Bank Lied to Prevent Me Closing Account - What Rules or Legislation Does This Breach?

greensalad

peskydaisydoodle said:

As I said - they followed through with part of their promise - in that they began to send statements in my son's name - but they never did send the card because that was a red herring - that particular account could never and was never going to be converted to an adult account, despite the employee categorically telling me it was. 

It sounds like the employee made a mistake. This talk of "red herring" and such presumes it was a big scheme by the bank to somehow close your account... honestly I think you need to take a step back and assess that this was probably a mistake made by the employee not some big conspiracy to close the account. 

wmb194

Is your son on the electoral roll? Has he tried opening an account online? It could be that he'll pass the electronic ID and address checks. Anything you do in-branch will require physical documents.

Sailtheworld

Your son needs ID. Unless you have a power of attorney his financial affairs are his own. I'm a little surprised you've got as far as you have - pretty sure my mum wouldn't get as far with one of my accounts just by causing a fuss.

If it's the case that the bank told you ID wasn't needed to set up an account for him and it transpired it was that sounds more like !!!!!! up than conspiracy. You should complain but if the bank's policy is that new accounts require ID I can't see that requirement will be waived. 

Complain and get him some qualifying ID.

peskydaisydoodle

pramsay13 said:

What would the bank employee have to gain by you leaving the account open?
Your son will need to open an account in his own name. Pick a local bank and ask them what ID is needed.
Once it's done pay the cheque into your own account and transfer it over.

The Bank had specified that an account would have to be opened in my son's name and the ITF account would have to be closed or the account would be frozen. It wasn't an option for my son to come into the Bank to provide ID. My opinion was that as I have always operated the account I was breaking no law in simply withdrawing the money and closing it. This seems to what has generated their concern - they wanted another account to be opened before this one was closed - but that in itself doesn't seem to me to justify the fact that the employee then went out of her way to telephone me to advise me not to close the account because she had found a solution: she hadn't found a solution at all but had simply found a way to prevent me from accessing the funds. I just don't understand why, when I had operated the account for all these years, such alarm would be generated by my decision to close the account without first ensuring another one was opened.  With regard to your comment about opening an account with a different Bank, the cheque cannot be paid into an account in my name because it has my son's name on it - and it cannot be paid into an account in his name because my name is on it. It is not the opening of a Bank Account that is the issue here - it is the tactics that the Bank used to close this one. Can I just remind everyone that as individuals we are all different - there seems to be a general feeling here that my son must open his own bank account. The reality is that he doesn't care whether he has a bank account or not. I am not going to enter into a discussion about his physical or mental health. If he chooses not to open a bank account, that is entirely up to him - there is no legal requirement in the UK to have one. However without one, the actions of this Bank have made it impossible for him to have access to the funds that were in the account they closed. There is no issue with regard to his future benefits as they will be paid on his behalf into an account in my name - which is an arrangement the DWP consider to be perfectly acceptable. If I had closed the account personally I would have withdrawn the funds first. The Bank persuaded me not to close the account and then they closed the account on their own terms and left the money inaccessible unless my son opens an account. 

Thrugelmir

Obtain ID and the matter would have been resolved a long time ago. Why intentionally make life so complicated? 

peskydaisydoodle

Thrugelmir said:

Obtain ID and the matter would have been resolved a long time ago. Why intentionally make life so complicated? 

I thought the matter had been resolved! I haven't intentionally made anything more complicated.  The employee at the Bank told me that she had found a way for the account to made into an adult account without ID. She said a card would come - it didn't. I had no knowledge that the account hadn't been changed into an adult account until the cheque arrived advising the account had been closed. My son doesn't care if he has a bank account or not - he also doesn't care if he has ID or not - it is not for me to force him to do either. My question was about what regulations the bank have broken - not about how or whether my son obtain's ID - that's a side issue. My grievance is with how the Bank dealt with the closure of my account. You're correct when you say it could have been resolved long ago - if I had closed the account when I told the Bank I was going to. These problems have only arisen because the Bank have created a problem where there didn't need to be one. I am glad there are Ombudsmen to deal with grievances because the comments here indicate a consensus that Banks won't deliberately deceive people - and even if they do, the customer should just roll over and accept it. I thought there might be people here who had had similar experiences.

peskydaisydoodle

wmb194 said:

Is your son on the electoral roll? Has he tried opening an account online? It could be that he'll pass the electronic ID and address checks. Anything you do in-branch will require physical documents.

Yes he's on the electoral roll and yes he has now applied for an account online which may pass the id cheques if what he has in the way of DWP correspondence is enough, The issue isn't about his ID though - it's about the way the bank went about the closure of the account. I was happy to close the account but they effectively prevented me from doing so - I don't understand why they seem to have felt they had a duty to protect the remaining money in the account when they had permitted me to transact on the account for years. If this was an issue they should have asked me to close the account years ago.

peskydaisydoodle

greensalad said:

peskydaisydoodle said:

As I said - they followed through with part of their promise - in that they began to send statements in my son's name - but they never did send the card because that was a red herring - that particular account could never and was never going to be converted to an adult account, despite the employee categorically telling me it was. 

It sounds like the employee made a mistake. This talk of "red herring" and such presumes it was a big scheme by the bank to somehow close your account... honestly I think you need to take a step back and assess that this was probably a mistake made by the employee not some big conspiracy to close the account. 

I too, thought that she had made a mistake. However when I asked her about it, she denied the conversation had ever taken place......so I thought she was worried about admitting to a mistake incase she was disciplined for the error. However, she is an experienced employee and what she told me - it has now transpired - would never have been permitted to happen - that account would never have been allowed to keep the same account number and they would always have required ID. The employee categorically told me it would. She advised me not to close the account and said it was all going to be fine because she had sorted it. She wasn't mistaken - she was lying and now it is my word against her's. Like you, her superiors do not believe she would have deliberately lied - but she did which is why I am trying to ascertain whether it would ever be deemed ethical to do so if for example she or the Bank thought it was more important to protect my son's interests or whatever - than to be honest with me.

MaxiRobriguez

Moe_The_Bartender said:

Aren’t phone calls routinely recorded?

Having migrated the IT infrastructure of a large financial services company from one provider to mine, I can tell you for certain every single call is recorded and easily accessible. 

colsten

peskydaisydoodle said:

Thrugelmir said:

Obtain ID and the matter would have been resolved a long time ago. Why intentionally make life so complicated? 

I thought the matter had been resolved! 

Nobody can expect to live without problems if they are not able to prove their ID. Stop burying your head in the sand and use your energy to get ID for your son sorted.