Co-op £150 Switch & Stay Offer 27/9/24

Alexland

Morton37 said:

I will add that I've found their customer service atrocious. I've been repeatedly fobbed off, ignored and given contradictory and incorrect information.

Well I had some progress that the person who replied today accepted that the last person did not action my request to log a complaint and has now logged a complaint and given me a reference. Like dealyboy did I am tempted to log a follow-on complaint that my initial request to log a complaint was silently ignored.

Morton37 said:

After repeatedly pushing them for a specific reason, they're now saying the £1000 had to be paid in to the account more than 1 day after the switch completed.

Yet the T&Cs say the £1000 "can be transferred as part of the switch".

and "Any balances transferred as part of the switch will count towards the £1,000"

So how could the £1000 be paid in 1+ day after the switch completion date if it happens as part of the switch???

I just checked the small print of my offer period and yes it has to be after the switch completion date not just after the switch completes which IMHO is pretty unreasonable to ask a customer to remember for several weeks as most people having seen the transferred balance in their new account (which does qualify) would probably then think it is OK to get on with topping up the account to meet the £1k criteria if required. Thankfully I was busy that day doing other stuff so didn't fall into that loophole but probably would have if I was available.

Did you try logging a formal complaint as they are trying to screw you over with small print when you have otherwise made reasonable efforts to comply? If they find a loophole in my activity then it's not even obvious to their agents it's going to be something very obscure.

It's like they have an objective to needlessly disappoint a proportion of their new customers to save a few quid. If they don't want to payout in reasonable circumstances where the customer has genuinely attempted to comply then it would be better if they just didn't run the promo in the first place. Who are they supposed to be ethical towards? It's not their switching customers.

On the plus side if you did not receive a switch incentive this time you probably still qualify to do the whole miserable process over again and get stung and disappointed in a new way!

I suggest you keep pushing them as the way they are acting is really poor. When I was a student in the 90s then I was proud to bank with Coop but it may have gone to the dogs now. I remember going into my local Coop bank manager's wood panelled office and him explaining all the features of my first current account. I loved their expensive looking cheque book. Happy days no more.

Morton37

Petriix said:

The terms were really clear and also that issue was very specifically highlighted on here. It's annoying, but that "day after the switch completes" is a gotcha. 

How can the "day after the switch completes" term be reconciled with the following term in the T&Cs:

"Any balances transferred as part of the switch will count towards the £1,000" ?

This is surely a contradiction.

s71hj

Morton37 said:

Petriix said:

The terms were really clear and also that issue was very specifically highlighted on here. It's annoying, but that "day after the switch completes" is a gotcha. 

How can the "day after the switch completes" term be reconciled with the following term in the T&Cs:

"Any balances transferred as part of the switch will count towards the £1,000" ?

This is surely a contradiction.

Sadly it leads you by the hand into the trap.
On that basis I'm interpreting the following for the 1st £25 in a different way

'Now that you have received your £75 switch incentive payment, you are eligible for up to 3 months of £25 incentive payments into your current account. In order to be eligible for your first payment, you must complete the following criteria between 11/12/2024 and 11/01/2025'

I am taking the actions described FROM the 12th or at the latest on the 10th Jan because the 11th is ON the 11th or later not BETWEEN the 11th and 11th Jan.
Just makes you suspicious!!!

Middle_of_the_Road

Morton37 said:

Petriix said:

The terms were really clear and also that issue was very specifically highlighted on here. It's annoying, but that "day after the switch completes" is a gotcha. 

How can the "day after the switch completes" term be reconciled with the following term in the T&Cs:

"Any balances transferred as part of the switch will count towards the £1,000" ?

This is surely a contradiction.

Any money transferred over via the switch will count towards the £1,000.

I.e

If your transferred balance was £1k or over, that would have met the requirement.

If the transfer was sub £1k you would need to add additional funds to bring it up to the £1k requirement. 

IF you did this on the day of the switch, that would not qualify, unless you made further deposits up to the £1k (excluding the deposit made on the switch date) within the 30 day period.

It is a very unusual aspect of the terms and conditions usually encountered with switches, but it's plainly pointed out on the main offer page.

Please note:

Deposits and transactions made prior to the day after your switch completes will not count towards fulfilment of this criteria.

Emily_Joy

Does Co-Op send an email confirmation when you meet requirements for the first £25?

s71hj

Emily_Joy said:

Does Co-Op send an email confirmation when you meet requirements for the first £25?

Yes. Titled "Important information about your Switch and Stay Offer" from "applications ".

Emily_Joy

s71hj said:

Emily_Joy said:

Does Co-Op send an email confirmation when you meet requirements for the first £25?

Yes. Titled "Important information about your Switch and Stay Offer" from "applications ".

... meaning I need to send them a secure message again

Alexland

Emily_Joy said:

... meaning I need to send them a secure message again

Oh dear is this how we are supposed to spend the first 3 months of 2025 chasing £25 bonuses that don't pay? Maybe this is their way of punishing people they can see are only doing the bare minimum transactions and are clearly still running their main accounts elsewhere.

The only other time they annoyed me this much was about 15 years ago when I used to have a Coop Smile credit card and it was a really shiny gold thing that would impress people then shortly before expiry they reissued it as a ugly pink thing that looked like something Mr Blobby would carry with no explanation. Shame as the cashback rate was good but I couldn't use it in public it was so embarrassing.

miller

I did one of the previous Co-op switch offers and transferred in over £1,000 as part of the switch. I had to do a manual transfer of £1,000 to trigger the you've qualified email (which came through near immediately). It's clearly a bug in their implementation.

Morton37

Middle_of_the_Road said:

Morton37 said:

Petriix said:

The terms were really clear and also that issue was very specifically highlighted on here. It's annoying, but that "day after the switch completes" is a gotcha. 

How can the "day after the switch completes" term be reconciled with the following term in the T&Cs:

"Any balances transferred as part of the switch will count towards the £1,000" ?

This is surely a contradiction.

Any money transferred over via the switch will count towards the £1,000.

I.e

If your transferred balance was £1k or over, that would have met the requirement.

That's what I thought too.

My transferred balance from Barclays was £3k+, but they're still insisting it doesn't qualify.

There are two directly contradictory terms:

a) Your balance transfer (£1k+) does count if it's part of the switching process
b) Your balance transfer doesn't count unless it happens the day after the switch

Additionally, one of their staff told me via message that I'd correctly met all the criteria, and I just needed to wait a little longer for the £75 to land.

This message came within the 30 day period.

If she'd told me at the time that my balance transfer didn't count, I could have simply taken £1k out and paid it back in. So I was effectively lulled into a false sense of security.