Nationwide Complaint?

TheShape

My sister had a meeting at a Nationwide branch on 4th April 2016 for a 'Savings Review'. Following that appointment she informed me that she had both a Help to Buy ISA and the highest paying ISA that Nationwide had available.


I recently had a look at her internet banking to help her review her accounts/finances.

I noticed immediately that she doesn't have a HTB ISA at all but instead has a Nationwide Save to Buy Account which she has had for a number of years. She has clearly confused 'Help to Buy' with 'Save to Buy'. She explained some of the account requirements in that they both pay 2% interest and both allow only a £200 deposit each month. It sounded very much like the Help to Buy ISA and I trusted that she did indeed have the Help to Buy ISA.


It's a stupid mistake on her part but (in my opinion) a failure on Nationwide's part to notice this.


She also left the branch that day having set-up an Instant ISA Saver Issue 5 paying 1.1% when she qualified for a Flexclusive ISA Issue 11 paying 1.2%.


All her Current Account and Savings products were with Nationwide at the time.


Is there a case for a complaint to Nationwide with regards to the advice given? To not notice the lack of a Help to Buy ISA but to also not notice the eligibility for the Flexclusive ISA is very poor service. She has lost out on both interest on the ISA and 7 months of subscriptions to the Help to Buy ISA as she now has one set up.

Westie983

You cant have a H2B Isa and a cash isa so your sister wont have missed out on both interest. Sounds like they may have offered the best option of the save to buy account and a ISA.

xylophone

You cant have a H2B Isa and a cash isa

You could with Nationwide

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/about/media-centre-and-specialist-areas/media-centre/press-releases/archive/2015/11/30-nationwide-offers-extra-benefits-on-help-to-buy-isa


Customer can contribute up to the limit of £200 a month into the Nationwide Help to Buy ISA product and invest into another Nationwide cash ISA product in the same tax year.
This is because, currently unique amongst the major savings providers, Nationwide will enable both new and existing customers wanting to open a Help to Buy ISA with the Society to split their ISA savings across more than one cash ISA product, all within the Nationwide ISA wrapper.
Help to Buy ISA savers with Nationwide will therefore be able to benefit from spreading their ISA balance across more than one ISA product with the Society, saving up to the full annual tax year ISA limit of £15,240.

TheShape

Westie983 wrote: »

You cant have a H2B Isa and a cash isa so your sister wont have missed out on both interest. Sounds like they may have offered the best option of the save to buy account and a ISA.

Should perhaps have added that Nationwide offer a Split ISA. She now has a Cash ISA and a HTB ISA.

bowlhead99

TheShape wrote: »

It's a stupid mistake on her part but (in my opinion) a failure on Nationwide's part to notice this.

Is there a case for a complaint to Nationwide with regards to the advice given?

What did she pay them for this evaluation? I expect she could get that money back if the advice was unsuitable.

Oh, it was free, and simply offered as an opportunity for them to sell her products she might find useful - improving the rates she was previously getting? And they did successfully improve the rates she was previously getting (which I infer from the fact she left with a new product) ? That's different

To not notice the lack of a Help to Buy ISA but to also not notice the eligibility for the Flexclusive ISA is very poor service. She has lost out on both interest on the ISA and 7 months of subscriptions to the Help to Buy ISA as she now has one set up.

The lack of help to buy is clearly an error but if they are paying the same rate it is not like they were deliberately screwing her over to make fat profits for themselves. It's likely a fault of training or human error on behalf of the person doing the review with her.

But as you said, she didn't read the terms of the product (stupid mistake on her part) and presumably they didn't mislead her by telling her that specific account would qualify for a government bonus? And if she said she specifically wanted to keep the save to buy account for the features she knew it gave as she'd had it a couple of years already (e.g. cashback, access to 95% LTV mortgage), then perhaps it wasn't focussed on much at the meeting. If she had gone with the specific intention of opening up a new product to get entitlement to government bonuses, and they had told her she shouldn't do that, you would have a real cause for complaint, but this just sounds like an error that nobody picked up on during the time they were helping her improve her % rates.

The other ISA (missing the Flexclusive). It's 0.1% lower - is that a material amount of money lost?

I think the lesson she learned is really just, don't go into Nationwide for a sales meeting when you don't know what you want to buy... you know what you already have, and all of the products they currently sell are listed online. Checking them out in advance, and using the meeting to ask questions about the ones you're potentially interested in, is perhaps a more efficient use of your time and will get better results.

It may be worth her writing a letter to ask why she was not told about the account that gets free government money and pointing out that the maximum bonus she can now get is reduced or deferrred by starting the product late. As the meeting was specifically to review her savings it is a shame that this was missed and only noticed when a sibling pointed it out to her. You never know you might get a few pounds of cash 'apology'.

Legally of course it would not stand up to a financial ombudsman review because in forgetting to mention the help to buy account (and her not mentioning she wanted one) they have not ripped her off for their own benefit and she didn't pay them for any 'advice' services.

Personally I wouldn't pursue but if she thinks there's a chance they might make a goodwill payment, she can join the merry throng of compensation-chasers

PeacefulWaters

Westie983 wrote: »

You cant have a H2B Isa and a cash isa so your sister wont have missed out on both interest. Sounds like they may have offered the best option of the save to buy account and a ISA.

Nationwide have far better systems to support ISAs than LBG.

Flobberchops

I'd be inclined to be more sympathetic to the customer and expect better of the bank than some of the above posters.

The average customer isn't particularly savvy about what products are out there - and it can occasionally be very confusing (Help to Buy vs Save to Buy, etc). If the bank has invited a customer in for a savings review (and let's be glib, in bank terminology "review" means "sales opportunities") then the customer should leave a) informed and b) ideally better-off than they were before.

In this case I'd say the customer didn't receive the best possible advice, was sent on their way unsure of exactly what products they had just been signed up for, and the advisor had missed an easy opportunity to give the customer the best possible return on their savings. Nothing too egregious but I would hope that Nationwide hold themselves to a higher standard than this - and certainly if I was that advisor I'd want to make amends.

Get your sister to go back, preferably to the same advisor, and express some dissatisfaction. This will expose how seriously they take customer feedback and you can proceed from there.

butterflymum

You could also quote from their 'Savings Promise':


http://www.nationwide.co.uk/support/support-articles/services/savings-promises


where in no 7, they state they will help you find out if you can get more from your savings.

TheShape

bowlhead99 wrote: »

It may be worth her writing a letter to ask why she was not told about the account that gets free government money and pointing out that the maximum bonus she can now get is reduced or deferrred by starting the product late. As the meeting was specifically to review her savings it is a shame that this was missed and only noticed when a sibling pointed it out to her. You never know you might get a few pounds of cash 'apology'.

Personally I wouldn't pursue but if she thinks there's a chance they might make a goodwill payment, she can join the merry throng of compensation-chasers

butterflymum wrote: »

You could also quote from their 'Savings Promise':

http://www.nationwide.co.uk/support/support-articles/services/savings-promises


where in no 7, they state they will help you find out if you can get more from your savings.

I think I will suggest she writes a letter setting out where I think they have fallen short. I'll suggest making mention of the savings promise and see what their response is.