Aldermore is a stand-out - for all the wrong reasons

tmg745

Aldermore is a stand-out - for all the wrong reasons

As many other people, I had to cash-in ISAs early due to the Covid-19 crisis and my uncertain self-employment prospects.

I had three Cash ISAs, all fixed term until April 2021. One with Cynergy (formerly Bank of Cyprus), one with Virgin Money and one with Aldermore.

When asking politely to take the cash out of each due to the crisis situation, Cynergy didn't hesitate and simply sent me the funds with interest paid up to the current date. A massive PR win there for Cynergy. Virgin Money initially debited 60 days interest as per terms, but immediately refunded it without quibble on further dealings with customer care. All done and dusted within 48 hours too. A PR win there too for Virgin Money.


Now for the massive Aldermore PR disaster

When it came to Aldermore, customer care was the very last thing they were thinking of. They debited 90 days interest (again, technically as per terms) but totally ignored my pleas of exceptional national circumstances. I explained the other two banks were falling over themselves to assist and "do the right thing" but it fell on deaf ears. Aldermore still refuses to budge even after going through formal complaints procedures.

Aldermore seems quite happy to appear as the "nasty bank" when compared to others and put in jeopardy the obvious boost they have received from appearing in MSE best buy tables.

Aldermore is seemingly wanting to align itself with the likes of Peter Rachman! I can only assume Aldermore just doesn't care about its market position. Potential customers will surely steer well clear after reading this.

I urge other forum members and the MSE editorial team to look at this and offer their own experiences on this thread. I suspect I'm just the first person to have reported this, certainly not the only one to experience Aldermore's "stab in the back" and "kick in the spleen".

I also happen to be a journalist, which is most unfortunate for Aldermore's public relations team. But as I indicate, the evidence shows that they clearly just don't give a damn.

Meanwhile, I have filed a full report with the financial ombudsman.

Looking forward to hearing from you all.

tmg745

@cosh25, This is merely outlining the behaviour of Aldermore compared to other banks and a call for others on here to post their similar experiences so I can get a picture. The ombudsman is a mere formality but needs to be done immediately rather than waiting around. Obviously I don't expect anything to come of that.

tmg745

Seemingly, @cosh25 decided to swiftly delete the post to which I responded.

eskbanker

tmg745 said:

massive Aldermore PR disaster

[...]

the "nasty bank"

[...]

Aldermore is seemingly wanting to align itself with the likes of Peter Rachman!

[...]

Aldermore's "stab in the back" and "kick in the spleen".

I also happen to be a journalist....

Wow.

If that's the quality of your scribbling, it's no surprise that your self-employment prospects are uncertain - I think even the Daily Mail would hesitate before publishing such bizarre, immature, self-indulgent and hysterical nonsense....

tmg745

Thanks, @eskbanker. My hyperbole had the desired effect and reeled you in for a start.

Now I just need some actual constructive contributions from everyone else on here to gain traction.

Funny that you mention the Daily Mail, as I was responsible for a front page exclusive in the sister publication Mail on Sunday a few years back. Nothing to do with any MSE subjects, but they seemed to appreciate the boost nonetheless.

But hey, back to Aldermore Bank.

eskbanker

OK then, actual constructive contribution: move on and forget about it.

If you're really desperate, you could try to drum up interest in the press but "obscure bank adheres to Ts & Cs when customer doesn't want to" is hardly 'hold the front page' material....

tmg745

I repeat, I was hoping to hear of everyone else's experiences with Aldermore and getting early ISA funds.

I acknowledged in my original post that Ts & Cs were adhered to but I am publicising Aldermore's contrasting attitude to customer and public relations in the light of the other banks who bent over backwards to help.

Also, Aldermore are hardly "obscure" as they have regularly featured in MSE's pages and in the mainstream print media for quite a long time. Which is precisely why this PR own goal of theirs is so stark.

It genuinely surprised me and as a freelance journalist I want to gather together a snapshot of Aldermore's customers' feelings at their treatment with specific reference to the Covid-19 chaos and financial fallout from it.

MSE forum seemed the ideal starting point.

bowlhead99

tmg745 said:

I acknowledged in my original post that Ts & Cs were adhered to but I am publicising Aldermore's contrasting attitude to customer and public relations in the light of the other banks who bent over backwards to help.

Also, Aldermore are hardly "obscure" as they have regularly featured in MSE's pages and in the mainstream print media for quite a long time. Which is precisely why this PR own goal of theirs is so stark.

The other banks weren't exactly falling over themselves to help. As you mentioned, Virgin charged you the penalty as per terms. When you moaned at them, perhaps the amount in question wasn't a huge amount of money and they decided it was easier to just pay you off rather than have to deal with you writing angry letters to them and logging complaints when all they had done was followed the rules. Some customers just aren't worth the hassle.   

Cynergy don't generally get particularly positive feedback here so the fact they didn't charge you a penalty is unlikely to change much in prospective customers' minds.   Aldermore do get mentioned on here regularly because they frequently offer relatively higher rates than the average and have done a decent job of being a challenger bank since launch. They have a disciplined process to assessing business risk and offering the right rates to attract the funding they need, and by not giving away freebies to customers who stamp their feet they can afford to pay better rates for all. 

