Bank account switch but money going into a black hole?

cryption

Hi,

I wonder if anyone has any knowledge or advice on what to do about this problem.

I switched to co-op bank at the beginning of feb via their 'switch guarantee' and was promised payments and refunds etc to my old bank etc would be redirected to my new one for 13 months. However, this has not happened and none of those payments including earnings, refunds, standing orders etc are not getting through. I rang my old bank but as my account is closed they said they can't help me as they cant see these transactions and told me to ring co-op. Co op in turn passed the buck to natwest and told me to ring them so I was going around in circles for a while.

I've been calling co-op for weeks about this issue but seemingly nobody can help, i've spoke to the switch team too but they apparently have no system in place to locate the payments and have not reimbursed me for them.

Despite my money not going in, money is still going out for bills etc as normal and I'm running out of funds. I've not been able to pay out for my usual living expenses due to the missing funds which are significant, and I havnt been able to pay my rent on time.

The payments are not getting bounced back to sender as I;ve queried this with them. Some senders have provided long numbers to 'trace' the payments which I've given to co op but co op have told me they have no tracing method on place but that they might contact my old bank to see if they will help them out and trace on their behalf. It seems that co op dont have anything in place to deal with these situations and has to resort to contacting a competitor bank for help but so far have not done so.

It does not seem to matter who I talk to, the co op simply 'don't know what to do' and the customer service agents keep telling me how bad they feel that they can't do anything for me really, and coming up with other ways to send me on a wild goose chases contacting my old bank, or the senders of the payments neither of whom can help me. Some of the missing refunds were from Amazon who have been slightly more helpful but have told me they will not refund to anywhere other than the card used for purchase (a card with my old bank which is now cancelled and the account closed). They said if the co-op send a headed letter with the trace number and states that my new co op bank account is associated with the original payment card, and that the refund has not come through, then Amazon will be able to refund the charge by another method. However, I've asked co op for this headed letter numerous times and they've told me its not possible to get a headed letter from them.

Co op also took a significant payment from me to pay my old bank back for a transaction that went out from my old bank after I had already switched. However, I've already told both banks that I dispute the transaction as I already paid that transaction weeks before I switched and it shows on my statement that that money has already gone out. So basically I've been charged twice for something and the co-op didnt notify me before re-paying my old bank this money. I've raised it with co-op a number of times and told them I dispute it and I want to raise a claim/chargeback but they told me they don't have anything like that! I thought all banks had those sorts of things in place to prevent fraud ?! As far as I am concerned this is a fraudulent transaction as I know I don't owe that money.

I've spoken to the co op complaints department and provided a breakdown of all the payments that I've noticed are missing and also lodged a complaint with the ombudsman but they've told me it will take up to 8 weeks for my complaint to be investigated. Because my money is now a month late and my funds are dwindling I've had to cancel a holiday, cant pay bills, having to budget food shopping etc. Co-op have not offered me anything by way of a remedy for the time being. They told me they would give me £5 towards my numerous phone calls to them but surprise surprise this money has not gone into my bank account either.

I'm hoping I've taken the correct actions by contacting the Ombudsman but am still concerned about what to do in the meantime. Do I just have to wait it out and hope it takes less than 8 weeks? My account is almost overdrawn at the moment so there's no way my money is going to last anywhere close to 8 weeks. I was thinking of asking my family for a loan but I know that it's going to inconvenience them in turn so it's not ideal.

Any help or advice is appreciated

cryption

I've also applied to switch to a different bank as I now know my money is not safe with the co-op however I can't switch until all this is sorted out otherwise I feel that it's going to be even harder to locate the missing money.

MARTYM8`

We are seeing similar problems with them failing to pay their £100 incentive payments for switching on time - one poster is more than two months beyond the stated 45 day deadline for paying up.

And there seem to be serious issues with their handling of the switches too - its far more serious if your standing orders/DDs aren't being paid.

Sounds like they have some serious admin issues at the Co-op - so if you want the £100 switch incentive maybe a donor not a main account might be best?

SnowTiger

MARTYM8` wrote: »

We are seeing similar problems with them failing to pay their £100 incentive payments for switching on time - one poster is more than two months beyond the stated 45 day deadline for paying up.

And there seem to be serious issues with their handling of the switches too - its far more serious if your standing orders/DDs aren't being paid.

I haven't received my £100 incentive (yet), however they have paid cahback via TopCashBack. I'm not in the UK at the moment; I'll chase it up when I return next week.

I'll switch when I see a good offer elsewhere.

cheexy

Wow...i still haven't received my switch incentive either and now I have read these, i would be switching that account out asap.

cryption

I'm not so worried about my incentive I am stil trying to get my own money b ack from them...they keep passing the buck to my old bank.

Archi_Bald

Coop is responsible for the switch guarantee in your case. If the operatives are too dumb to fix your problem in an acceptable time, try their CEO whilst you wait for the 8 weeks to be up.

The email address is probably niall.booker at cfs.coop

Be short and concise else he won't read it. He'll probably not respond himself but ask one of his more capable staff to attend to the issue.

cryption

Thank you Archi I will do that right now