Think Money - Think Again! - Must Read

brendenconnolly

Here's a story about Think Money, the Manchester based provider of the alternative current account, that will hopefully provoke a response from them, and serve as a warning to anyone thinking of opening an account with such a duplicitous, underhand organisation.

I opened an account in the summer of 2013 with Think Money after various financial problems had left me without a servicable account. I'm not here to complain about the £14.50 they have charged every single month I have banked with them - I agreed to that, and accepted it as a cost. For the most part, they have actually been OK - nothing to write home about, but nothing to get upset about either.

However, last Thursday a problem started which has escalated to where I am with them now, and that's the purpose of this post. out of the blue, following absolutely nothing, I lost access to the online banking, and simultaneously they removed my use of all automated services (phone, text etc) with no warning, no notice and no explanation. I can't write employees names here, but I have them all written down with my notes, but obviously I called them as soon as I noticed these restrictions, and that's when the real problem started.

I spoke to a gentleman who told me that this was a technical issue, affecting a small number of accounts, mine being one, and that they would contact me before the end of the day when it had been resolved. I accepted this explanation at face value, and waited on the call. It never came. This was Fri 10th July 2015. I attempted to use my services again to no avail on the Saturday, and then decided to leave it over the weekend.

When Monday 13th July arrived, I again tried fruitlessly to log onto my online banking. When I called Think Money that morning, I was immediately transferred to the same gentleman I had spoken to on the previous Friday. His attitude however, was vastly different. He told me the situation was the same, it would be fixed when it was fixed, and I will just need to put up with it until then. I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere with this man, and so I politely requested a call back from his manager rather than get into an argument with a person with such a bad attitude - it would never have ended well, and it would be a waste of energy.

When no manager called me back by the end of the day, I called again on Tuesday 14th July, again I was transferred to the same man as before, and again his attitude was dreadful. I said I didn't wish to continue the conversation and could I speak to his manager. I couldn't. She was busy. he didn't know when, but said she will call back. The manager indeed did call back that day, and repeated, almost word for word what this other person had told me. we have no updates, we don't know when we will get an update and phoning every day won't help.

bearing in mind, this is my bank account, with all facilities to access it removed, no way to check balances, their cards can't even get a balance from an ATM. In any case, I was scared to use the card in case it was declined by this point, and had to revert to a credit card.

I called again on Wed 15th july, and was transferred to a different person than the gentleman previously, who told me the same thing - he then had me deleting cookies and trying different web browsers to try and log in - all to no avail, and when this was clear, he just said there was nothing that he could do and nobody he could contact. by this time I was getting hot under the collar. I needn't have bothered, because the worst was to come.

I have been unwell for a while now, I'm not going into the details of that, but I was concerned by this point because I was expecting a grant payment of £986 to my bank, from West Dunbartonshire council, so on that call I asked about this. I was told that my account and card were still fully active, and when the payment arrives on 17th July, then it will be credited to my account and available to use. I still had no idea what was going on, but that was good news because the money is for moving into my own property.

so, I didn't call the next day (Thursday) and decided instead to leave it until the Friday, when the funds were due, rather than speaking to another brick wall. When I called again on the Friday morning, after waiting 40 minutes to get through, which is the same every time you call them for anything, i was again sadly transferred to the first individual I referred to, who took great delight in telling me that yes, that money has been received into my account, but they would not be making it available to me. I asked why, he just said the funds would not be made available, and that they have no other information. I was naturally furious, and I immediately asked to be put through to a manager. the manager, who's name I have, but won't print here, just repeated what the prior idiot had told me, on no less than 26 different occasions in a 20-minute call.

I couldn't get anywhere, and I was getting irritated. In truth, by that point, I probably wasn't presenting myself in the best possible way because anger was getting the better of me, so I ended the call abruptly. After composing myself, and looking through the terms and conditions for my account, and finding nothing relevant to this situation, I looked online to find that there are hundreds, if not thousands of people out there, over the last 5 or so years who have had this exact problem with Think Money. There are review sites where Think Money have even made feeble attempts to explain themselves, one of note was explaining why they left a disabled gentleman with no heat, light or food after keeping his benefits from him.