Aldermore didn't steal your money. It was not Aldermore's fault you no longer wanted to keep the money on deposit for as long as you had promised to do. They are just saying that as you didn't stick to the conditions of the deposit (that you will leave the money there until next April) they are not going to pay you as much interest as if you had left the money there until next April, exactly in line with the terms and conditions you signed. You said you were in hardship, and they are happy to let you exit the product before maturity. So, the idea that they are 'stabbing you in the back' or 'kicking you in the spleen' is way off the mark. They are not obligated to pay you a high interest rate when you don't stick to the term, so they have chosen not to do so;  by levying the standard penalty for early access, to which you agreed on signup. Seriously - 'kick in the spleen' ? Who talks like that, for a simple case of a bank paying you the exact amount of interest that it said it would?

Aldermore still refuses to budge even after going through formal complaints procedures.
Aldermore seems quite happy to appear as the "nasty bank" 

Meanwhile, I have filed a full report with the financial ombudsman.

The ombudsman is a mere formality but needs to be done immediately rather than waiting around. Obviously I don't expect anything to come of that.

You know you don't have a leg to stand on.  They have simply decided not to make a 'goodwill gesture' to a customer who is leaving them anyway.  That's not 'nasty', just prudent business. There are no grounds for complaint. You decided you should make a complaint anyway because you have time on your hands while looking for work, and you are going to take it to the ombudsman and waste the time of both the bank and the ombudsman to rule against you when you have literally no grounds to complain (bank followed their terms to the letter).

That's why you acknowledge that you will get nothing from the ombudsman when your 'full report' tells the ombudsman that the bank simply levied you the 'early withdrawal' interest penalty that they had warned you they would charge in the case of early withdrawal, which is what occurred.

Perhaps you could consider instead writing an article about how a 'compensation culture' leads to frivolous customer complaints and ombudsman investigations - which incur significant costs for financial services businesses resulting in higher costs or lower interest rates for the rest of the bank's customers and leading to greater levies on the industry to fund the FOS to deal with the vexatious complaints.

Thanks, @eskbanker. My hyperbole had the desired effect and reeled you in for a start.
Now I just need some actual constructive contributions from everyone else on here to gain traction.

Aldermore is seemingly wanting to align itself with the likes of Peter Rachman! I can only assume Aldermore just doesn't care about its market position. Potential customers will surely steer well clear after reading this.

Perhaps the potential forum reading-audience will simply steer well clear of your posts, recognising them as being full of hyperbole and inflammatory statements to get a crowd going. The bank simply paid you the amount of interest to which you were entitled for the amount of time you had the money in the account - they offered you a higher rate for a fixed term and you were unable to let them have the money for the fixed term so they paid you a lower agreed rate. This is not Rachmanism or a "stab in the back" and "kick in the spleen", and does not mark them out as a "nasty bank". 

Fortunately I haven't needed to break a term deposit with Aldermore during the Covid period so can't tell you how I was treated. But the way I would expect to be treated is that I would need to pay a penalty of x days interest, so I would first make sure I definitely needed the money, and I might ask if they could let me off without the penalty, and if they said no, fair enough. I wouldn't go to MSE forums to try to drum up 'ammunition' for a hit-piece article against them, but then I'm not a Mail on Sunday journalist.

grumiofoundation

I've googled the phrase "kick in the spleen" (kick in the teeth is the more commonly used phrase). A song by 'Children of Bodom comes up. The first line is extremely applicable to you.

As a 'journalist' you presumably have an understanding of the importance of language.
Can you clarify how a bank adhering to their Ts and Cs is a "stab in the back"? If anything Cynergy and Virgin are stabbing other customers in the back by not adhering to their Ts and Cs and giving money to any old complainer.

Aldermore is seemingly wanting to align itself with the likes of Peter Rachman! I can only assume Aldermore just doesn't care about its market position. Potential customers will surely steer well clear after reading this.

I think you maybe slightly overestimating your own importance. I also don't think Peter Rachman offered fixed-term ISAs?

I also happen to be a journalist, which is most unfortunate for Aldermore's public relations team. 

From the standard of your writing an uncharitable soul (not myself of course) would say the only risk to Aldermore's PR team is if you join it.

When it came to Aldermore, customer care was the very last thing they were thinking of. They debited 90 days interest (again, technically as per terms) but totally ignored my pleas of exceptional national circumstances. I explained the other two banks were falling over themselves to assist and "do the right thing" but it fell on deaf ears. 

So a total of 25% of this years interest. 

I am sure readers of national newspapers will be fascinated to read one of the 2 possible stories.
 
1) journalist wastes financial ombudsman's time over a tiny sum retained by bank.
2) tone-deaf wealthy journalist complains about bank keeping tiny % of their money during exceptional national circumstances (e.g. 90 days of 2% interest on £20000 = £100).

So we are either talking about a small amount of money, or you have so much money it really doesn't matter - which is it? 

Thrugelmir

tmg745 said:

I also happen to be a journalist, which is most unfortunate for Aldermore's public relations team. But as I indicate, the evidence shows that they clearly just don't give a damn.

Obviously not a financial one.  Slander isn't advisable either.  No one is going to be interested in petty self interest crusades.  

k12479

grumiofoundation said:

I am sure readers of national newspapers will be fascinated to read one of the 2 possible stories.
 
1) journalist wastes financial ombudsman's time over a tiny sum retained by bank.
2) tone-deaf wealthy journalist complains about bank keeping tiny % of their money during exceptional national circumstances (e.g. 90 days of 2% interest on £20000 = £100). 

3) Financially illiterate journalist blames bank for his poor money management