Cynergy bank messed up my reinvestment

Trisha421

My Cynergy 1yr fixed rate bond matured Nov 1st. They asked if i wanted to setup auto renew a while before maturity but I chose no. To back up my decision, and because they are very poor at communication,(problems in past) i sent a secure message a week prior saying do NOT auto renew and to transfer my funds to my nominated account Nov 1st.
On Nov 2nd the Cynergy website showed my funds had not been sent to my bank but instead had been renewed with Cynergy and moved to a 1% savings account. I tried to withdraw using their website but wasn't allowed. I sent another message asking for clarification to why this was happening. The same thing happened today (4th Nov). I rang and the customer service guy was very unwilling to say anything more than the fact that their system had been down all weekend and they have a backlog of transfers to complete. He was unable to tell me when I would get my money. He also was unable pass me onto someone else to speak to. I filed a complaint.
I was supposed to move my money into a great high rate 3yr bond today with Raisen but unfortunately the deadline is end of day. Am I entitled to any compensation? Very disappointed this sort of thing can happen and certainly Cynergy should be held responsible. The bond is for a very large sum of money and other people might have had house deposits and similar deadlines to pay. I dread to think!

ChewyyBacca

They are horrible in communication & customer service
I had multiple complaints about cryptic messages, incorrect information, withdrawals unrealiable, sometimes taking 3 days and at times within 5 minutes in destination account
My last complaint about incorrect information given got acknowledgment in 5 days & someone called after 26 days to discuss it! Still no resolution
I dont expect any resolution, havet cleaned out all my cynergy bank accounts, all 3 of them now sit at zero balance

paul235

I was going to transfer my ISA to them but I will go elsewhere.

eskbanker

Trisha421 said:

My Cynergy 1yr fixed rate bond matured Nov 1st. They asked if i wanted to setup auto renew a while before maturity but I chose no. To back up my decision, and because they are very poor at communication,(problems in past) i sent a secure message a week prior saying do NOT auto renew and to transfer my funds to my nominated account Nov 1st.
On Nov 2nd the Cynergy website showed my funds had not been sent to my bank but instead had been renewed with Cynergy and moved to a 1% savings account. I tried to withdraw using their website but wasn't allowed. I sent another message asking for clarification to why this was happening. The same thing happened today (4th Nov). I rang and the customer service guy was very unwilling to say anything more than the fact that their system had been down all weekend and they have a backlog of transfers to complete. He was unable to tell me when I would get my money. He also was unable pass me onto someone else to speak to. I filed a complaint.
I was supposed to move my money into a great high rate 3yr bond today with Raisen but unfortunately the deadline is end of day. Am I entitled to any compensation? Very disappointed this sort of thing can happen and certainly Cynergy should be held responsible. The bond is for a very large sum of money and other people might have had house deposits and similar deadlines to pay. I dread to think!

Sounds like there are three separate issues at play here:

1. Processing of maturity instructions - if they accepted your instruction to pay out the proceeds to an external account then obviously this is what they should have done, was there any indication (within the maturity notification or Ts & Cs) of whether this would be done on the maturity date or any other date, such as the next working day or whatever?
2. Unavailability of services at the weekend - it seems they had maintenance activity scheduled this weekend: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81081976/#Comment_81081976, what message did you get when you tried to withdraw?
3. Backlog today - regardless of any hangover from the weekend, they're obliged under the Payment Services Regulations to complete payment transactions by the end of the next working day, so if you initiated a transfer today then it must complete by this time tomorrow.

Trisha421

Hi,
ty for your reply:
ok, I was sent an email from them last month which said bond would not autorenew and if i didn't contact them with specific instructions then the money would be available from November 1st if I wanted to withdraw it. 

I didn't get told about the scheduled maintenance.

"what message did you get when you tried to withdraw?"

There is no option to do it. On my other account there is.
The customer guy actually said they knew the withdrawal facility wasn't working for me and would try and get it set back up by end of day.

"so if you initiated a transfer today then it must complete by this time tomorrow."
I didn't initiate a new one as the C.S person was aware I had already instructed the money to be sent to my 'nominated account' . He was rather vague though and just kept repeating they had a backlog of transfers they were having to process manually due to their system being down and that he would raise a case with the bonds team over my complaint.