Things are rarely as they first seem, and I'm trying to be as thorough as possible here, and not miss things out. I should point out that I have no debt whatsoever with Think Money, I do not owe them one single penny. They locked me out of my account with no notification, and then passed it off as a technical error on numerous occasions. This is clearly not the case, because both of these matters must be connected. One of them even had me deleting cookies etc to get access, and he must have just been having a laugh with me, knowing that this would never solve the problem. They told me my account was active, and then have decided to retain a payment of £986 for which they will provide no reason, they will give no timescale of when they might be able to provide a reason, and they will not say how long they might hold these funds for. Surely this can't be correct, or good practice? This is my money - It is a legal payment, from my local authority, to help with my personal needs, paid into my account, and then held from me. The staff I have dealt with have been the most dreadful, unhelpful, unprofessional people I think I have ever encountered, yet there is seemingly nothing I can do whatsoever.

I have spoken to West Dunbartonshire Council, who have been extremely helpful - they are going to try and recall the funds, and then reissue them to me. However, Think Money say that because they are not making the funds available to transact, then they will not return them to the issuer even if they do request them back.

I know Think Money are not a bank, but they do operate under FCA licenses etc, so how they can behave in this manner toward their customers who pay a relative fortune for the odious privilege of banking with them, is beyond me. There surely must be something I can do, and any help from the forum members here about what to do next would be greatly appreciated because I'm at a dead end here.

brendenconnolly

I have now written them the following e-mail rather than phoning, to keep a paper trail from here on in.

My account reference is ******* and I would be grateful if someone could contact me as soon as possible in regard to the funds you are unreasonably holding from me. In the meantime, I would like to make a formal complaint, and would appreciate someone contacting me to discuss the nature of this. The way Think Money have behaved toward me has now become intolerable. I have received a legal payment to my account from West Dunbartonshire Council, of £986 as payment of a community care grant to assist with my medical needs, and have been met with rudeness, and no information whatsoever as to why this is happening.

You should note that I have decided to share my experience on a number of well known forums online, because this is not the way to treat people. My situation is now fully detailed to date, and will be updated until the conclusion of this matter. I will update the sites I have chosen to publish on in an open and honest manner, and if we can sort the problem out with some mutual respect and urgency, then clearly this will be reflected in any accounts of the situation that I am publishing for others to read about these practices.

Kind regards

The_Enforcer

If you wanted to cut out the middle (wo)men, it may be worth going straight to their MD. For some reason I can't post the email and telephone no. in here and the link to those details keeps getting changed, so I have tried PMing it to you.

colsten

You need to i n s e r t s o m e b l a n k s into the c e o e m a i l URL/email addy to escape the automatic censoring :cool:

The_Enforcer

See title above.

colsten

The_Enforcer wrote: »

See title above.

Nice trick, didn't know about that one and must try to remember. Thanks! :cool:

alanq

Have unusually large sums been passing through your account (especially to / from abroad)? It seems as if some suspected fraud / money laundering flag has been set. By law if this occurs the bank cannot tell you this has happened while it is investigating. Of course anyone who is up to no good is likely to realise that they are under scrutiny. As matters stand everyone is guilty until proved innocent.

colsten

Sweet, works on the forum, too.

Stephen Stelios Stylianou appears to be the current CEO of Think Money.

Although according to his LinkedIn profile, there appears to be no obvious immediate association with Think Money.

Several other references do seem+ to confirm he is, or at least was until recently:

http://www.b.co.uk/Company/Profile/305337/

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/business-news/110m-for-think-money-1000287


Not sure it is the same Stephen Stylianou they mention here:

Stephen Stylianou holds 19 appointments at 19 active companies, has resigned from 3 companies and held 11 appointments at 11 dissolved companies.

Read more at: http://companycheck.co.uk/director/908118297

The_Enforcer

colsten wrote: »

Sweet, works on the forum, too.

Unfortunately, it still scrambles the link if I put that in the title, but job done.

Biggles

I never read a long post headed 'Must read'.

agrinnall

Biggles wrote: »

I never read a long post headed 'Must read'.

Nor me, it's not for the OP to tell me what I must or must not do. Although I rarely bother to read a post of that length anyway as it inevitably contains unnecessary waffle.