Kent Reliance Maturing

Loads0Moneyknot

CheekyMikey said:

My wife got a letter from them a week before maturity…she simply filled in her preferred reinvestment option on the instruction form and returned it in the free postage envelope. She got an email a few days later confirming her instruction to withdraw the funds and today, the day following maturity, the funds are in our bank account. So very easy really. Having said that, I won’t use them again as I prefer online or app managed accounts plus of course their rates are poor…

I too received a letter but didn’t fill in the form and post it back because I only received it about 5 days before maturity.  They claim to send one out 14 days prior to maturity but I had to phone them, circa 7 days before maturity as I hadn’t received anything.  Therefore, because of the time line I sent them a secure message, via my online account, and then also followed this up with a phone call, two days later, to ensure that they had received my instructions - which they had.  That is why I am so angry that they have now put my funds into another of their own accounts, which is not what I instructed them to do. 

Loads0Moneyknot

Edit:  22:00 29th June and the money is still at Kent Reliance when it should have been in my bank account this morning.  No sign of anything pending for transfer so where do I go from here?  It is MY money and no one seems to care at Kent Reliance that I should be able to access it.
Even if they release it tomorrow it won’t reach my bank until Monday at the earliest.  
Anyone thinking of saving with Kent Reliance take this advice - steer clear.  
I have also issued a complaint against them them but, as seems to be their practice,  I have no acknowledgement but should hear back from them in 3-4 days!  Absolute shambles of a company. 

southone

Phone and raise it as a complaint all calls are recorded so if you know roughly when you made the calls they should be able to find them and ask for compensation

Loads0Moneyknot

southone said:

Phone and raise it as a complaint all calls are recorded so if you know roughly when you made the calls they should be able to find them and ask for compensation

Thanks southone.  Yes I have kept notes and times of all phone calls and have this evening put my complaint in writing, to back-up the complaint I made on the phone earlier.  

boingy

I'm genuinely surprised that KR are still going. I was sure they got swallowed up by a rival a good few years ago. Maybe I'm thinking of a different BS.

ForumUser7

boingy said:

I'm genuinely surprised that KR are still going. I was sure they got swallowed up by a rival a good few years ago. Maybe I'm thinking of a different BS.

I don’t think you’re wrong - Kent Reliance Building Society used to have a linked part and website called Kent Reliance Provident Society. That no longer exists, and they are simply Kent Reliance. OSB Group (One Savings Bank, an Indian company) now has Kent reliance (and charter savings bank) as brands in their portfolio.

Retired717

Surprised to hear so many negative comments.
Have been with KR for many years amongst others & yes they are a bit behind the times with their processes apparently they’ve been around for 150 yrs 😂 however never had a problem with maturing accounts or transfers always used the secure message route backed up by the maturity letter, which I agree does arrive late on occasions. 
Their rates have been competitive from time to time.
I live in Kent & originally they were based in Chatham with a uk call centre, they still have a few branches dotted around the SE.
Unfortunately they moved their call centre abroad & closed the Kent head office. 

They are run/owned by the One Savings Bank PLC.

 

Frequentlyhere

I'm not sure why you're surprised @Retired717 as you've spelled it out exactly yourself. 

They're "behind the times" and those outdated processes themselves don't work as intended: "arrive late on occasion". 

As I see it, these days the aim for banking platforms should be for the customer to almost never have to call in to a call centre and ideally not be writing handcrafted messages to a team either, providing they're comfortable with online.

With KR, they're just far too distant from that aim. People don't have the time/inclination to spend hours calling up call centres, and they shouldn't need to in this day and age.

Loads0Moneyknot

Morning all.  It is so interesting to read the different views on KR. When  I opened my first account I am sure they had a UK based centre and I had no problems, so no real occasions to contact them.  However, it looks as though now they have all their offices based in India (from what I was told by a UK rep.)  and perhaps that distance and non-contact with customers may be the reason for the nonchalant attitude at times.
I have gone online to check my account this morning and I am not even allowed to log in??  
I am hoping that this is because they have closed my account and transferred my money but am annoyed they haven’t let me know, so I could take copies of any final statements etc., messaging between us etc. 
I suppose another phone call is now needed to ensure that my money is finally on the move, (although I won’t see it now until next week) and that they haven’t just stopped me from logging on?

Bigwheels1111

Loads0Moneyknot said:

Morning all.  It is so interesting to read the different views on KR. When  I opened my first account I am sure they had a UK based centre and I had no problems, so no real occasions to contact them.  However, it looks as though now they have all their offices based in India (from what I was told by a UK rep.)  and perhaps that distance and non-contact with customers may be the reason for the nonchalant attitude at times.
I have gone online to check my account this morning and I am not even allowed to log in??  
I am hoping that this is because they have closed my account and transferred my money but am annoyed they haven’t let me know, so I could take copies of any final statements etc., messaging between us etc. 
I suppose another phone call is now needed to ensure that my money is finally on the move, (although I won’t see it now until next week) and that they haven’t just stopped me from logging on?

When you make your complaint, make sure you state how much time and effort its cost you, time on phone etc.

Plus the loss of interest, as new savings rate is 6.10% and its costing you money.

I did this with FD, when they held 3 very large payment to fund my three 5 year fixed rate accounts from Friday to Monday

Over £133 Plus good will gesture.

https://chartersavingsbank.co.uk/Products/FixedRateBond?utm_source=Moneyfacts&utm_medium=2YRFRBOND-CPC&utm_campaign=BondJul22