Co-op Bank: Can They Really Be That Bad?

subjecttocontract

WillPS said:

I took @gsmh 's advice and killed off the packaged 'Everyday Extra' account we held with them.

Actually using the package account features was an absolutely miserable experience as these things go - but at least they made it relatively simple to kill off. I never managed to get the Assurant portal to work properly even after I had found my way in (not simple given they don't send you the IDs you need!).

Wife still has a month of arbitrary hoop jumping to get her last £25, then after that it'll be just regular savers until Coventry start sorting it out.

You need to hold a current account with the coop in order to have a regular saver.

WillPS

subjecttocontract said:

WillPS said:

I took @gsmh 's advice and killed off the packaged 'Everyday Extra' account we held with them.

Actually using the package account features was an absolutely miserable experience as these things go - but at least they made it relatively simple to kill off. I never managed to get the Assurant portal to work properly even after I had found my way in (not simple given they don't send you the IDs you need!).

Wife still has a month of arbitrary hoop jumping to get her last £25, then after that it'll be just regular savers until Coventry start sorting it out.

You need to hold a current account with the coop in order to have a regular saver.

Yep. They'll be sat there doing precisely nothing.

confederated

Interestingly the Co-operative Bank is sending out revised terms and conditions. Today's email contained this section, under the heading "When We Can Delay a Payment":

"We’re changing our terms to reflect that we can delay a payment that you’ve requested to be made from your account if we have reasonable grounds to suspect you’re sending an APP scam payment. If we delay a payment for this reason, it’s because we need time to contact you or a relevant third party to check whether we should make the payment. We’ll let you know as soon as possible if we delay a payment, and no later than the end of the next business day. We’ll also let you know about the reasons for the delay. And we’ll inform you of any information we need, or action you need to take, to help us decide whether to make the payment. We’ll do this by text message, email or through Online and Mobile Banking (if you’re registered). That’s unless the law or any regulation prevents us doing so. We won’t delay the payment any longer than necessary, and no later than the end of the fourth business day after we received your request. After that, we’ll either make the payment or refuse to make it. But we won’t delay the payment beyond the next business day after we received your request if we can’t establish we have reasonable grounds to suspect you’re sending an APP scam payment. Where we’ve delayed a payment, we’ll be responsible for any charges and interest you would have been responsible for as a direct result of that delay. This applies whether we decide to make the payment or refuse to make it."

Look at the time frames. You make a "faster" payment and if they decide to hold it, they won't tell you until 'no later than the end of the next working day'. In my experience many other banks contact you within minutes to say a transfer has been blocked.

Shocking.

eskbanker

confederated said:

Look at the time frames. You make a "faster" payment and if they decide to hold it, they won't tell you until 'no later than the end of the next working day'. In my experience many other banks contact you within minutes to say a transfer has been blocked.

They're not making any statement about how long they actually will take to review such payments, but are simply mirroring the timescales specified in the Payment Services Regulations 2017, as amended last October:

(2A) Paragraph (2B) applies where the following conditions are met—

(a) the payer’s payment service provider has established that there are reasonable grounds to suspect a payment order from a payer has been placed subsequent to fraud or dishonesty perpetrated by a person other than the payer; and

(b) such grounds are established by no later than the end of the business day following the time of receipt of the payment order.

(2B) Subject to paragraph (2C), the payer’s payment service provider may delay crediting the amount of the payment transaction to the account of the payee’s payment service provider for the purpose of contacting the payer or other relevant third party to make further enquiries in order to establish whether it should execute the payment order.

(2C) The delay referred to in paragraph (2B) must be no longer than necessary to achieve the purpose described, and in any event, no longer than the end of the fourth business day following the time of receipt of the payment order.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/752/regulation/86

confederated

That's as may be, but in my experience they are worse than almost any other bank I've been with. Only Triodos is worse. In a 10 day period they blocked three payments I made to my own accounts elsewhere and refused to add a note to my account to expect similar transfers to the same accounts in the future. Banks reserve the right to use the regulatory time frames, but in reality they rarely do. Triodos uses the 'by the end of the next working day' as their time frame for faster payments, and that it often the case. Bank of Ireland too. The Co-operative seems quite happy to use the maximum time available. It's not conducive to stress-free banking and every single transfer is made with trepidation.

eskbanker

Sure - I'm not trying to defend Co-op and make no comment about their actual practices, but was simply observing that the change to Ts & Cs reflects the recent amendment to the regulations, under which all banks are now permitted to take longer to review suspect transactions, so any that haven't already adjusted Ts & Cs accordingly are likely to do so in the near future....

HillStreetBlues

Is it normal when switching from the Co-op Extra account you get the £15 fee refunded when you haven't completed a full month?

jovial32

I signed up specifically to answer this question!  This thread came up on google when I was googling how awful the Co-op bank are.

Yes they are this bad!  They are a complete and total nightmare - incompetent, rude letters, jobsworth, in the stone age and did I say incompetent?

I don't bank with them but have a trust fund with them.  9 months later and two complaints and things are still going round in circles - one department doesn't know what the other one is doing - people tell you different things at different times.  And they are SLOW!  And have multiple paper forms which have to be filled in by pen - it's Dickensian.  And SLOW!  It's like talking to a brick wall.  Don't go anywhere near them is my advice. 

WillPS

At some point in the last 6 months Co op Bank have *finally* stopped the nonsense of having to call up to orally set a new 3D Secure password - 6 digit OTP codes are now being sent by SMS.

Not before time but credit where it is due for the improvement.