Tesco Bank emailed me saying they are Migrating to Barclays

eskbanker

Section62 said:

eskbanker said:

aurion22 said:

I objected to the sale to Barclays and have now made an official complaint to Tesco Bank. I do not want to bank with Barclays but, because I took out a Fixed Rate Savings account, Tesco Bank will not return my money until it matures in 2026!
I just want my money back.
:-(

What makes you believe that a corporate acquisition entitles you to break the terms of a fixed term product?

The flip side to that question might be what happens if someone (which certainly includes some regulars on this forum) has a lifetime ban from one of the banks which takes over (and fully absorbs) another bank with which that someone had a particularly favourable product (not necessarily fixed-term).

Could the bank (legally) offload that customer because they don't want to do business with them?  (I'm guessing 'yes')

I think it would depend on the reason for the ban, but customers should have some protection when it's a fixed term product, as terms that are too one-sided are likely to fall foul of consumer protection legislation, i.e. if the customer is locked in then it's unfair if the bank has too many unilateral rights.  The Tesco fixed term saver terms only allow the bank to close the account in fairly specific scenarios:

TheBanker

eskbanker said:

WillPS said:

eskbanker said:

aurion22 said:

I objected to the sale to Barclays and have now made an official complaint to Tesco Bank. I do not want to bank with Barclays but, because I took out a Fixed Rate Savings account, Tesco Bank will not return my money until it matures in 2026!
I just want my money back.
:-(

What makes you believe that a corporate acquisition entitles you to break the terms of a fixed term product?

It's an interesting question. If the Co-op Bank was taken over not by a building society but by, say JPMorgan Chase (who have a pretty terrible record "ethics"-wise, if you buy in to that), and a customer had taken a long-term fix with them because of their strong ethics record; would said customer have a valid case that the proposition they bought in to has been compromised by the transaction?

I suspect the answer is probably morally yes but legally no.

Of course this isn't exactly the situation described here (Tesco are hardly a particularly "ethical" company) but it's an interesting scenario.

Not convinced that 'buying into a proposition' is really a tenable argument, but as you accept, it's academic here!

Not sure what, if anything, Barclays and Tesco have done for those customers who now hold more than £85K in the combined body, as this would be a valid reason to seek some sort of response IMHO....

They have to allow customers to withdraw the excess, with no loss of interest or penalty. This part of the Scheme Document approved by the High Court. However the customer has to request said withdrawel within three months. 

Explained here: https://www.tescobank.com/assets/part-vii-email-standard-cover-letter/part-vii-email-standard-cover-letter.pdf