Nationwide Refusing to Shut Down Account

olly300

ICan'tStandIt wrote: »

So you have a letter with a heading of 'Final Decision' or 'Final Response'?

Neither.

They just told me to go to a branch. I contacted their social media team hence the additional phone calls and they put me in touch with the credit card team.

The credit card team tried to accuse me of fraud on my already blocked account and a few other things until I pointed out that every single call I've made to Nationwide has been recorded. They back tracked on their accusations.

I should add a few years ago I wanted to close a savings account and move money to another account within Nationwide. The branch manager at the time refused to do this without a massive struggle. I then complained formally asking if the manager was prejudiced.

Anyway my thread was just to see if Nationwide treated other credit card customers as badly when they didn't want to be a customer of theirs any more.

olly300

SnowTiger wrote: »

If the card is still blocked that might be why they're having problems closing the account.

Computer says no perhaps?

If it is then it shows how even more incompetent they really are then at first glance.

ICan'tStandIt

olly300 wrote: »

Neither.

Without a 'final decision' to your complaint you cannot go to the FOS.

grumbler

ICan'tStandIt wrote: »

Without a 'final decision' to your complaint you cannot go to the FOS.

Red herring. They can keep giving runaround forever.

how to complain

1. talk to the business first

First, give the business you’re unhappy with a chance to put things right. They have up to eight weeks to give you an answer.
If you’d like us to contact them for you, just get in touch.
2. tell us if you're unhappy?

If the business doesn't answer within eight weeks – or you’re unhappy with what they say – get in touch with us.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

April was more than 8 weeks ago, but this doesn't matter.

Dr._Shoe

You can't use the card, you have zero balance, why not just cut it into very tiny pieces and chuck it away?

You don't actually need to close the account. Unless of course you have continuous payments on it which mean they can't close it until the people you have the payment contract with agree to stop billing your card.

SnowTiger

Dr._Shoe wrote: »

You can't use the card, you have zero balance, why not just cut it into very tiny pieces and chuck it away?

You don't actually need to close the account. Unless of course you have continuous payments on it which mean they can't close it until the people you have the payment contract with agree to stop billing your card.

Yes, even closed credit card accounts can, apparently, be reopened if a new transaction hits the account.

I'm guessing the OP wants to formally close the account so that it's reported as closed to the CRAs with no credit limit. And to tidy things up.

grumbler

Dr._Shoe wrote: »

Unless of course you have continuous payments on it which mean they can't close it until the people you have the payment contract with agree to stop billing your card.

Their 'agreement' isn't needed. It's sufficient to tell them to stop (and inform the CC company about stopping in case they ignore this).

olly300

ICan'tStandIt wrote: »

Without a 'final decision' to your complaint you cannot go to the FOS.

Not true.

I had an issue with Co-op Insurance and business insurance a few years ago.

Co-op Insurance, when they realised they had mis-sold the insurance and I could prove it, went silent.

I had actually written a letter to Co-op detailing my change of circumstances before the insurance would be coming up for renewal and asking whether the insurance was still valid as it wasn't clear in their terms and conditions. I also had sent the letter by recorded delivery.

Co-op decided that they couldn't cover me a few weeks after I renewed, even though I had questioned them twice on the phone whether the insurance would cover me and referred them to the letter I had already written to them.

Co-op Insurance decided to asked for a premium 4 times as much for a different product and stated they would cancel my insurance without refunding me. As I could get the product cheaper elsewhere with additional things I needed covered I wouldn't have renewed with them if they had stated clearly that no it wouldn't cover me.

So I contacted the FOS after complaining to Co-op Insurance and not getting a reply.

The FOS eventually investigated. They asked me for documentation and asked Co-op. Co-op refused to co-operate with the FOS and sent them less information than what I had provided.

The FOS contacted the underwriter of the insurer to discuss the issue. The underwriter of the insurance, Aviva, realising that one of the products they had underwritten had been mis-sold refunded me.

olly300

Dr._Shoe wrote: »

You can't use the card, you have zero balance, why not just cut it into very tiny pieces and chuck it away?

You don't actually need to close the account. Unless of course you have continuous payments on it which mean they can't close it until the people you have the payment contract with agree to stop billing your card.

Having credit on cards you don't use limits the credit you can get elsewhere including on other existing cards. It's part of responsible lending practises.

So even though the card is blocked and I can't use it, the available credit on it limits what I can get elsewhere. (I had my credit limit reduced on two other cards when my credit limit was originally increased on this card.)

I've actually cut it up when I decided I wanted the account closed as most providers don't want their cards back.

Also Nationwide seem to have a nasty record with me of refusing to close down accounts when I request them to without a long fight, so I have decided I just don't want anything to do with them. I'm not prepared to leave this account open so they can pretend they have a credit card customer and a certain percentage of the market.

BTW Continuous payments cannot go through on a blocked card.

olly300

Oh now Nationwide have written back to me asking me yet again to go into a branch with ID.

As I've already been into a branch and had ID they didn't want to see, it's clear they are intend on being as obstructive as possible to try and prevent me closing down the account.

I'm now writing to them demanding a written final response as there is absolutely no reason why I need to go into a branch....