M&S Bank closing all current accounts

fluffig

CRISPIANNE3 said:

My interest was added last night when I checked about 9pm for the princely sum of 7p. However I will see what happens today but based on your conversation with them I will not ring them. Also MKS bank assured me I would get the full amount which is approx £45.00 when last I spoke to them yesterday pm. 

I'm not sure if she meant all the 7/8/9p payments were being checked, or only those for account holders who had rung to query them. Hopefully the former!

Yorkshire_Pud

SamDude said:

eskbanker said:

SamDude said:

eskbanker said:

SamDude said:

We may be referring to different things - I'm referring to the Monthly Saver, from their information:

M&S Monthly Saver
We'll make sure you don't lose out on interest you would have earned if your Monthly Saver had remained open for the full 12 month term. If your account is closed before maturity, we'll assume a maximum contribution of £250 has been made in each remaining month to calculate your interest.

To me it reads as 'close early and you still get the full interest as if it had matured at 12 months'.

That seems an optimistic interpretation - surely they'll only offer the compensatory interest if they close it?

The don't state "If WE close your account" or "if YOU close your account".
The fact that it can be misinterpreted is the issue.

Yes, agreed, ambiguity is never good in formal documents, but their actions obviously indicate that their interpretation differs from yours, i.e. you'll have a fight on your hands to make your case, albeit not necessarily one you couldn't win!

Just got off the phone, and the CS rep was very apologetic and thanked me for raising it.
The proverbial muck has hit the fan at their end.
They have convened their senior managers to discuss this and identify how to fix it (goodwill credit or another accounting process to calculate and pay the interest).
They said they need to identify how many other customers this affects, and I should expect a call from someone senior to explain how they resolve it (in my favour, obviously).
They should update their wording shortly too. 

Well looks to me that M&S bank are still blindly letting people close their monthly savers and still mucking up the interest payment even though senior managers etc are ‘aware’ since at least five days ago.

Rich2808

Yorkshire_Pud said:

SamDude said:

eskbanker said:

SamDude said:

eskbanker said:

SamDude said:

We may be referring to different things - I'm referring to the Monthly Saver, from their information:

M&S Monthly Saver
We'll make sure you don't lose out on interest you would have earned if your Monthly Saver had remained open for the full 12 month term. If your account is closed before maturity, we'll assume a maximum contribution of £250 has been made in each remaining month to calculate your interest.

To me it reads as 'close early and you still get the full interest as if it had matured at 12 months'.

That seems an optimistic interpretation - surely they'll only offer the compensatory interest if they close it?

The don't state "If WE close your account" or "if YOU close your account".
The fact that it can be misinterpreted is the issue.

Yes, agreed, ambiguity is never good in formal documents, but their actions obviously indicate that their interpretation differs from yours, i.e. you'll have a fight on your hands to make your case, albeit not necessarily one you couldn't win!

Just got off the phone, and the CS rep was very apologetic and thanked me for raising it.
The proverbial muck has hit the fan at their end.
They have convened their senior managers to discuss this and identify how to fix it (goodwill credit or another accounting process to calculate and pay the interest).
They said they need to identify how many other customers this affects, and I should expect a call from someone senior to explain how they resolve it (in my favour, obviously).
They should update their wording shortly too. 

Well looks to me that M&S bank are still blindly letting people close their monthly savers and still mucking up the interest payment even though senior managers etc are ‘aware’ since at least five days ago.

Perhaps they could pay all their current account holders £45 as compensation for closing their accounts - or at the very least give us some free M&S coffee vouchers when their cafes reopen or even a free bag of percy pig sweets!
Must be taking a lot of staff hours and IT system time to process these 7 8 or 9 pences!

Dephead2004

I think I beat everyone with 3p interest. Bit of a mess up as still no £44 ish in the account. Frontline staff know what's supposed to happen but  the Closure Team are not pressing the right buttons

quirkydeptless

Thanks for the updates all. I think I will hang off for now on closing my Regular Saver until things settle down. It matures in July, but would be handy to get the money now with the extra interest and re-deploy it.

Yorkshire_Pud

Don’t close your current accounts until they sort the monthly saver interest as their terms say once closed the statement record disappears from your internet banking and to download first. No chance.

Meanwhile we can all bask in the knowledge that’s it’s not just any bank muck up, it’s an M&S bank muck up.

SamDude

Yorkshire_Pud said:

SamDude said:

eskbanker said:

SamDude said:

eskbanker said:

SamDude said:

We may be referring to different things - I'm referring to the Monthly Saver, from their information:

M&S Monthly Saver
We'll make sure you don't lose out on interest you would have earned if your Monthly Saver had remained open for the full 12 month term. If your account is closed before maturity, we'll assume a maximum contribution of £250 has been made in each remaining month to calculate your interest.

To me it reads as 'close early and you still get the full interest as if it had matured at 12 months'.

That seems an optimistic interpretation - surely they'll only offer the compensatory interest if they close it?

The don't state "If WE close your account" or "if YOU close your account".
The fact that it can be misinterpreted is the issue.

Yes, agreed, ambiguity is never good in formal documents, but their actions obviously indicate that their interpretation differs from yours, i.e. you'll have a fight on your hands to make your case, albeit not necessarily one you couldn't win!

Just got off the phone, and the CS rep was very apologetic and thanked me for raising it.
The proverbial muck has hit the fan at their end.
They have convened their senior managers to discuss this and identify how to fix it (goodwill credit or another accounting process to calculate and pay the interest).
They said they need to identify how many other customers this affects, and I should expect a call from someone senior to explain how they resolve it (in my favour, obviously).
They should update their wording shortly too. 

Well looks to me that M&S bank are still blindly letting people close their monthly savers and still mucking up the interest payment even though senior managers etc are ‘aware’ since at least five days ago.

I had a call back on Saturday telling me that I should expect £45 by today (2 working days) as a goodwill credit.
Nothing yet.
This does not include my complaint for the constant calls and hassle, which will be discussed afterwards.

CRISPIANNE3

Mine just been paid. It was £44.20.

born_again

Thrugelmir said:

born_again said:

Rich2808 said:

datlex said:

Dephead2004 said:

Jen from Philipines was excellent, took 20 minutes with checking with supervisor. 

This made me smile

Do M&S have a call centre in the Philippines now?
Or do they just use Manila envelopes?

A lot of HSBC stuff has moved from India to Philippines. Guess they do it a lot cheaper than India now

Better time zone for Asian markets. China is the growth market. 

Time zone makes no difference. The staff in India work UK time, not local time so their shifts finish in the early hours of the morning.

pollypenny

Rich2808 said:

datlex said:

Dephead2004 said:

Jen from Philipines was excellent, took 20 minutes with checking with supervisor. 

This made me smile

Do M&S have a call centre in the Philippines now?
Or do they just use Manila envelopes?

It's Chester. I was bothered about talking to an ex-pupil.