Mail

rolls99

Put this here since it involves a credit card, but not sure if there is another thread / topic it would be better on.

Today I received a statement from Nationwide, which is the first I've had since I opened the account: I have been Paperless for 18 months and haven't had a statement in 18 months.

For some reason, this arrives today, a waste of paper anyway, as there's a zero balance.

But it got me thinking.

I recently changed my car insurance, and the documents took a while to come through.

After a bit of hassle with my no claims, I had it sorted out, but - the mail from the insurance company has been taking more than two WEEKS to reach me: yesterday I had one letter arrive dated the 2nd October.

Now, I know the insurer uses UKMail; I can't remember (as I binned it) who Nationwide use.

As people might know, Royal Mail deliver the 'last mile' and basically what this means is UKMail/TNT, whoever else pick up and presort mail (but not in every case), and this eventually gets to Royal Mail who put it through your door.

It struck me that I've no way of knowing IF Nationwide, or anyone else has sent mail via their private mail contractors: what I do know is, recently, a LOT of mail is simply taking ages to arrive and it's ALL the private firm stuff.

While Royal Mail has its faults, it is far, far quicker than any of these other firms.

What concerns me is the potential implications of this: has anyone else had experience of delayed mail/no mail arriving?

Short of 'offer' letters, and of course new cards and so on, I think most people prefer to deal with a lot of things online, but as has been stated here, "Post is regarded as legally informing someone" (or words to that effect) - while of course companies can say to the 'man in the street' "Proof of postage is not proof of receipt", the reverse is obviously just as true.

Luckily, I caught this is time: What had happened was, my new insurer told me twice that a PDF (Which was all I had at the time) proof of no claims was fine, and said they would let me know if they wanted the paper version (as I had not yet received it). I heard nothing, then got a letter saying my insurance was going to be stopped on the 30th September unless I sent my no claims in to them - only I didn't receive this letter until the 26th Sept - and it was dated the 10th - the day after I had sent my PDF in - so the letter was 'somewhere' all that time.

I played it safe and sent the document away special delivery (at £6 odd) and then phoned to be told someone just had not updated the system - and my insurance was fine!!!!

Since then , two separate letters (including the one referred to earlier) arrived up to yesterday, after weeks in the wilderness.

Pretty horrendous from a 'pain in the backside' perspective!

spaceman93

I have had a few letters dated 1st and 2nd October that were finally delivered to me on the 14th October.

One of them was from TSB regarding my current account application and other one was from Tesco bank.

dzug1

Problem is that letters may not be 'posted' on the date printed on them - and maybe not even printed then. And then it may be some time before they are handed to the private firm, who may for the cheaper tariffs have a very lax schedule for getting them to Royal Mail who may be having a go slow on this type of thing at the time. It can all add up.

Stuff I've had from the Nationwide always arrives promptly though. Latest statement a couple of days after the date on it.

Stuff from HMRC often takes an age - from the date printed on it.

FOREVER21

My August statement from Nationwide never arrived, fortunately I checked on line and paid the outstanding bill on time.
Checked with Nationwide who say the bill was sent out, another item lost somewhere!:(

Biggles

rolls99 wrote: »

Today I received a statement from Nationwide, which is the first I've had since I opened the account: I have been Paperless for 18 months and haven't had a statement in 18 months.

Same here, from more than one CC company.

There appears to be some directive that they have to send one paper statement each year (whether of not anything has been spent).

rolls99

Biggles wrote: »

Same here, from more than one CC company.

There appears to be some directive that they have to send one paper statement each year (whether of not anything has been spent).

Interesting. Mind you I have four cards (three with zero balance) and haven't received any statements from them.

Biggles

rolls99 wrote: »

Interesting. Mind you I have four cards (three with zero balance) and haven't received any statements from them.

I'm not sure how much it is complied with. But if you look halfway down your Nationwide statement, you will see a paragraph to that effect. I had a similar one from (I think) Halifax.

rolls99

Biggles wrote: »

I'm not sure how much it is complied with. But if you look halfway down your Nationwide statement, you will see a paragraph to that effect. I had a similar one from (I think) Halifax.

The missus took it to work to shred it LOL!

I think you're right tho, seems reasonable enough

dzug1

Biggles wrote: »

I'm not sure how much it is complied with. But if you look halfway down your Nationwide statement, you will see a paragraph to that effect. I had a similar one from (I think) Halifax.

It appears to be at different times of the year for different cards

SammenForLivet2

We use TNT post at work, at it takes around four working days, on our tariff for it to be delivered, which as around a day later than 2nd class Royal Mail. Yet, the equivalent Royal Mail option is £85,000 more.

The problem I find is that Royal Mail will normally always get the blame, if something goes wrong, when there's equal chance it could be TNT post or the DSA operator.