

To make matters even worse, my payroll was not correctly informed of the change and my pay was going to be paid into the closing HSBC account! Nightmare! I then had to ring the 0845 number and beg HSBC to keep the account open.

Halifax compensated us £20 for the returned DD and waived any fees associated with that (£5/DD), but not having my pay go into the right account and the risk of my mortgage not being paid.... I'm still waiting to hear what they are going to do about that.

So buyer beware! Don't assume that the switching service is as described. Make sure you get everything your promised (we had it in writing that we had the overdraft, but it wasn't setup on our account). Double check, then check again!

Hopefully I'll get paid this month and Halifax will pull their finger out and sort this mess out.

dunstonh

but not having my pay go into the right account and the risk of my mortgage not being paid.... I'm still waiting to hear what they are going to do about that.

That is with your employer. The bank has no control over credits in. It can notify firms but it needs the firm to make the changes.

Direct debits rarely get moved over smoothly. Banks should be more honest about this. Especially as it isnt really their fault a lot of the time. So, there is no reason to hide from the problems. On any bank account transfer you would expect to have at least one mandate cause problems (particularly were reference numbers have changed over time or where multiple product payments are collected under one mandate)

Wywth

wallydogking wrote: »

1. We didn't get the overdraft :mad:

Overdrafts/lending is not transferred.
The bank will, on request, assess your request for an overdraft.
Just because one lender offers you money does not mean another will.
You can be advised what overdraft the bank will offer, if any, before you open an account

wallydogking wrote: »

2. All direct debits were transferred over

Nice to hear this was all done correctly for you
So much better than the OP suffered 4 months ago

wallydogking wrote: »

3. No credits were transferred over :mad:

Not the bank's responsibility.
You need to inform those paying money to you of your new banking details
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts#switch

PollyOnAMission

Wywth wrote: »

Overdrafts/lending is not transferred.
The bank will, on request, assess your request for an overdraft.
Just because one lender offers you money does not mean another will.
You can be advised what overdraft the bank will offer, if any, before you open an account

Nice to hear this was all done correctly for you
So much better than the OP suffered 4 months ago
Not the bank's responsibility.
You need to inform those paying money to you of your new banking details
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts#switch

I had a very similar experience to walldogking recently when I transferred to Halifax.

The main gripe I had was that they made a big deal of advertising a 3 month interest free overdraft facility, to accommodate issues with direct debit and credit timings.

I requested this facility when I filled in the form but for some reason they didn't give me the overdraft. Fair enough that they choose who to give the overdraft to, but they didn't actually tell me that they'd not accepted my request. I too had several returned direct debits because they had given me a £0 overdraft; they sent letters through the post informing me that my direct debits had not been paid which is what alerted me to the lack of overdraft.

The advertised temporary overdraft facility was, for me, one of the main factors that encouraged me to switch. I was concerned about the potential mess of direct debit vs credit timings (and of course at first you don't even have the account details to transfer money straight away) and I thought I wouldn't have to worry about it. I was very disappointed in the end; if you tick to box to request the overdraft they should at the very least warn you if they've decided not to accept your request.

Annoyingly I made the switch just before they reintroduced the £100 bonus, so I didn't even have that in the account as a buffer for my direct debits

roonaldo

I didnt pick the right lottery numbers and didnt receive the jackpot, is my bank liable?