Bank Account switching mix-up!

snowberry

I rang one of my banks last week as I wanted to move my wages and a couple of Direct Debits over to them (Bank A). During the phone call to Bank A, the gentleman mentioned that my Bank B account would be shut down once the transfer was completed. I said that I didn't want that, I wanted to keep my account with Bank B open, so told him that I wasn't happy to go ahead with it all & to cancel the whole thing. He said fine, he'd get it cancelled & I was to ignore the generated letter that would be on its way to me. This morning, my Bank B account has been closed & everything switched to Bank A.
I wondered why there was a £100 incentive from Bank A in my account the other day! Turns out this was for the 'Switch' (that I had never asked for.)
I spoke to Bank A who are going to listen to the telephone conversation I had with them. I'm then going to have to re-open an account with Bank B (they can't re-instate my old one.)
At the very least, do you think that I'll be entitled to keep the 'incentive' (that I was unaware was being offered - because I wasn't even looking for a full-on switch)?

Thanks in advance!

agrinnall

Yes, the switch has been done (even though you didn't want it) so the incentive payment is legitimately yours. You may even be offered a further goodwill payment for the inconvenience caused if the recording supports your position.

snowberry

I'll keep you updated. the latest is that the gentleman I initially spoke to about the account rang the switching team after I had said not to continue, so that he could tell them that I wasn't proceeding. They apparently told him that as he had initialised everything (I'd stopped him mid-sentence when he was reading out the boring 'blurb' bit, so he shouldn't have gone ahead imo) that it was too late. He didn't even have the b*lls to ring me back & inform me. This might actually work in my favour...

pinkdalek

Often in this scenario it is easier to let the switch go through, go back to the original bank and switch back using the same switching service. This keeps the "loop" going. Cancelling it may cause further problems.

By keeping the "loop" going if someone was to credit the original account (A) it would then go to the new account (B) which would then in turn re-direct back to the new account with the bank you have gone back to (C).

The bank had made a mistake by initiating a full switch rather than a partial, yes you got £100 but that was due to their incompetence and the inconvenience to you is having to go back to them and to your old bank to open a new account. Stricly speaking it should not affect how your bills or credits are paid.

snowberry

Thanks for the replies! I've just spoken to Bank A & they have listened to all of the calls & can see that the initial gentleman made an error (we're all human!)
Been compensated for trouble & time & I'm glad that it's been sorted so swiftly!