Shawbrook Bank - Ignores undelivered maturity emails- assumes you've received them.

HUMBUG

I've just been reviewing my savings accounts and found 2 cash ISAs that had matured back in Jan 25 & Feb 25  but where I haven't received any maturity communications (either by post or email)

No letters or emails offering me any options like they've normally done over the many years I've saved with them. 

I went online and found that they had moved my matured cash isa's into some holding ISA account paying 0.1%  .  

Both my cash isa's were fairly considerable amounts and I've lost a fairly large chunk of interest amounting to about £670  if I'd had  opted to reinvest at 4.4% into another 1 year fixed cash ISA. 

Further, I looked at the documents section within my online account and there are copies of letters claimed to have been posted to me in Dec 24  and Jan 25  forewarning me of maturity and offering me various options . I never received those letters or any emails forewarning me about the maturity of my cash ISAs (which I normally received regularly over the last 7 years).

I've requested their customer service people to investigate what's happened because they have been making 'improvements' to their online systems and I am guessing something got broke (ie. failure in their automated processes regarding maturity of fixed savings). 

Has anyone else experienced the same issues?

refluxer

I've never received physical letters through the post from Shawbrook, which is common for the majority of banks who operate wholly online. 

When they send documents to your online account, you should get an email notification that they've done this, with titles like 'You've got a message' or 'New eDocument'. Email notifications specially about maturity of fixed ISAs are entitled 'Important Message - Your Fixed Rate ISA Bond is about to mature'. They often contain very limited information and require you to log in to online banking to check the full message.

Obviously Shawbrook would need a valid and current email address for you to receive those emails though.

VNX

Seems unusual

Personally I’ve always had emails from shawbrook saying I have a new message / document to read on my account 

HUMBUG

refluxer said:

I've never received physical letters through the post from Shawbrook, which is common for the majority of banks who operate wholly online. 

When they send documents to your online account, you should get an email notification that they've done this, with titles like 'You've got a message' or 'New eDocument'. Email notifications specially about maturity of fixed ISAs are entitled 'Important Message - Your Fixed Rate ISA Bond is about to mature'. They often contain very limited information and require you to log in to online banking to check the full message.

Obviously Shawbrook would need a valid and current email address for you to receive those emails though.

I've  done some more investigation and I can't believe what's happened.

Back in November 24 , my Plusnet broadband service failed and Openreach wouldn't fix the problem as it was on the old copper network which they were phasing out. Plusnet then offered me a fiber connection with their sister company EE . 

As soon as I moved over to EE , my old Plusnet webmail account was deleted. I very rarely used that webmail account and had setup my gmail to import any emails sent to my Plusnet Webmail. 

On checking my Shawbrook account which I've had since 2010, I checked my 'Profile' and it has my old Plusnet webmail address , not my gmail.

Therefore Shawbrook have been sending automated emails to my defunct Plusnet webmail account . 

But surely they should have noticed that their emails were being 'undelivered' , so why didn't they just text me on my mobile or just make a single cursory call to my mobile or landline number? 
If they had done that simple act then I wouldn't have experienced these issues.  I would have gone online and reinvested my matured cash ISA into one of their other fixed rate cash ISAs , which I've been doing since 2010.

I am hoping they will reinvest my matured Cash Isa's into their 1 year fixed rate Cash Isa's but backdate the start date.

IanManc

HUMBUG said:

refluxer said:

I've never received physical letters through the post from Shawbrook, which is common for the majority of banks who operate wholly online. 

When they send documents to your online account, you should get an email notification that they've done this, with titles like 'You've got a message' or 'New eDocument'. Email notifications specially about maturity of fixed ISAs are entitled 'Important Message - Your Fixed Rate ISA Bond is about to mature'. They often contain very limited information and require you to log in to online banking to check the full message.

Obviously Shawbrook would need a valid and current email address for you to receive those emails though.

But surely they should have noticed that their emails were being 'undelivered' , so why didn't they just text me on my mobile or just make a single cursory call to my mobile or landline number? 
If they had done that simple act then I wouldn't have experienced these issues.  I would have gone online and reinvested my matured cash ISA into one of their other fixed rate cash ISAs , which I've been doing since 2010.

If you had kept your email address up to date with Shawbrook none of this would have happened.

This is on you.

HUMBUG

IanManc said:

HUMBUG said:

refluxer said:

I've never received physical letters through the post from Shawbrook, which is common for the majority of banks who operate wholly online. 

When they send documents to your online account, you should get an email notification that they've done this, with titles like 'You've got a message' or 'New eDocument'. Email notifications specially about maturity of fixed ISAs are entitled 'Important Message - Your Fixed Rate ISA Bond is about to mature'. They often contain very limited information and require you to log in to online banking to check the full message.

Obviously Shawbrook would need a valid and current email address for you to receive those emails though.

But surely they should have noticed that their emails were being 'undelivered' , so why didn't they just text me on my mobile or just make a single cursory call to my mobile or landline number? 
If they had done that simple act then I wouldn't have experienced these issues.  I would have gone online and reinvested my matured cash ISA into one of their other fixed rate cash ISAs , which I've been doing since 2010.

If you had kept your email address up to date with Shawbrook none of this would have happened.

This is on you.

Not really , because they say the following in their terms and conditions:

14.9 . We will write to you before maturity through your online eDocuments or by post to remind you of the date that your fixed term ends.

So if they were unable to contact me by email to say there is an eDocument awaiting for me to read , then they should have posted a letter to me.  Basically they didn't bother to :

1. Phone my landline
2. Phone or SMS text my mobile
3. Post a written letter

They should have done due diligence in trying to contact me but didn't.

