Direct debits have not transferred with CASS

DrGen

So an update is that Triodos offered us £50 in compensation after admitting the error was theirs. This was in the context of their thinking that after we flagged the error Starling would set up the debits but I have explained Starling informed us this wasn't possible and so we have had to do every single one ourselves (13 debits in total). I've said that £50 doesn't cover the hours and hours of work this has involved! So they're looking into that further.

Starling have given us £35. I'm leaving that for now as it seems more appropriate to go after Triodos as the responsible party.

If we are not offered something substantially more generous then I will report to financial ombudsman.

Unfortunately we missed one debit and have been charged a late payment fee also which I expect one of the two banks to take responsibility for (starting with Triodos but Starling had informed us they would take responsibility for any such charges).

Honestly has been so stressful especially over the Easter holidays.

friolento

Did you / will you get a late payment marker on your credit files? If yes, you should insist that Triodos assume responsibility to remove it

DrGen

I think (hopefully) a late payment marker is unlikely as I noticed and paid only 3 days after the payment was due. However I have sent a query to the creditor involved just to check, and will check my credit report next month (no use checking now I think as nothing could have appeared yet).

Triodos Bank have paid the £12 penalty fee. They've now come back to offer us £150 by way of compensation for the error. I can find no guidance whatsoever on what is reasonable to expect in this case. We could really use the money right now and I don't want to say "no that's not enough" and they come back and don't give us anything. That said I think I'd have rather paid £150 to not have to deal with all of this! It really has been a huge faff and especially over school holidays with 3 kids(!) & spoiled a little holiday we took quite a bit.

I would be very grateful for opinions / perspective on what is reasonable. I have seen a mention of compensation being to "the value" (or a multiplier of that value) of the debits affected but in our case the debits affected include our mortgage and are worth somewhere between £1.5-2k which does seem excessive(!)

Thank you so much so far for everyone's advice.

eskbanker

DrGen said:

I can find no guidance whatsoever on what is reasonable to expect in this case.

[...]

I would be very grateful for opinions / perspective on what is reasonable. I have seen a mention of compensation being to "the value" (or a multiplier of that value) of the debits affected but in our case the debits affected include our mortgage and are worth somewhere between £1.5-2k which does seem excessive(!)

Perhaps worth reading the ombudsman article about how they categorise and value distress and inconvenience:

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/expect/compensation-for-distress-or-inconvenience

I don't know where you saw the reference to the value of the debits, but doubt that would be considered reasonable, and would personally see £150 as being in the right sort of ball park.

penners324

Starling's response about not being able to set the DDs up sounds like they have an automated system in place that once the switch has completed, cant be used.

A huge foul up by Triodos. 

Also winder how it's taken many hours to change DD instructions? Most providers allow this to be done online so takes a few seconds.

Katiehound

IMHO I think £150  is reasonable but of course that does not cover any late payment fees  etc. which one of the banks will cover. 

Of course you can now be wise after the event but in the past I have had the existing bank send me a list of payees & DDs before the switch has completed. (Hindsight is wonderfully useful!)

DrGen

Thank you so much these comments are really really helpful and I will look at the ombudsman advice.

Where I had seen to the value of the direct debit affected this seemed to be cases where a payment was actually missed or where a payment was continued in error leaving somebody out of pocket - obviously not really the same as with us (although that's only because of our hard work!)

Unfortunately several of the affected debits (mortgage, car finance, HMRC, life insurance, kids swimming lessons, council tax, council waste collection - cannot be sorted out by a web form I have had to either spend a long time waiting on the phone (especially for HMRC whom I had to call 4 times) and/or then be sent a form by email which then has to be printed and sent in the post. Because it has taken so long and I was trying to work around the kids over the holidays for some of the debits I have also had to manage a separate one-off payment over the phone to ensure no missed payments. So it really has been an absolute enormous faff(!)

Nevertheless that's not to say £150 isn't the best I can reasonably expect so I will just go on the ombudsman advice. Thanks again 

DrGen

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decisions-case-studies/case-studies/consumer-complains-bank-closes-account-instead-twin-sisters

I think there is a (not exact) parallel to this case where a current account was closed (for 7 days in total) in error and the person affected had to arrange some manual payments for cancelled direct debits taking "the better part of a day" to do so. The ombudsman ordered the bank award them £300 in compensation for inconvenience and distress.  So I think I will highlight this example to Triodos and hope they will pay a little bit more.

DrGen

If anyone is interested I sent the above case to Triodos and made some comparisons to my own case. They increased their compensation offer to £200 plus paying the £12 charge and I have settled for that as reasonable. It's possible the ombudsman might have asked them to pay more, but it's also possible I may have struggled to prove how much time I spent sorting it all out and that overall any extra cash might not have been worth the effort. Thanks all for the advice.

eskbanker

DrGen said:

If anyone is interested I sent the above case to Triodos and made some comparisons to my own case. They increased their compensation offer to £200 plus paying the £12 charge and I have settled for that as reasonable. It's possible the ombudsman might have asked them to pay more, but it's also possible I may have struggled to prove how much time I spent sorting it all out and that overall any extra cash might not have been worth the effort. Thanks all for the advice.

FOS doesn't calculate compensation on the basis of time spent at a daily or hourly rate, so there isn't any requirement to prove that....

• The time you took sorting out a mistake - we may ask you to provide some detail about what you did and the time this took. When considering your time and how you’ve been inconvenienced, we don’t usually consider, for example, someone’s hourly rate. Instead, we'll look at the overall impact the business's mistake had on you. 

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/expect/compensation-for-distress-or-inconvenience