Are Co-op likely to upgrade my account?

reliquit

In 2014 my wife and I entered into an IVA as we had huge credit card debts (mostly to MBNA) that we could no longer service. At the time we held a current account with NatWest. I didn't inform NatWest about our IVA, quite honestly it never occurred to me to do so as none of our debts were with NatWest or any other company within the NatWest group.

In 2015 (around a year into our IVA) NatWest wrote to us stating that they were closing our account, rather precipitously I thought as we did not owe them any money, but it is what it is. They did not offer us their basic account, so we went to the Co-op, explained our situation to the branch manager, and he gave us a basic account which we still operate. We have had that account for more than 5 years. We put about £3k through the account every month, we have never been overdrawn (in fact the balance has never gone below £50), and never had a failed DD or SO payment. In the final year of our IVA we both took out credit cards with Vanquis. They are both used and cleared regularly (not cleared every month, but more often than not).

Our IVA finished in February this year, and has dropped off our CRA files, but obviously Co-op know that we were in an IVA for a while. I was just wondering if anyone could give a educated guess at our chances of getting an upgrade to a standard bank account if I request it.

stclair

The best bet would be to just apply there are some good switching offers about at the moment. Every bank will have there own lending criteria and will want different things. You just won’t know until you’ve applied. 

You might get an idea by using the eligibility checker for an overdraft it won’t affect your credit rating if they say yes then you should be ok for account with them.

https://appforms.co-operativebank.co.uk/hcc/page-1

gsmh

A friend of mine entered a voluntary IVA and very quickly once the IVA was successfully completed her credit reference normalised and she was able to open current accounts, credit cards and so on. Her credit reference now has no mention of the IVA. However, on making credit applications you are often asked 'Have you ever entered into an arrangement with creditors,' or questions of a similar nature - so even if it rolls off your credit report you have to fess up. My friend has had no issues and, for what it's worth, her credit score is more of less the same as mine.

jonesMUFCforever

OP do you have Internet banking with the Co-op?
If you do is there an option to upgrade (as with other banks) there - if there is go for it - if not you may have to wait.

reliquit

jonesMUFCforever said:

OP do you have Internet banking with the Co-op?
If you do is there an option to upgrade (as with other banks) there - if there is go for it - if not you may have to wait.

That's an interesting thought - thanks. I have access to Internet banking but I don't tend to use it as I can usually do everything I want to do with the iPhone app, and of course there is no mention of upgrading in that. I'll have a look.

reliquit

UPDATE: I went onto Internet banking - but as I hadn't used it for a couple of years I messed up the security questions and had to phone them to get it all reset. Having (eventually) sorted that out, they asked me the inevitable question "Is there anything else we can do for you today?" So I explained why I trying to get onto online banking and they agreed to upgrade my account! The only minor diffculty is that because it is a different account with the same bank rather than a new account with a different bank, apparently the SWITCHING service cannot be used, so I will be responsible for changing all my inputs/DDs/SOs/etc - but they will run both accounts simultaneously while I do so.

Good result all round as far as I am concerned.