Atom Bank changed T&Cs - can I withdraw my funds

Gigibobs

I have a 2-year fixed Bond with Atom bank.  Around 7 months after depositing money into the Bond, I became strapped for cash and inquired about the possibility of withdrawing some cash. I was told this would not be possible (not even with a fee / penalty being charged).  Currently, I have about 15 months before the Bond matures and the cash is made available to me again. I really regret opening this Bond, and shouldn't have overstretched myself to put that much money to one side.

My question is: the bank has sent out a communication informing fixed-term Bond holders that the T&Cs of the account are changing, giving people up until March to confirm if they are happy or not with the new conditions.

I have looked over the terms and conditions but honestly I'm not sure what's changed. My hope was if I can find something I'm not happy with, to say that I don't agree with the terms and conditions being changed midway through the bond term,  and that Atom bank would (either as a gesture of goodwill or legal obligation) have to release the funds. I wonder if anyone else has encountered this or is having the same issue? 

Thrugelmir

You'll remain bound by terms and conditions of the product itself. These you agreed to when applying. More general changes to T&C's aren't sufficient grounds to terminate your relationship. 

eskbanker

Gigibobs said:

My question is: the bank has sent out a communication informing fixed-term Bond holders that the T&Cs of the account are changing, giving people up until March to confirm if they are happy or not with the new conditions.

What are they saying will happen if you don't confirm you're happy?  It's unusual to suggest some sort of choice when issuing relatively routine tweaks to Ts & Cs so this might suggest something more significant that you could potentially benefit from, but you will need to research what's actually changing....

AnotherJoe

I'm not sure you need to find the difference. Just say you aren't happy with the new ones. Best case they say you can withdraw from existing fixed term account worst case no change (though in that case I wonder why they are asking ?)

Gigibobs

Thanks for the replies guys. Basically I contacted them on the app to ask what are the implications if I am not happy with the changes, and was asked to 'explain which specific changes I am not happy with and why'!
I stipulated that at this point my question was general in nature, and was told 'if you're not happy we can lodge a complaint'. 

I was wondering about the legality of changing terms and conditions of a mutually agreed contract mid-term. I know of some cases (mobile phone contracts in France) where the company tried to change the contracts and when the users didn't agree they were liberated from their contracts (and kept the handsets I believe). So at this point just getting out of this agreement would be ideal. 

eskbanker

Both the existing and new Ts & Cs should have some sort of clause covering Atom's right to make changes, and these will sometimes refer to materiality - obviously some changes could be trivial whereas others could be material, and it would generally only be the latter that would warrant unilateral termination.  So, I'd reiterate that you need to review the Ts & Cs and identify if there's anything significant enough that's changed to give you an exit route....