Fair compensation for Closing wrong bank account

meana

Hi all,

my wife and i attempted to switch from Smile to Halifax and Smile have repeated messed up closing our account (part of the 'switch process').
we had a sole account each and a joint account...my wife also had an ISA and her business account with Smile (which weren't to be switched).

Our sole accounts were closed and transferred to sole accounts with Halifax fine, but our joint account (which is the one most of our money goes in and out of) wasn't closed during the switch, had money come in and go out after the switch date..when we checked, it hadn't been closed, so I phoned them to tell them, then it was closed...a few months later it re-appeared back in my wife's list of accounts (having disappeared).
She checked again and asked them to close the account this week...this time they have closed her Business Account, which had several payments due out, and again not closed the joint account (which is now dead). The also took money out of her ISA to clear the balance on her Business Account, which was going to be overdrawn due to the payments and transfer out.

She spoke to them today and are said she wished to complain. They've said it has to be within 1 working day and are going to have the complaints team ring her tomorrow to process the complaint.
Our questions are,
1. Is it fair to only give her 1 day's notice about making a complaint. 2. What is a fair and reasonable level of compensation for them repeatedly messing things up?
We don't think we've lost any money at the moment, but some depends on various payments which may or may not be declined and bounced over the next week or so.

thanks in advance.

System

I'm confused:

1. How can they get the accounts mixed up as you provide the details?
2. Also, I didn't know Smile offer business accounts?

meana wrote: »

Our questions are,
1. Is it fair to only give her 1 day's notice about making a complaint. 2. What is a fair and reasonable level of compensation for them repeatedly messing things up?
We don't think we've lost any money at the moment, but some depends on various payments which may or may not be declined and bounced over the next week or so.

thanks in advance.

eskbanker

1. No, they can't insist on a complaint being raised within one working day!
2. Related to (1), it sounds like it won't be apparent what the actual financial impact is for another few days anyway. Any actual costs should be recoverable from the offending bank (could Halifax have been at fault here instead or as well?) and it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect a modest ex-gratia payment (£50 perhaps?) to cover the inconvenience.

Archi_Bald

meana wrote: »

She spoke to them today and are said she wished to complain. They've said it has to be within 1 working day and are going to have the complaints team ring her tomorrow to process the complaint.
Our questions are,
1. Is it fair to only give her 1 day's notice about making a complaint.

Is it possible that you / your wife are not native English speakers and have misunderstood? I reckon what Halifax said is that the complaint will be raised within one working day - which is wholly different to saying it has to be raised within one working day.

agrinnall

meana wrote: »

The also took money out of her ISA to clear the balance on her Business Account, which was going to be overdrawn due to the payments and transfer out.

Are you sure about this? I would be quite surprised to learn that set off can be applied to an ISA, and even more so to find that it could be done to fund a business account (and like Hang Leng I can see nothing to suggest that Smile offer a business account anyway, although perhaps they did in the past but don't any more).

meana

@HengLeng - that's exactly the point...we gave them all the information to close/transfer accounts and they got it wrong....the business account isn't a 'Business Account'..its the account she uses for her business.
@eskbanker - thank you...that's the answer(s) we thought
@Archi Bald (aka Grammar police) - it is possible, but we are both UK born and bred and had hoped the single typo throughout the whole explanation wouldn't mark us down as non-English trying to fiddle the banks..but thanks for picking up on that..
@agrinall - yes positive, they took money out of her other account (which is an ISA) to pay the difference between the expected transfer amount and any additional projected payments.

platterfish

meana wrote: »

@HengLeng - that's exactly the point...we gave them all the information to close/transfer accounts and they got it wrong....the business account isn't a 'Business Account'..its the account she uses for her business.

I wouldn't mention to them at any time that you use this account for business purposes.

1.3 You can only use your account as a personal account. You must not use it as a club, charity, sole trader, company, partnership or other kind of business account or for any business purposes. Failure to comply with this requirement may lead to the bank giving you notice to close your account in accordance with condition 19.2.

jonesMUFCforever

The 7 day switch - sole to sole ok - sole to joint no - business accounts - no but there may be a different system for that.
Even though most joint accounts operate on an either to sign basis - a new account would have required both of you to have gone to Halifax and signed the paperwork - did this happen?

The new banking code requires a complaint to be satisfied by the end of the next business day which I think wife has misunderstood here. If it can't be done by this time a holding letter must be sent to the customer.

meer53

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

The 7 day switch - sole to sole ok - sole to joint no - business accounts - no but there may be a different system for that.
Even though most joint accounts operate on an either to sign basis - a new account would have required both of you to have gone to Halifax and signed the paperwork - did this happen?

The new banking code requires a complaint to be satisfied by the end of the next business day which I think wife has misunderstood here. If it can't be done by this time a holding letter must be sent to the customer.

Sole to joint - yes

jonesMUFCforever

meer53 wrote: »

Sole to joint - yes

But not joint to sole.

System

I would forget on any compensation if you've been using a personal account for 'business' unless its a grey area like BTL income.

• As Smile are the old bank, would they not simply get the details from Halifax in an automated fashion?
• Didn't you get a letter with the transfer account details from either Halifax or Smile?

meana wrote: »

@HengLeng - that's exactly the point...we gave them all the information to close/transfer accounts and they got it wrong....the business account isn't a 'Business Account'..its the account she uses for her business.