Co-operative Refer a Friend Switching Offer £125 (Nov 2022)

Bridlington1

I've emailed my case handler asking that an Ombudsman gives a final decision on my case and included evidence from this thread of people having received both the £50 and £125 payments and also detailed the August Santander switching offers . I've just had an email from the case handler:

Dear Bridlington1

Your complaint about The Co-operative Bank Plc

Thank you for your email.

 

I’ve looked at everything you’ve said and the documents you attached most of which relate to Santander Bank.

 

I’ve read what was written from the Money Saving Expert blogs but I still don’t consider that the £125 was a new offer. Under section 4.1 of the Co-operative Bank terms and conditions the scheme states;

 

‘We can withdraw this offer at anytime and should we chose to do so, we will update our website with the final switching date on which we will honour any payments’.

 

As explained in my view, I can’t see that the offer was withdrawn until December 2022 so I can’t find that it was two separate offers.

 

I’ve also seen the documents you sent on Santander however the only relevant documents I can consider are the terms and conditions relating to the Co-operative Bank which is where you opened your account and sought to partake in their offer.

 

In view of this, my view remains the same.

 

Please note that the ombudsman can only consider the complaint as was made to the Co-operative Bank so we won’t be considering your new request to look at the £125 refer-a-friend offer for the person who referred you. This will need to be raised with the Co-operative Bank by the person themselves.

 

An ombudsman will review this complaint

Because you didn’t agree, an ombudsman will review the complaint and make a decision. That means:

• An ombudsman will look at everything that’s been provided and make an independent decision. They’ll put the decision in writing to both you and Co-operative Bank, and explain their reasoning within the decision.
• If the ombudsman’s conclusions are different from mine, they will explain why and let you reply before they give you their decision. Otherwise, they won’t usually get in touch before issuing their decision unless they need more information.
• The ombudsman’s final decision will be binding on both you and Co-operative Bank if you accept it before the deadline they give you. So if the ombudsman tells the business to do something – and you accept the decision – the business will have to do it.
• We publish final decisions by our ombudsmen on our website. But your name won’t appear in the published decision – so you can’t be identified.

 

We should already have all the information the ombudsman needs to reach a decision. But if we need anything more from you, we’ll let you know.

What you need to do now

All of your previous and new submissions will be considered but if you still have any further points or information you’d like the ombudsman to consider, please send these to me by 1 May 2023. Please pay attention to the deadline.

If you need more time to reply, please let me know before this date. If I don’t hear from you, I will assume you do not want to add anything.

We will keep you up to date with our progress – but please get in touch if you have any questions.

If anyone has had both the £50 and the £125 payments from the refer a friend offers who hasn't already posted this in this thread I would be very grateful if you could post this as I feel the more evidence I can get my hands on the better.

Also any suggestions as to what more I should include in my complaint would be much appreciated.

Alex9384

Bridlington1 said:

If anyone has had both the £50 and the £125 payments from the refer a friend offers who hasn't already posted this in this thread I would be very grateful if you could post this as I feel the more evidence I can get my hands on the better.

Also any suggestions as to what more I should include in my complaint would be much appreciated.

This whole Coop complaint thing should be a separate thread. Many people don't ever click on this one again because they've seen it before when it was just related to switch. They are not interested anymore. If we started a new one, something like "Coop refusing to pay out their switch bonus", that would possibly attract many more people. What do you think?

Dustybee

@Bridlington1 I hope you get other posters that can help with the complaint.

@Alex9384 I think that is a good idea.  The referral thread will get missed by some members.

Bridlington1

Alex9384 said:

Bridlington1 said:

If anyone has had both the £50 and the £125 payments from the refer a friend offers who hasn't already posted this in this thread I would be very grateful if you could post this as I feel the more evidence I can get my hands on the better.

Also any suggestions as to what more I should include in my complaint would be much appreciated.

This whole Coop complaint thing should be a separate thread. Many people don't ever click on this one again because they've seen it before when it was just related to switch. They are not interested anymore. If we started a new one, something like "Coop refusing to pay out their switch bonus", that would possibly attract many more people. What do you think?

Thanks for the suggestion. I've now created a separate thread. See:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6440686/co-operative-bank-refusing-to-pay-125-refer-a-friend-offer-fos-case#latest

tg99

Anyone know how long the current Coop refer a friend offer takes to pay out after fulfilment of the requirements and submission of the claim form? I know it says within 90 days in the terms but for the Nov22 offer I recall it was a couple of days after claim form submitted.

WillPS

tg99 said:

Anyone know how long the current Coop refer a friend offer takes to pay out after fulfilment of the requirements and submission of the claim form? I know it says within 90 days in the terms but for the Nov22 offer I recall it was a couple of days after claim form submitted.

Took a couple of weeks for a recent referral of mine between all their conditions being completed and the payment being made.

tg99

WillPS said:

tg99 said:

Anyone know how long the current Coop refer a friend offer takes to pay out after fulfilment of the requirements and submission of the claim form? I know it says within 90 days in the terms but for the Nov22 offer I recall it was a couple of days after claim form submitted.

Took a couple of weeks for a recent referral of mine between all their conditions being completed and the payment being made.

Thks, had a feeling this one might take a bit longer than Nov22 given the increased number of requirements to qualify for the former.