Royal Bank of Scotland royalties gold bank account

cheekypink

Hi I'm first time forum user and need some advice. My mother will be 75 next week and around 15 years ago she had a bank account that you had to keep a certain amount of money as if she went overdrawn she would be charged I think. She was in the bank and the teller said she would benefit from having a RBS ROYALTIES GOLD ACCOUNT at a charge of around £14.99 a month - I'm not sure if this was the original charge a month but near the end of having the account after many years it was costing that much. Apparently the account could get discount from theatres, cheaper travel insurance and many more 'brilliant' money saving deals. After having it for some years she did use theatre discount which was then removed as a perk of the account, as I said she's 75 next week and it stopped being covered with travel insurance because of her age. As I said there was other offers with the royalties gold account which were of no use to her and even though the theatre perk was done away with she still kept the account for a number of years but getting no benefit from it.
I told her about seeing your programme last week and as the perks she had used it for expired she was obviously missold it as there were so many other things with the account she would never use. She went into her bank today and was told as she had used these 2 perks then she wasn't entitled to reclaim charges. Is this correct given that nothing else was useable for her?

[Deleted User]

It's the features of the account which were available at the time of purchase which determine whether it was mis-sold or not. The fact that she is now too old for the travel insurance, for example, is irrelevant as she wasn't too old when she opened the account.

To be honest, it sounds rather like the account has only become unsuitable over time and that it's certainly opportune for her to look for a better account.

She (you) can still make a complaint of mis-selling, but do be sure of what miss-selling actually is.

cheekypink

For example when she was sold it say it had 10 products but they started doing away with products like the theatre she didn't know it was gone until she tried to use it but the fees were still the same. That's my main gripe she was told it would be better her to move to that account yet the benefits stopped but the fees didn't.

custardy

cheekypink wrote: »

For example when she was sold it say it had 10 products but they started doing away with products like the theatre she didn't know it was gone until she tried to use it but the fees were still the same. That's my main gripe she was told it would be better her to move to that account yet the benefits stopped but the fees didn't.

So why not cancel at that point?

Nasqueron

cheekypink wrote: »

For example when she was sold it say it had 10 products but they started doing away with products like the theatre she didn't know it was gone until she tried to use it but the fees were still the same. That's my main gripe she was told it would be better her to move to that account yet the benefits stopped but the fees didn't.

The complaint is about miss-sale i.e. the product they sold. They sold a product with 10 bonuses. Thus any complaint about stuff that was removed after is moot because that was not the case when it was sold.

dunstonh

Apparently the account could get discount from theatres, cheaper travel insurance and many more 'brilliant' money saving deals. After having it for some years she did use theatre discount which was then removed as a perk of the account

So, this would indicate it was not mis-sold. She knew she had it and used the benefits from it.

I told her about seeing your programme last week and as the perks she had used it for expired she was obviously missold it

Nothing you have said is an obvious mis-sale. In fact the sale seems to be fine.

She went into her bank today and was told as she had used these 2 perks then she wasn't entitled to reclaim charges. Is this correct given that nothing else was useable for her?

If the complaint made was similar to what you have written here then I can see why they rejected it.

1 - you verify she knew she had it
2 - you verify she used the benefits and the bank say two parts of the package were used (so not just Theatre tickets).

Whilst using the benefits does not mean a complaint cant be successful, it certainly weakens the complaint as it eliminates a number of the more common reasons for upholding the complaint (didnt know I had it, wasnt of benefit to me etc.). Even if they did uphold the complaint, they can deduct the cost of the benefits used from the redress.

It seems the complaint you are making is not a mis-sale one but one about the product changing over the years.

[Deleted User]

cheekypink wrote: »

my main gripe she was told it would be better her to move to that account yet the benefits stopped but the fees didn't.

As I already said earlier, that is not a mis-selling complaint. As others have pointed out since, the features of the account were all in place at the time the account was opened and your Mother used some of those benefits.

The fact that the value of the account has been eroded over time by the removal of some of it's benefits is irrelevant. You might just as well complain that Mars Bars are smaller these days, but still cost the same!

As far as I can see, your Mother has no valid mis-selling complaint but would be wise to find an account more suited to her current needs.

cheekypink

Thank you my question has been answered