NatWest Child Trust Fund

Jeannie03

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue - my daughter wrote to RBS investments to close her child trust fund and was told the funds would be in her bank account by 18 February but they haven;t been received and NatWest say the account no longer exists.

The helpline number is pointless. She has rung it five times and each time is put on hold for 59 minutes at which point it cuts her off! 5 HOURS of waiting on the phone!!! The online chat just says we will respond in 4 days! I managed to get through to a NatWest employee who gave e a different number to try but this was out of service. He said the issues are solely down to Martin Lewis encouraging people to contact them about their funds and it has caused the system to be overloaded!

Meanwhile my daughter has no money at all and we have maxed out our overdrafts trying to help her - she is currently ill with covid and is waiting to start a new job so she won't be paid for another six week. She registered a formal complaint and we have heard nothing despite marking it urgent and the online chat has responded today saying they will investigate in 10 days. 

Grateful if anyone has any other suggestions for how to pursue this matter.
Thank you! 

xylophone

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue - my daughter wrote to RBS investments to close her child trust fund and was told the funds would be in her bank account by 18 February but they haven;t been received and NatWest say the account no longer exists.

https://www.rbs.co.uk/investments/existing-customers/Child_Trust_Fund.html

What happens when my CTF matures?

Can’t wait for your 18th birthday bonus? Don’t worry, we’ll write to you 6 weeks before your birthday with more information about what to do next.

This will include how to register for the portal, where you can tell us what you want to do with your money.

From your 18th birthday, you can register for the portal and then there are just some additional ID requirements to claim your money.

If you are unsure about what identification documents, you need to provide, please refer to our frequently asked questions below.

Don't worry, if you don't claim your money, we will keep it in a matured CTF for you until you provide identification and maturity instruction.

If you decide to keep your money invested, this will be moved from the matured CTF into an adult ISA within 24 hours following the receipt of your instruction.

Did your daughter's experience accord with the above?

eskbanker

Jeannie03 said:

I managed to get through to a NatWest employee who gave e a different number to try but this was out of service. He said the issues are solely down to Martin Lewis encouraging people to contact them about their funds and it has caused the system to be overloaded! 

About 2,000 people in the UK turn 18 each day, but only a small fraction of those will hold CTFs with NatWest and an even smaller fraction will need to phone about these....

Malthusian

Jeannie03 said:

Grateful if anyone has any other suggestions for how to pursue this matter.
Thank you! 

NatWest / RBS are required to respond to the complaint within 8 weeks. If they don't respond or she isn't happy with it, she can go to the Financial Ombudsman.

If you incur overdraft charges / interest and there was no other option to meet her costs of living (food, energy bills etc), I would expect NatWest to make good your loss.

If waiting a couple of months doesn't appeal, you could always try the "money troubleshooter" columns of the national papers. But it's random whether they pull your letter out of the postbag - the regulatory complaints process is the one that guarantees a response eventually.

How was the formal complaint registered? The safest way is post via recorded delivery, as that eliminates any possibility of the company mounting a "we didn't receive it" defence. Anything put into an online chatbox tends to disappear into the ether (unless you take screenshots).

Manners79

My Daughter is having a similar experience.  She ended up having to go into a branch to request the CTF be closed and for the funds to be issued to her.  She received a letter on 3/3/22 advising the money was on it's way but still nothing, she has been on the phone 5hrs + ad I am currently on with them......well 98 mins I have been on hold!  It's a joke! 

Bizzywizard

I  would be going into the branch and request to see the manager. I had the run around years ago over a transfered payment that the employee has typed incorrectly, the money was in cyber space! Its was £4k, so I went into branch and said I would wait until the manager showed up, it was then dealt with in 5 minutes.

MattC2022

Hi, same issue here.  My daughter turned 18 in Jan and is still waiting for her money.  The value appears to have gone down as well over the interim period.  To make matters worse they continued to take a direct debit from my account after her 18th birthday even though they wrote to say they would cancel this.  NatWest now owe my daughter for her CTF and me for the DD payment.  Have spent hours on the phone, tried messaging, writing, even social media, but no progress as of yet.  I cannot believe NatWest have failed to grip this.

Jami74

We found it difficult to contact Natwest about CTF, complicated by a change of address. I messaged them via Facebook and got it sorted quite quickly that way (they called us back). 

It sounds a bit far fetched that a Natwest employee said the issues were solely down to Martin Lewis. That phone line has been out of service for months, if not years.

MattC2022

Jami74 said:

We found it difficult to contact Natwest about CTF, complicated by a change of address. I messaged them via Facebook and got it sorted quite quickly that way (they called us back). 

It sounds a bit far fetched that a Natwest employee said the issues were solely down to Martin Lewis. That phone line has been out of service for months, if not years.

Thanks Jami74.  NatWest social media started out looking promising, but they've just got back to me with, 'the team are extremely busy at the moment... if you want an urgent update it would be best to give the team a call...'  Not helpful unless you have 3 hours to wait on hold.  Having been asking them to call back for 2 months now, so sounds like you were lucky!

Malthusian

Your daughter should write to NatWest and make a formal complaint. She should say that she expects them to backdate the encashment to a reasonable timescale after the withdrawal was requested (or her 18th birthday if the withdrawal request was placed in advance), say 2 weeks, as she should not lose out due to their failure.

If they don't pay up within 8 weeks (or compensate her for the fall in the markets) she can go to the Financial Ombudsman.

xylophone

 NatWest social media started out looking promising, but they've just got back to me with, 'the team are extremely busy at the moment... if you want an urgent update it would be best to give the team a call...'  Not helpful unless you have 3 hours to wait on hold.  Having been asking them to call back for 2 months now, so sounds like you were lucky!

See my post above which details Natwest's process for dealing with CTF maturity.

How exactly did the process fail in your daughter's case?

She needs to give details of the failure in a formal complaint to Natwest.

https://www.natwest.com/support-centre/how-to-complain.html