incentives to switch accounts

DawnandRoss

in trying to switch current accounts on behalf of a relative with a cash incentive to do so I discovered that by being a POA on the account that we were switching from meant that the new account to be set up was rejected as was treated as a joint account. Because of this delay the accounts were switched eventually but the bonus wasn't paid because of the delay in obtaining the POA from the receiving building society which put the completion out of the end date. I think this is unfair Any advice?

Ergates

Raise a complaint with the bank.  

eskbanker

DawnandRoss said:

in trying to switch current accounts on behalf of a relative with a cash incentive to do so I discovered that by being a POA on the account that we were switching from meant that the new account to be set up was rejected as was treated as a joint account. Because of this delay the accounts were switched eventually but the bonus wasn't paid because of the delay in obtaining the POA from the receiving building society which put the completion out of the end date. I think this is unfair Any advice?

Can you clarify the exact sequence of events?  You don't 'obtain' a POA from a building society but can use one to open an account (for and on behalf of the donor) into which to switch, but that's a separate process from the switch itself anyway.

born_again

DawnandRoss said:

in trying to switch current accounts on behalf of a relative with a cash incentive to do so I discovered that by being a POA on the account that we were switching from meant that the new account to be set up was rejected as was treated as a joint account. Because of this delay the accounts were switched eventually but the bonus wasn't paid because of the delay in obtaining the POA from the receiving building society which put the completion out of the end date. I think this is unfair Any advice?

Correct action by bank.
As you are not account holder. You had no right to switch the sole account.

DawnandRoss

just to be clear about the POA and this switch, my relative was with me throughout the process and wanted to action this. It was that I had POA on the account we were switching from which they classed as a joint account. The account we wished to switch to was  going to be in the relatives sole name but after much investigation were informed that before we could switch we had to register a POA on the new account as well which also included a significant delay on their part. 

DawnandRoss

the incentive was running up to 31st March. we began the process 27th Feb .. Confusion arose when the original bank rejected the switch. I followed up with many phone calls and discrepancies because of calling the account a joint one ( it wasn't) it was that i was POA which they classed as a joint account..
This meant that i had to register as POA an the new account before the switch could take place.
I have complained to the Building society and calls never returned and because the switch was then done in April they say she didn't qualify! Which I think was unfair as many conversations with staff in branch and on telephone never said that she wouldn't qualify and they would support an appeal process which we have done. A top manager was supposed to call and discuss with me yesterday but surprise surprise never did.

eskbanker

I'm not aware of any restriction within the Current Account Switching Service that requires the new account to have POA if the old one did, but conversely I can't see why you'd switch from an account with POA to one without it, how would it have been managed otherwise?

Having said that, a sole account with POA is definitely not the same thing as a joint account, so shouldn't have been treated as such.

Building societies with current accounts and switching incentives are relatively uncommon, is this Nationwide?