I've looked at the online edocuments (that I was unaware of)  and the rate they were offering at maturity time for a 1 Year fixed cash ISA was 4.49% .

So I am expecting them to reinvest my cash ISA's at that rate and backdate it to the maturity date.

PS . This is what Google AI says (but unsure if it is written in any Bank Regulations):

-------------------------------------------------------

If a bank attempts to communicate via an email that no longer exists, they should receive a bounce-back message indicating the email address is invalid. The bank should then investigate why the email is no longer valid (e.g., user changed their email, account closed, etc.) and update their records accordingly. 

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

1. Bounce-Back Message:

Most email systems will automatically send a bounce-back message (also known as a non-delivery report or NDR) back to the sender when a message cannot be delivered to a specific email address. This message will typically explain why the delivery failed, such as the address being invalid or the user no longer accepting emails at that address. 

2. Bank's Response:

Upon receiving a bounce-back message, the bank should:

Verify the email address: The bank should confirm with the customer or the account holder that the email address is indeed invalid. 

Update Records: If the address is confirmed to be invalid, the bank should update their records with the correct email address or the user's new contact information. 

Follow-Up: If the bank cannot verify the email address's validity or reach the customer, they should investigate further and may need to consider alternative communication methods (e.g., postal mail, phone call). 

3. Preventing Future Issues:

To prevent future communication issues, banks should implement procedures to verify and update email addresses periodically. This might involve requiring customers to update their email information regularly or using email verification tools to ensure that email addresses are valid. 

-------------------------------------------------------------

Rich1976

Surely you would know you had isas maturing when you took them out.
unfortunately I think the onus is on you to have made sure they had the correct email address and also to keep an eye on your accounts . It isn’t just down to providers to accept responsibility.
as regards to why they wouldn’t have contacted you due to bounced emails, I am guessing the letters are automatically so wouldn’t have any way of monitoring if they had been received or not.

i think sometimes it’s too easy to pass the blame to organisations rather taking responsibility ourselves. 

Barkin

HUMBUG said:

IanManc said:

HUMBUG said:

refluxer said:

I've never received physical letters through the post from Shawbrook, which is common for the majority of banks who operate wholly online. 

When they send documents to your online account, you should get an email notification that they've done this, with titles like 'You've got a message' or 'New eDocument'. Email notifications specially about maturity of fixed ISAs are entitled 'Important Message - Your Fixed Rate ISA Bond is about to mature'. They often contain very limited information and require you to log in to online banking to check the full message.

Obviously Shawbrook would need a valid and current email address for you to receive those emails though.

But surely they should have noticed that their emails were being 'undelivered' , so why didn't they just text me on my mobile or just make a single cursory call to my mobile or landline number? 
If they had done that simple act then I wouldn't have experienced these issues.  I would have gone online and reinvested my matured cash ISA into one of their other fixed rate cash ISAs , which I've been doing since 2010.

If you had kept your email address up to date with Shawbrook none of this would have happened.

This is on you.

Not really , because they say the following in their terms and conditions:

14.9 . We will write to you before maturity through your online eDocuments or by post to remind you of the date that your fixed term ends.

Which they've done, yes? They sent you a message via your online eDocuments.

Their T's&C's also say (paraphrasing) that it's your responsibility to keep your personal & contact details up to date & correct.

In your position I'd stop trying to deflect the blame onto Shawbrook, and hope for some sympathy & goodwill from them.

refluxer

HUMBUG said:

Therefore Shawbrook have been sending automated emails to my defunct Plusnet webmail account . 

But surely they should have noticed that their emails were being 'undelivered' , so why didn't they just text me on my mobile or just make a single cursory call to my mobile or landline number? 

Those emails are automated - there won't be anyone monitoring for any that are rejected. If their T&C's require you to ensure your email address is up to date (which is always going to be the case) then, as mentioned above, the onus will be on you to do that unfortunately, not on them to spot any problems. 

HUMBUG said:

So I am expecting them to reinvest my cash ISA's at that rate and backdate it to the maturity date.

There's no harm in asking but I expect the chances of them doing this are slim to none unfortunately, so you'll need to be prepared to write this one off to experience.

I would use this as a good opportunity to review your communication preferences with all the banks (and other, non-financial sites) you deal with, just in case there are any others that you've missed. Sticking to a solely web-based email service (like Gmail) definitely makes more sense these days as opposed to going with an ISP's email service that you're more likely to lose access to at some stage. 

Albermarle

Those emails are automated - there won't be anyone monitoring for any that are rejected. If their T&C's require you to ensure your email address is up to date (which is always going to be the case) then, as mentioned above, the onus will be on you to do that unfortunately, not on them to spot any problems. 

I am not a techie, but there must be some possibility that the e mails just disappeared into the ether, with no undeliverable message returned.
OP - Could be worth trying to send an e mail to your old address and see what happens.

MeteredOut

Albermarle said:

Those emails are automated - there won't be anyone monitoring for any that are rejected. If their T&C's require you to ensure your email address is up to date (which is always going to be the case) then, as mentioned above, the onus will be on you to do that unfortunately, not on them to spot any problems. 

I am not a techie, but there must be some possibility that the e mails just disappeared into the ether, with no undeliverable message returned.
OP - Could be worth trying to send an e mail to your old address and see what happens.

Even if the OP does send an email and gets an "no email found" bounce back, there is a very good chance that that bounce back email will have gone into the ether and not even reached Shawbrook (eg, if their reply-to address was not a valid mailbox), or even if it did reach Shawbrooks mail server, that they do not have systems in place to identify bounce back emails and action them.