Post Office Online Saver not allowing M&S bank to be linked

clivep

I'm going to cancel one of the DDs on a M&S current a/c so need to find one to replace it to continue qualifying for the regular saver.


Easy, I thought, just change the nominated a/c for a PO Saver (away from Nationwide where it's no longer needed).


Instructions followed in my PO a/c to edit linked account only to get a message "Either your Sort Code or Bank/Building Society account number are incorrect".


Tried again after cancelling the linked Nationwide mandate... same error.


Callled PO and was informed that their systems don't recognise some smaller institutions. Said she could manually enter the details which could then be used for transfers but not for DDs.


I pointed out that M&S bank is run by HSBC so a fairly large institution! Also that the reason for the change was for the DD facility.


I accepted her suggestion that she should speak to a manager and she came back to say that their systems people will be able to set it up correctly in a couple of days. I should then be able to see it online and be able to place money in instructions by DD by the end of the week.




... We'll see.




(Last time they tried to sort out a DD on a wayward Online Saver a/c they managed to cancel the DDs on all my Online Saver a/cs).

soulsaver

As you may know M&S only need active, not regular paying DDs.

I set up a DD to pay balance on one of my credit cards with zero balance.

badger09

I was going to suggest an annual purchase through PayPal.
(Link the bank account, not the debit card)

pafpcg

clivep wrote: »

Instructions followed in my PO a/c to edit linked account only to get a message "Either your Sort Code or Bank/Building Society account number are incorrect".

Well, it worked for both me and my partner earlier this year (January & June) - both DDs were set-up and successfully claimed money from M&S Bank accounts. One account has the sort-code 40-12-55 and the other has 40-12-56.

Klopek

pafpcg wrote: »

Well, it worked for both me and my partner earlier this year (January & June) - both DDs were set-up and successfully claimed money from M&S Bank accounts. One account has the sort-code 40-12-55 and the other has 40-12-56.

I have a 40-12-55 M&S account linked successfully too. It states that it is a HSBC account via PO's online banking.

clivep

So as a backup measure I decided to replace the Birmingham Midshires saver DD on my newly opened Barclays a/c with another spare PO one and then use the BM DD for the M&S a/c.


The Barclays a/c was successfully accepted as the linked a/c on the PO Saver so I thought I'd just give it another go with the M&S details...


Hey presto - today the PO Saver that rejected the details yesterday now accepted the M&S current account details (with sort code 40-12-55) so presumably it was some kind of systems malfunction yesterday.


So much for the assistant yesterday initially saying it was impossible.


Having now done it myself, I just hope when their systems guys look at my accounts they don't screw thing up again.

planteria

i have an M&Sc/a linked to a POBOS account with no problems.

clivep

As suspected, they screwed it up!


The two PO a/cs were due to draw their direct debits from Barclays and M&S today (this being the earliest date it came up with for a one-off deposit). I had been tracking them to make sure they were showing as active.


The Barclays one left the current a/c OK but the M&S one didn't.


The DD status for the one-off deposit is now showing on the PO a/c as mandate cancelled.


I've set up another one-off deposit from M&S and the date it came up with is 19th November.


This is in 3 working days time and from this I surmise that:
3 working days after I sucessfully set the DD up myself their tech guys cancelled this and replaced it with one with exactly the same details.
This did not trigger the outstanding active deposit to be cancelled. Only today when the deposit came to be drawn did their systems reject it, presumably because there was now a different mandate reference number in place and the previously active deposit instruction had the old mandate reference number assigned to it.


Hopefully it may now work OK but just to be sure I've changed the linked account on the Birmingham Midshires saver to M&S as it's now no longer needed for Barclays.

saintalan

Has anybody tried to switch an account with a PO/DD to M&S?