Charter Savings Bank - a poor choice ?

refluxer

t0rt0ise said:

I've had problems too. I've used them before and they were fine, this time it took 6 weeks to set up an ISA and then they said that the transfer window was 30 days and that had now passed. It passed because they took too long, nothing to do with me. I have raised a complaint. We'll see if they can deal with that in any sort of timely fashion.

That's unbelievable ! I guess this just goes to show that rates aren't everything. Wishing now that I'd taken the second-highest rate available and had it sorted in a few days than going for the highest available and it taking a few months.

Thingamejigwotsit

refluxer said:

It's now 6 weeks since I applied to Charter Savings Bank to open a Fixed Rate Cash ISA and arranged to fund it via a transfer and I am still waiting to be accepted as a new customer.

As I was a new customer, I obviously had to go through the usual online ID/address verification checks and I also had to supply details for a nominated bank account, which was puzzling as I only wanted to fund the ISA via a transfer, but I accepted the fact that some banks might want a nominated account as a matter of course, no matter what type of account you're applying for.

Everything appeared to go smoothly but, a few days later, I received an email stating that they couldn't verify my nominated bank account. I've been using the same current account (with a major high-street bank) for well over 20 years and I've lived at my current address for the majority of that time too. I've opened accounts with dozens of banks and building societies over the years and never once had this current account questioned before.

I dutifully posted off a bank statement as proof and received it back through the post, along with a letter that stated it would be reviewed by the account opening team and I would receive my online banking details once the account was approved and open. That was 5 weeks ago.

I phoned Charter at the end of November and, after a half-hour wait on the phone, was told that it was still in the hands of the account opening team. The customer service assistant, while pleasant enough, couldn't pass me on to them to speak to them, nor could they provide any more details about how long this was likely to take. I've also emailed Charter more recently - they apologised for the delay and said they would try and speed things up. I've still not heard anything.

Now - I'm not an unreasonable customer and accept that banks may be stretched at the moment for various reasons, however I really don't think that 6 weeks is an acceptable time-frame for simply being accepted as a new customer - bear in mind that the ISA transfer I originally requested hasn't even started yet, so this delay is not due to the ISA transfer process (both banks also use the BACs ISA transfer service). I've applied to other banks as a new customer and arranged ISA transfers many times in the past and the whole thing has often been sorted in a matter of days, or a week or two at the most if paper forms are involved.

If Charter don't back-date the interest to the time of application then that will be unacceptable to me, as the ISA I want to transfer has been stuck on a poor rate for the last 6 weeks. If it wasn't for the fact that fixed rates have dropped considerably during that time, I would have already contacted them and told them to forget it. If this drags into the new year, I may yet do this anyway out of principal.

Has anyone else had similar experiences with Charter's inefficiencies or have I just been unlucky ?

Same issues here too, and incredibly poor communication from them. Have asked for the closure date to be reviewed but am not hopeful. I don't think they are geared up to deal with demand and their systems and processes are outdated. Will look to invest elsewhere.