Banks
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2022 4:20 pm
I’ve had no end of problems with banks and building societies over the years! Is it any wonder that they are closing down so fast with the levels of incompetence and downright bad attitude of some of their employees?
Here are some of my experiences.
Britannia building society
About 30 years ago, there was £250K taken from my Britannia building society current account (I only had about £1k in there), the same day the £250k was paid back in. I just thought it was a mistake by the bank, until the next month when there was £650 taken from my account in interest. I walked into the bank and told them that £650 was taken from my account, they said “it’s because you went overdrawn by £250K for a few hours”. Obviously, I did not have an arranged overdraft, but I’m pretty sure that if I wrote a cheque for £250K, they would not honour that cheque! It took me weeks to get the £650 back!
Royal bank of Scotland (RBS)
Ten years after that I had a Buy to let mortgage with the RBS, I only owed about £6k on the mortgage and wanted to pay it off. I telephoned them and they told me to go into my local branch and they would give me a settlement figure. I walked into the nearest branch (Blackburn), gave them a statement and told them that I wanted to pay off the mortgage. They asked me how much I owed? I told them that I did not know, but would pay the amount in full, once they told me the amount. They did not know and made me phone another branch from within their branch, it was amazingly difficult to pay it off. At that point I realised that it would probably have been easier to rob the bank with a sawn-off shotgun, rather than paying off the mortgage!
Skipton building society
In the early 2000’s I bought an house in Southport, and got the mortgage through the Skipton building society. They were quite strict and had some criteria that needed to be fulfilled for the mortgage. They insisted on an electrical inspection, which meant that a local electrician was employed to find faults with the wiring in the property, so he did his best to make up a load of nonsense and issued a report. A DPC was required for the property, so I got a guy I knew to install an electro osmosis DPC and he issued the guarantee etc. I took this guarantee and other documents, such as proof that the electrical work had been completed and I gave them to the Skipton building society. When it came time for me to sell the property a few years later, they had lost all the certificates and guarantees (luckily, they did not lose the deeds!). They were not even apologetic about losing them and offered no apology or compensation!
Santander
Then a few years back I was buying something from a UK company that I have dealt with lots of times previously using my personal account, but this time I used my company account (Santander). For some strange reason the transaction did not complete. I phoned my bank and they said “we do not allow you to send money to that company”
Obviously, I was livid! “You are telling me who I can and can’t send MY money to?”!
After giving the guy at the end of the phone a roasting, I thought I would open another business bank account, so I chose the Co-op. I telephoned them and spent 50 minutes on the phone, giving them all my personal and company details. The guy presses a button and says “your application has been rejected”, he did not know why, but said I would receive a letter through the post. I received the letter and it seems that Experian had flagged something up that stopped me from opening an account with the Co-op.
I phoned Experian, the woman on the phones asked if it was a personal reason, or business reason why I was denied the account, I told her that I did not know. A few minutes later she tells me that it’s a business reason and that I have to pay £99 to find out Obviously I was f*cking fuming at this point and asked the woman how they get away with running an extortion racket! I was so angry that I sent a letter to my local MP, who suggested that I join the FSB 
I used to write the odd cheque from my company bank account and the statement would arrive and it would say “duplicate cheque”, but the money was always deducted from my account. I didn’t really know what a “duplicate cheque” was! Obviously I know what duplicate means and what a cheque is, but could not understand why it kept appearing on my bank statements, until I wrote a cheque for a local Badger charity, which was bounced. It was returned to me with “duplicate” stamped all over it.
I started to look at the cheques and my old cheque book, and it turned out that all cheques in the new cheque book had the same cheque numbers as my old cheque book. I phoned up my bank and they didn’t seem to believe me. They even sent me a letter, basically asking me not to publish duplicate cheques- like I write the f*cking numbers on the cheques myself!
I walked into my local Santander branch in Darwen and showed them my cheque book and the old cheque book. They had absolutely zero interest, and just said “we don’t do business banking”, they did not even have the courtesy to look at the two cheque books and say something like” I’ve never seen anything like that before”, their only response was “I suggest you go to the post office”.
Nationwide
Then a couple of years back I received an invitation from the Nationwide for a low-rate personal unsecured loan, which was less than 2% interest, at the time I was paying 40% income tax, so borrowing money at 2%, then paying it off with money that you have paid less tax on in the following years makes perfect sense. I applied online and they needed proof of my earnings, I took one of the documents which proved my earnings to the branch in Blackburn and gave it to one of the employees to photocopy, they then tell me that the document I took was insufficient (even though it was listed on their website). Anyway, I was so annoyed with their incompetence, that I got the loan for a lower interest rate with First direct.
