Punjab International statements

thrifty_pete · 16 June 2018 at 7:02PM

I have a 5 year ISA with Punjab National Bank (International) but I don't get any statements from them. I thought with regulations being modernised, banks had to provide regular statements, or is that just for investment products with opaque charges? It would be reassuring after the alleged $2 billion fraud its parent company have suffered to know my money's safe!

Pete

colsten · 16 June 2018 at 7:51PM

A bank statement doesn't secure your money. FSCS protection does.

thrifty_pete · 16 June 2018 at 8:19PM

It's more about the evidence - if their back-office processes are all paper-based then you need to have physical evidence that they had your money and that you didn't withdraw it.
I'll give them a ring next week. Probably need to be on the phone for an hour, but there you go.

thrifty_pete · 24 July 2018 at 1:48PM

I've been chasing Punjab up - they say the statement was posted weeks ago but I haven't received it. Anyone else had this experience?

thrifty_pete · 10 August 2018 at 12:33PM

After a couple more phone calls it seems they sent the statement to an address I had moved from (and of course informed them in writing of the move) two years ago. It is strange as the records they had when I called them were of the new address, and indeed some correspondence (such as new tax information sharing rules) has been coming to my new address over the course of the last two years.
It is more !!!!-up over conspiracy, but the service they offer is not very good and this isn't helped by the very manual processes they have. You get the impression they write notes down on post-its and when they get lost, too bad.

veryintrigued · 10 August 2018 at 6:35PM

They're the worst bank I've ever dealt with.

After months of complete ineptitude I highlighted them to the Banking Ombudsman. They were of the opinion that if they want to run a business so unprofessionally then so be it.

Their lack of decent English and procedures means I won't ever deal with them again.

Good luck.

thrifty_pete · 16 August 2018 at 11:22AM

I think lack of perfect English per se is not a problem. It is the amateurish procedures and increased risk of a mistake happening, or mal intent by the staff if things are not tightly audited.
I am not quite sure what their motivation is in entering the UK market - as they are state-backed perhaps it is as a service to help Indian ex-pats with remittances. Or to make it easier for small businesses in the UK to trade with small businesses in India.

veryintrigued · 16 August 2018 at 6:43PM

thrifty_pete wrote: »

I think lack of perfect English per se is not a problem. It is the amateurish procedures and increased risk of a mistake happening, or mal intent by the staff if things are not tightly audited.
I am not quite sure what their motivation is in entering the UK market - as they are state-backed perhaps it is as a service to help Indian ex-pats with remittances. Or to make it easier for small businesses in the UK to trade with small businesses in India.

Their lack and grasp of correct English meant that for a period their internet login instructions were nonsense.

Coupled with a lack of quality English on the phone and little security checks to talk about ones account it was quite enough for me.

As I say.....good luck.

soulsaver · 8 September 2018 at 12:16AM

I had their 5 year stepped interest account.

I was getting an amazing 5.8% interest on a substantial sum last year.

However they issued written T&Cs to me at the start which they then breached. And IMO just lied ... in writing.. about them.

They rolled over and paid up on the (figurative) door steps of FOS.
Offered measly £25 compo for hours of detailed emails & calls.

See here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4977308

Failed to pay subsequent interest on time, failed to maintain the accounts (4 off) which, clearly, they were doing manually.

Failed to transfer funds out at the end of the period and failed to pay interest on the late payment.

Paid the final balances from a suspense account under another FoS threat/legal action.

Failed to supply tax certificates, without expediting and failed to provide for the last tax year... still o/s.

Their incompetence must leave them wide open to internal fraud IMHO.

But I'd dance with them again for 5.8% FSCS protected- 20 times the then BoE rate!

thrifty_pete · 9 September 2018 at 8:14PM

That all sounds a bit worrying. Perhaps this is how they do business in India? I need to recheck my statement in light of this. I remember in the mid 1980s when I had a National Savings account, the lady in the Post Office made a mistake in adding up my balance in the savings book and it was only discovered when it was checked at head office. That was over 30 years ago now! There are no Post Offices around here these days and National Savings don't even use them anymore do they?
I think these days now interest is paid gross, tax certificates are pretty much obsolete?
I think you need to work out how much your time is worth before using them again. It cuts costs to use the Ombudsman as their complaints department. 550 quid is very little these days. Presumably the Ombudsman will calculate the interest so the bank doesn't have to?

Punjab International statements

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free