NatWest failed to close my account

jsrose

So in 2011 i did a bank switch from my NatWest current account and as far as i was concerned closed my account.  It has not showed on any credit agencies.

However, last weekend i attempted to apply for a Nat West credit card and when input in my details it said i was an existing customer and needed to apply via my online banking.  I called NatWest and it appears my account was not closed and has lay dormant- or so i believe - nothing is showing up on their systems.

i have lodged a complaint and am waiting for a response from them.  

Had this happened to anyone else?  Obviously i am now unable to apply for the credit card.

kaMelo

I'm not actually sure what you're complaining about.

When you say "switched" did you use CASS or just change banks yourself?
Why can't you apply for a credit card? Just log in using your old details.
Many older accounts predated the agreement to share data with CRA's so would never show on any CRA records.

Edited as I didn't research before asking.

eskbanker

jsrose said:

So in 2011 i did a bank switch from my NatWest current account and as far as i was concerned closed my account.  It has not showed on any credit agencies.

kaMelo said:

When you say "switched" did you use CASS or just change banks yourself?

CASS wasn't around in 2011, so any switch done then would have been via what's now called the partial switching service, which doesn't automatically close the old account.

jsrose said:

Obviously i am now unable to apply for the credit card.

Why can't you apply for the credit card and why do you believe it's obvious?

TheElectricCow

Recently had a similar thing with RBS (essentially the exact same process as NatWest though) where I was still a customer due to having an old savings account still open after switching my current account away, therefore losing online access.

It was a fairly simple issue to resolve though and as explained on their website, all I needed to do was re-register for online banking. Little bit of a faff but they promptly sent out some details in the post, reactivated my online access, and everything was sorted out within a few days.

Could be different due to the age of the account etc. but probably worth a try if you haven’t already done so.