What's going on here - I don't understand?!

shellsuit

I'll try to keep it simple, please bear with me!

Me & OH have a joint account with Natwest whch has been open for a few years now.

A couple of months before Christmas, OH opened his own current account with Natwest.

On receiving all the paperwork, he went to register his account online for online banking.

It asked him if he already had a customer number, so he entered the one we use to log into the joint account.

The next thing that happened was I received a letter asking my permission for OH to use the customer number we were using for our joint account, (of course I agreed, we had both been using it to log into the joint account!), I signed the letter and sent it back and thought nothing of it.

I happened to mention today, that the set up was different to our old bank (Lloyds) as we had a joint account there, but couldn't see each others accounts, just our own and the joint account, but with Natwest, if I log into the joint account, I can also access his own account too.

He popped into the bank today to query it at around 3.30 and rang me at 4.28 to say he had just left.

Apparantly, there has been a HUGE balls up somewhere, as I should never have been able to access his account.

He should have had his own customer number to log into his with and his account should never have been placed along with mine where I could access it.

Lady in the bank was VERY apologetic and made a few calls to various departments who too were very apologetic.

Thing is, the customer number for the joint account was meant to have been just for ME (first 6 digits are my DOB), but they have somehow added my customer number to his NEW account and according to the system, I don't have a customer number?!

I know it all probably doesn't make sense, I can hardly make sense of it myself!

What the ruddyhell have they done?

masonic

It sounds like they have just added his account to your customer number in error (after thinking it was his). It should be straightforward for them to fix it. All they need to do is remove the association between his account and your customer number, create a new customer number for him, and add his account (and also the joint account, presumably) to it.

shellsuit

masonic wrote: »

It sounds like they have just added his account to your customer number in error (after thinking it was his). It should be straightforward for them to fix it. All they need to do is remove the association between his account and your customer number, create a new customer number for him, and add his account (and also the joint account, presumably) to it.

That's what I said, but OH told me they told him they couldn't do that!

From what he told me, they have moved everything over to him and I shouldn't be able to access the joint account because the cus number for that is his......even though it's my DOB that it starts with.

They said they may have to give me a new customer number and leave him with my one with my DOB??

I'm clueless.

Surely, like you said, all they have to do is put the customer number back onto the system with my details and issue him with a new customer number so he can log into his own account and I won't be able to access it.

Mikeyorks

shellsuit wrote: »

It asked him if he already had a customer number, so he entered the one we use to log into the joint account.

..... all appears to flow from that? Banks often group view access under a unique customer ID. But they normally control it .... so a bit daft to allow a customer to specify one!

Similar problem here (different Bank) ... and I suspect similar cause :-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=683423

shellsuit

Mikeyorks wrote: »

..... all appears to flow from that? Banks often group view access under a unique customer ID. But they normally control it .... so a bit daft to allow a customer to specify one!

Similar problem here (different Bank) ... and I suspect similar cause :-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=683423

Thanks for that link

I'll just have to wait until the bank ring OH and see what they say.

natweststaffmember

That is not what has happened from my understanding. Each customer has their own unique customer identification number(CIN), both you and your husband's number will be different. It seems to me as though potentially his account has been opened under your CIN number which is a big balls up. They would have had to transfer the account to his CIN number thereby removing the access online for you to view his current account. The online system itself would have allocated a separate password for each of you and a separate internet sign in as the first 6 digits are date of birth. It is a balls up and one that they will have rectified. That is a technical explanation but I hope you understand my explanation.

shellsuit

natweststaffmember wrote: »

That is not what has happened from my understanding.

Each customer has their own unique customer identification number(CIN), both you and your husband's number will be different. So when we opened the joint account, we would have both been assigned a unique CIN?

It seems to me as though potentially his account has been opened under your CIN number which is a big balls up. How would this happen?

They would have had to transfer the account to his CIN number thereby removing the access online for you to view his current account.

The online system itself would have allocated a separate password for each of you and a separate internet sign in as the first 6 digits are date of birth. The online system didn't allocate any password, I chose the password. Are they meant to allocate them?

It is a balls up and one that they will have rectified. One that they will have rectified? Don't you mean one I hope they will rectify?

That is a technical explanation but I hope you understand my explanation.

What will happen now then? Why can't they just assign my OH new unique details so he log into his account without me having access to it?

He was told someone would call him this afternoon/evening regarding all this, but nothing. :rolleyes:

natweststaffmember

I will address each point you made. When you open an account with NatWest each of you are allocated what is called a CIN number or Customer Identification Number.

How the error could happen? Human error and a complete balls up.

When you first log in to internet banking, the first screen has a number you have to type in which is 6 digits or date of birth plus 4 digits at the end, so for example, 0101081234 so date of birth being 1st January 2008 plus four digits. This is before you are asked for passwords.
You and your husbands first part of the online security should be different UNLESS you were born on the same day.
The reason I am using SHOULD and WOULD is that I do not have your details in front of me so cannot be 100% certain. BUT if they have done all the steps I think that they have done then it will have been rectified.

shellsuit

natweststaffmember wrote: »

I will address each point you made. When you open an account with NatWest each of you are allocated what is called a CIN number or Customer Identification Number.

How the error could happen? Human error and a complete balls up.

When you first log in to internet banking, the first screen has a number you have to type in which is 6 digits or date of birth plus 4 digits at the end, so for example, 0101081234 so date of birth being 1st January 2008 plus four digits. This is before you are asked for passwords.
You and your husbands first part of the online security should be different UNLESS you were born on the same day.
The reason I am using SHOULD and WOULD is that I do not have your details in front of me so cannot be 100% certain. BUT if they have done all the steps I think that they have done then it will have been rectified.

Thanks ...