Norwich & Peterborough BS

JuicyJesus

Dalavich wrote: »

In the Daily Mail article above, there is a comment which reads...

Received from customer Services...do not be bullied into closing your current account... wait for pay out from YBS Thank you for your message. Please be assured, the information in this article is not correct and was not sanctioned by YBS for publication. Our Press Team have been in contact with the author regarding the article. Your current account will not be frozen. Kind Regards, Megan Customer Service

Is this really YBS customer service, or should we expect a pay out for not closing our accounts?

I suppose it's possible that they may compensate customers for the inconvenience of having to change banks. But they have every right not to.

[Deleted User]

YBS are closing a number of their own YBS branches too, including the only one in Northumberland which is my nearest.

EarthBoy

JuicyJesus wrote: »

I suppose it's possible that they may compensate customers for the inconvenience of having to change banks. But they have every right not to.

I think YBS/N&P just wanted to reassure customers that they will still be able to get their money. I would be surprised if they paid customers anything more than the balance on the account. The easy thing for them to do would be to cancel all standing orders and direct debits and just convert the current accounts to easy access savings accounts.

antrobus

EarthBoy wrote: »

... The easy thing for them to do would be to cancel all standing orders and direct debits and just convert the current accounts to easy access savings accounts.

That's not going to happen. That would mean 100,000 complaints, and a lot of work for FOS.:)

This is what is going to happen;

We are in discussions with a number of other current account providers who are keen to work closely with us to make the process for customers as simple, quick and easy as possible. To help customers facilitate a quick and easy switch, we plan to publish a list of providers who’ve given us this assurance and keep this updated. This is in addition to other support and guidance in finding an alternative provider which we will give to customers.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/norwich_peterborough_building_society_customers_don_t_have_to_take_any_action_1_4877633

P.S. N&P never signed up for account swithching, so they will do it manually. But they say they are very good at doing it manually. So that's OK then.

patientperson

Out of curiosity I entered a HSBC branch last Friday. The young man on the welcome desk was not familiar with the N&P brand but knew about Yorkshire BS.

My question was about possibly switching my current account from N&P to HSBC and still receive their switching incentive.

Off he went to the back offices and a few minutes later returned with the news that switching would not be a problem even though N&P are not in the CASS club.

As there are 100,000 current account holders I imagine that other banks with switching incentives will also see it as not being a problem either.

EarthBoy

antrobus wrote: »

That's not going to happen. That would mean 100,000 complaints, and a lot of work for FOS.:)

This is what is going to happen;

We are in discussions with a number of other current account providers who are keen to work closely with us to make the process for customers as simple, quick and easy as possible. To help customers facilitate a quick and easy switch, we plan to publish a list of providers who’ve given us this assurance and keep this updated. This is in addition to other support and guidance in finding an alternative provider which we will give to customers.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/norwich_peterborough_building_society_customers_don_t_have_to_take_any_action_1_4877633

P.S. N&P never signed up for account swithching, so they will do it manually. But they say they are very good at doing it manually. So that's OK then.

N&P already do manual switching, so the only thing different here is that they'll give you a list of providers who've promised to make this manual process as quick and easy as possible. I'm sure the banks already make the process as quick and easy as possible, -it's in their interests to do that if they want your business, so really the only thing new here is that you'll now get a list. How fabulous.

There might well be some customers who ignore all the letters from N&P (and the list) and don't do anything at all. What's going to happen come the end of August when N&P discontinue the current accounts? I still think they might convert those accounts to ordinary savings accounts, so that at least the customer has access to their money.

Dalavich

antrobus wrote: »

That's not going to happen. That would mean 100,000 complaints, and a lot of work for FOS.:)

This is what is going to happen;

We are in discussions with a number of other current account providers who are keen to work closely with us to make the process for customers as simple, quick and easy as possible. To help customers facilitate a quick and easy switch, we plan to publish a list of providers who’ve given us this assurance and keep this updated. This is in addition to other support and guidance in finding an alternative provider which we will give to customers.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/norwich_peterborough_building_society_customers_don_t_have_to_take_any_action_1_4877633

P.S. N&P never signed up for account swithching, so they will do it manually. But they say they are very good at doing it manually. So that's OK then.

I've already jumped. Not hanging around to be pushed into a back room under the table deal with one of their friends.

Ok. it might take a bit of time to deal with it manually. But my new provider has already started the process, and warned me N&P will not be able to cope with the demand, as many have already started the swapping process. I think YBS are going to have a lesson in customer loyalty, and closing down a locally well known trusted brand is going to backfire badly. Albeit N&P was really YBS anyway, we still saw N&P and saw the local staff in the local branch, so it didn't seem so bad.

I still don't see why N&P had to sell out anyway, ok, they did a dodgy deal with Keydata, but they still could've swallowed the loss and carried on trading?

However, if I incur any bank charges, bounced DD's and such like, together with my time spent on sorting this out, YBS will be getting the bill. If they did the whole thing for us, and asked us which organsisation we wanted, and moved it all for us in one hit, this wouldn't be such as issue. As for me, I spend a lot of time working away, and quite simply I do not have the time to go into banks/BS's and sign paperwork as and when I need to, so had to make the move now before I am sent away for work again, which being an on call field engineer, is an unknown.

But reading the article, notice this part "The spokesperson for the N&P said: “Until a customer closes or transfers their account, all current accounts will continue to operate as normal until the end of August. We have written to customers to explain the overall proposals and, should they go ahead, will we will contact them again with full details relating to their specific circumstances.” But they added: “At this stage our customers don’t need to take any action.”"

On one hand saying, "if the proposals go ahead" and then "continue to operate as normal until the end of August".

So they've basically said the proposals have already been ratified, but we're scared to admit this, as we don't know how to cope......

System

EarthBoy wrote: »

I think YBS/N&P just wanted to reassure customers that they will still be able to get their money. I would be surprised if they paid customers anything more than the balance on the account. The easy thing for them to do would be to cancel all standing orders and direct debits and just convert the current accounts to easy access savings accounts.

They could just convert them to the (recently defunct) cash transactor acccount. They'd essentially only loose debit card functionality as they can have ATM cards, standing orders and direct debits.

System

Dalavich wrote: »

However, if I incur any bank charges, bounced DD's and such like, together with my time spent on sorting this out, YBS will be getting the bill. If they did the whole thing for us, and asked us which organsisation we wanted, and moved it all for us in one hit, this wouldn't be such as issue. As for me, I spend a lot of time working away, and quite simply I do not have the time to go into banks/BS's and sign paperwork as and when I need to, so had to make the move now before I am sent away for work again, which being an on call field engineer, is an unknown...

Providing YBS provide you 60+ days notice of the account closure, you've got zero entitlement to compensation.

As for being busy, everyone has their problems.

Dalavich

Heng_Leng wrote: »

As for being busy, everyone has their problems.

Not really a helpful comment. Let's see your bank close your account and see how you feel? Especially when you don't know when and where you can open a new account and move everything without the CASS in place?!