I’ve been with First direct for about 30 years and can honestly say that I don’t think I have ever had a problem with them at all!
Surely, it can't just be me that has these problems?
Here are some of my experiences.
Britannia building society
About 30 years ago, there was £250K taken from my Britannia building society current account (I only had about £1k in there), the same day the £250k was paid back in. I just thought it was a mistake by the bank, until the next month when there was £650 taken from my account in interest. I walked into the bank and told them that £650 was taken from my account, they said “it’s because you went overdrawn by £250K for a few hours”. Obviously, I did not have an arranged overdraft, but I’m pretty sure that if I wrote a cheque for £250K, they would not honour that cheque! It took me weeks to get the £650 back!
Royal bank of Scotland (RBS)
Ten years after that I had a Buy to let mortgage with the RBS, I only owed about £6k on the mortgage and wanted to pay it off. I telephoned them and they told me to go into my local branch and they would give me a settlement figure. I walked into the nearest branch (Blackburn), gave them a statement and told them that I wanted to pay off the mortgage. They asked me how much I owed? I told them that I did not know, but would pay the amount in full, once they told me the amount. They did not know and made me phone another branch from within their branch, it was amazingly difficult to pay it off. At that point I realised that it would probably have been easier to rob the bank with a sawn-off shotgun, rather than paying off the mortgage!
Skipton building society
In the early 2000’s I bought an house in Southport, and got the mortgage through the Skipton building society. They were quite strict and had some criteria that needed to be fulfilled for the mortgage. They insisted on an electrical inspection, which meant that a local electrician was employed to find faults with the wiring in the property, so he did his best to make up a load of nonsense and issued a report. A DPC was required for the property, so I got a guy I knew to install an electro osmosis DPC and he issued the guarantee etc. I took this guarantee and other documents, such as proof that the electrical work had been completed and I gave them to the Skipton building society. When it came time for me to sell the property a few years later, they had lost all the certificates and guarantees (luckily, they did not lose the deeds!). They were not even apologetic about losing them and offered no apology or compensation!
Santander
Then a few years back I was buying something from a UK company that I have dealt with lots of times previously using my personal account, but this time I used my company account (Santander). For some strange reason the transaction did not complete. I phoned my bank and they said “we do not allow you to send money to that company”
Obviously, I was livid! “You are telling me who I can and can’t send MY money to?”!After giving the guy at the end of the phone a roasting, I thought I would open another business bank account, so I chose the Co-op. I telephoned them and spent 50 minutes on the phone, giving them all my personal and company details. The guy presses a button and says “your application has been rejected”, he did not know why, but said I would receive a letter through the post. I received the letter and it seems that Experian had flagged something up that stopped me from opening an account with the Co-op.
I phoned Experian, the woman on the phones asked if it was a personal reason, or business reason why I was denied the account, I told her that I did not know. A few minutes later she tells me that it’s a business reason and that I have to pay £99 to find out
Obviously I was f*cking fuming at this point and asked the woman how they get away with running an extortion racket! I was so angry that I sent a letter to my local MP, who suggested that I join the FSB I used to write the odd cheque from my company bank account and the statement would arrive and it would say “duplicate cheque”, but the money was always deducted from my account. I didn’t really know what a “duplicate cheque” was! Obviously I know what duplicate means and what a cheque is, but could not understand why it kept appearing on my bank statements, until I wrote a cheque for a local Badger charity, which was bounced. It was returned to me with “duplicate” stamped all over it.
I started to look at the cheques and my old cheque book, and it turned out that all cheques in the new cheque book had the same cheque numbers as my old cheque book. I phoned up my bank and they didn’t seem to believe me. They even sent me a letter, basically asking me not to publish duplicate cheques- like I write the f*cking numbers on the cheques myself!
I walked into my local Santander branch in Darwen and showed them my cheque book and the old cheque book. They had absolutely zero interest, and just said “we don’t do business banking”, they did not even have the courtesy to look at the two cheque books and say something like” I’ve never seen anything like that before”, their only response was “I suggest you go to the post office”.
Nationwide
Then a couple of years back I received an invitation from the Nationwide for a low-rate personal unsecured loan, which was less than 2% interest, at the time I was paying 40% income tax, so borrowing money at 2%, then paying it off with money that you have paid less tax on in the following years makes perfect sense. I applied online and they needed proof of my earnings, I took one of the documents which proved my earnings to the branch in Blackburn and gave it to one of the employees to photocopy, they then tell me that the document I took was insufficient (even though it was listed on their website). Anyway, I was so annoyed with their incompetence, that I got the loan for a lower interest rate with First direct.
I’ve been with First direct for about 30 years and can honestly say that I don’t think I have ever had a problem with them at all!
Surely, it can't just be me that has these problems?
