Current account switch - debit card refund missing.

fat-pudding

During July I completed a current account switch using the current account switching service from Cahoot to Nationwide and I had Nationwide close my Cahoot account.

One thing I had paid for from my Cahoot account prior to this switch was a booking for a hotel room with Travelodge during June. I subsequently cancelled this hotel room booking around the time the switch was happening and the automated setup with Travelodge (alledgely) refunded the money to my debit card.

Travelodge confirmed they have made this refund to the Cahoot account but no payment was forwarded on from Cahoot to Nationwide. I've spoken to Nationwide who say no forward payment was made to them from Cahoot and that they have spoken to Cahoot who say it's not their problem.

I have now spoken to Cahoot who are saying it's not their problem as the switch service only covers payments made direct to bank accounts and not to debit cards and therefore thsi payment must have been returned to Travelodge.

Travelodge have given me an ARN number to trace the money but Cahoot are saying they can't use this number to trace anything. Travelodge have said they have had nothing returned to them (although I have not pressed them on this yet).

I'm now awaiting a further call back from Cahoot as they believe they can't do anything but they need to check with their switching team who only work 9-5.

Basically, what do I do here? I thought the entire point of the switching service was to prevent problems like this when switching bank. I'm prepared to raise this with the banking ombudsman as a complaint against Cahoot however the details on the site don't say there is any difference between debit card refunds and payments made direct to the account (however that won't stop me making the complaint).

It seems that if this is the case that debit card refunds can get lost then the entire switching service is a complete waste of time and really not as advertised as it's now caused me a significant amount of hassle and time wasted chasing this.

Does anyone have any advice?

colsten

Any complaint you have should be with Nationwide as they are responsible for the switch guarantee. Their switch terms are not clear about cases like yours, but I would argue that a debit card refund is just another payment that arrives in the old account, and it should therefore be forwarded to you.

In your shoes, I would raise a formal complaint with Nationwide. If they don't sort it within 8 weeks, take it to the Ombudsman.

SuperAllyB

I switched from Santander to Halifax and had to refund £1 from my online National Lottery account to my Santander debit card before I could add funds with my new card. Appeared in Halifax very quickly from what I can recall.

As above, I understood that your new bank is responsible for sorting out any problems arising from the switch.

Paul_1977

I thought during the switching service they take down your debit card number to forward you payments onto the new account?

fat-pudding

Thanks for the advice, I have spoken to Nationwide and they have said that this is *not* their problem as that part of the switch isn't them (and asked me to confirm that I was happy with the way they have dealt with the complaint) but now reading that pdf file it is clear it is their responsibility (although they said they have taken this up with Cahoot and Cahoot told them to get lost) so I may go back and speak to them again and point out the terms and conditions on their paperwork.

I can appreciate that there's little Nationwide can do if Cahoot claim they have not had any money or forwarded any payments but at the same time the contract says it's their problem.

If I get no luck with Cahoot tomorrow I think I will just take both banks to the ombudsman as Cahoot weren't much help either on the phone.

colsten

fat-pudding wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, I have spoken to Nationwide and they have said that this is *not* their problem

You may have just been speaking with a clueless person. You get these in any organisation. Just as an example, one Nationwide person asked me what the FSCS is. I gave him plenty of opportunity to say he misheard me, but it turns out he genuinely had no idea what the FSCS stands for and does. I am pretty sure he does now....but that's a different matter.

A company's complaint procedure is there for when you are not happy with how your issue is being dealt with.

fat-pudding wrote: »

If I get no luck with Cahoot tomorrow I think I will just take both banks to the ombudsman as Cahoot weren't much help either on the phone.

Not sure why you bother with Cahoot as they are not responsible for the switch. Your agreement and your switch guarantee is with Nationwide. The fact that they have to liaise with Cahoot is neither here nor there, and certainly not your problem.

But in any case, you cannot take any bank to the FOS if you haven't had a final response to your complaint, or 8 weeks have passed since your complaint, whichever is the earlier of the two.

YorkshireBoy

fat-pudding wrote: »

Thanks for the advice

The "advice" in post #2 was to raise a formal complaint with Nationwide. Have you now done so?

If I get no luck with Cahoot tomorrow I think I will just take both banks to the ombudsman as Cahoot weren't much help either on the phone.

You'll have to raise a formal complaint with Nationwide (I'd also do one with Cahoot as well), and either wait 8 weeks or receive a final response - whichever comes first, before you can ask the FOS to adjudicate. Yes you can ask them to write on your behalf (and they will do), but you can do that yourself!

fat-pudding

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

The "advice" in post #2 was to raise a formal complaint with Nationwide. Have you now done so?

colsten wrote: »

A company's complaint procedure is there for when you are not happy with how your issue is being dealt with.

Yes It was a formal complaint with Nationwide and I was speaking to one of their complaints team who explained why it was not their fault. Now I have had the luxury of reading the paperwork I can see that they were wrong but I do have a message from them saying they can't do anything more and I have to take it up with Cahoot.

grumbler

SuperAllyB wrote: »

I switched from Santander to Halifax and had to refund £1 from my online National Lottery account to my Santander debit card before I could add funds with my new card. Appeared in Halifax very quickly from what I can recall.

The same here. My wife paid by Lloyds card for some holiday and then the refund appeared at Clydesdale that she switched to later.

fat-pudding

I'm just updating here so that if anyone finds this thread and wants to know what happened then it is:

After escalating my complaint with Nationwide I'm still waiting to hear back from them, which is disappointing.

However I have resolved the problem by writing Cahoot a letter telling them to either forward the money *or* do a charge-back (I had to take action as I was getting close to the time limit for carrying out a charge-back). They suddenly found the payment reference for the reversed payment (which they said didn't exist initially as they claimed the money never came in). When I gave this reversed payment reference to Travelodge they managed to find the returned payment and phoned me up and made the refund to another card.

Unfortunately all this has shown to me is that the switch guarantee is worth nothing if you want to avoid hassle, I'd suggest in future it would be prudent to do any switch yourself rather than rely on the bank doing it as for me it would have never resulted in this situation and would have left me rather more in control.

jonesMUFCforever

The switch guarantee is for direct debits, standing orders, and automated credits.
I don't think it covers card payments or refunds.