Progressive Building Society unable to get money out

Growingold

I requested a withdrawal online and they said they would send a code by email which never arrived.  Requested them to resend it they said it would be sent by WhatsApp but I do not use this App.  Any ideas welcome.  Thanks

marcia_

Growingold said:

I requested a withdrawal online and they said they would send a code by email which never arrived.  Requested them to resend it they said it would be sent by WhatsApp but I do not use this App.  Any ideas welcome.  Thanks

 Download WhatsApp 

happybagger

call them, I think there is someone on here who gets a code sent by email.

the change to only using WhatsApp was made without notification to customers

I also don't use WhatsApp but haven't had need to log in to progressive yet - January my account matures

Growingold

marcia_ said:

Growingold said:

I requested a withdrawal online and they said they would send a code by email which never arrived.  Requested them to resend it they said it would be sent by WhatsApp but I do not use this App.  Any ideas welcome.  Thanks

 Download WhatsApp 

Don't use it and don't want to.  Why should I have to?  Wasn't in their conditions for opening the account

flaneurs_lobster

Growingold said:

marcia_ said:

Growingold said:

I requested a withdrawal online and they said they would send a code by email which never arrived.  Requested them to resend it they said it would be sent by WhatsApp but I do not use this App.  Any ideas welcome.  Thanks

 Download WhatsApp 

Don't use it and don't want to.  Why should I have to?  Wasn't in their conditions for opening the account

Did you confirm the email address that they sent your code to? Does it agree with the one shown on your profile online? Checked Spam folder? 

Just looked at the FAQ on their site re Savings and 2FA

We will only use WhatsApp as a two-factor authentication when you wish to make a withdrawal to your nominated bank account, even if you have chosen authenticator App at login. When making the withdrawal the two-factor authentication code will be automatically sent to your registered mobile number. 

The language is a tad ambiguous but I think that means that the use of WhatsApp for 2FA is mandatory for making external withdrawals. 

Particularly stupid idea if true - has been imposed on existing customers without agreement and WhatsApp is by no means ubiquitous, even amongst smartphone users. 

Pretty sure that others here have got such codes sent by email but ProgBS's clumsy efforts to impose their preferred WhatsApp method is very annoying,

Keep_pedalling

Install Wattsapp, withdraw all your money, permanently delete Wattsapp. 

I find email authentication to be somewhat flaky, emails treated as spam, turning up ages after it should have or not at all. 

happybagger

These were the online services t+c's I agreed to when signing up in January 2025. And they remain the t+c's on their website currently.

4.3 We only use SMS (Text) / WhatsApp as a second factor authentication when you wish to make a withdrawal to your nominated bank account. You cannot use the authenticator app as verification for withdrawals or closure of your account online. 

As I said, they have made the change without notification to customers.
And evidently, without notifying themselves.

source document

clivep

happybagger said:

These were the online services t+c's I agreed to when signing up in January 2025. And they remain the t+c's on their website currently.

4.3 We only use SMS (Text) / WhatsApp as a second factor authentication when you wish to make a withdrawal to your nominated bank account. You cannot use the authenticator app as verification for withdrawals or closure of your account online. 

As I said, they have made the change without notification to customers.
And evidently, without notifying themselves.

source document

These conditions don't seem to be in the General Terms and Conditions.pdf that I downloaded when opening the account.

After I stopped getting SMS texts, and with not using WhatsApp, I downloaded the authenticator app and registered it as the alternative verification method. It appears from 4.3 above that I won't be able to make withdrawals using the authenticator app which rather defeats it's use as an alternative!

TheElectricCow

clivep said:

happybagger said:

These were the online services t+c's I agreed to when signing up in January 2025. And they remain the t+c's on their website currently.

4.3 We only use SMS (Text) / WhatsApp as a second factor authentication when you wish to make a withdrawal to your nominated bank account. You cannot use the authenticator app as verification for withdrawals or closure of your account online. 

As I said, they have made the change without notification to customers.
And evidently, without notifying themselves.

source document

These conditions don't seem to be in the General Terms and Conditions.pdf that I downloaded when opening the account.

After I stopped getting SMS texts, and with not using WhatsApp, I downloaded the authenticator app and registered it as the alternative verification method. It appears from 4.3 above that I won't be able to make withdrawals using the authenticator app which rather defeats it's use as an alternative!

I also use an authenticator to log on to avoid the need for WhatsApp and yet they still send my withdrawal codes via SMS… Not sure why  forcing the change to WhatsApp for logging on was necessary when they’re still using the regular text codes regardless. 

In any case I decided to ditch Progressive due to their really rather poor handling of this whole scenario. Not worth dealing with a BS who’ll make seemingly arbitrary changes to how funds can be accessed without giving any notice to customers.

flaneurs_lobster

TheElectricCow said:

In any case I decided to ditch Progressive due to their really rather poor handling of this whole scenario. Not worth dealing with a BS who’ll make seemingly arbitrary changes to how funds can be accessed without giving any notice to customers.

I wish I had your principles, but £300/mth @ 7%.......

happybagger

flaneurs_lobster said:

I wish I had your principles, but £300/mth @ 7%.......

... opening up the other can of Progressive worms... new customers can be bribed with 7% but existing customers remain stuck with 5.5% because they are "sticking to their terms" of not being able to close it...