Co-op Bank (Smile) Incompetence

[ihatemybank]

In March 2009 I CCA'd the co-op (smile) they quickly responded and told me that they did not have a signed agreement. As the law was a bit fuzzy at that time I told them that I would be suspending payments until they provided me with at least a true copy.

 

I spoke to collections in May and the manager informed me that once the bank had provided me with a legible compliant CCA they would remove late payments and refund interest for the period of non compliance. Unfortunately I did not get this in writing.

 

As I was going on holiday in June, I did not receive a true copy until July 2009. I spoke to the bank and explained that I did not agree that they had provided me with a true copy as it was in fact blank and partially illegible. Despite this I was prepared to resume repayments on the understanding that the verbal agreement I had with collections manager was adhered to.

 

The co-op replied to say they do not have a record of this conversation ever taking place. Interesting though I have a letter from the co-op indicating that:

 

"as we have provided you with the required documentation we do not believe that we are in breach by reporting any late payments to the credit reference agency”.

 

I have since complained to the bank and part of my complaint refers to this letter and goes like this.

 

If we turn to this letter in particular point 4 you will see that (TS) states “as we have provided you with the required documentation we do not believe that we are in breach by reporting any late payments to the credit reference agency”.

 

The bank did not attempt to fulfil my request and its statutory obligation until the 19th May 2009, some two months after my initial request. In fact it was on record that I did not receive the true copy the bank sent on 19th May 2009 and so the first true copy was not actually received by me until June 2009. Therefore even if I agreed (which I don’t) that the bank had met its obligations under s78 (1) the bank surely has to admit that based on TS’s reasoning there was a breach up until June 2009 and late payments should not have been reported to the credit reference agency.

 

It could be argued that in point 4 TS was not representing the views of the bank but instead described his own views of what the consequences are of a breach of Section 78(1). If this is the case then this only strengthens my contentions that the bank employees have not been sufficiently trained to deal with these types of complaints and in fact they are actually hindering customers with their apparent lack of knowledge and ability to provide consistent information. In the alternative if TS does represent the views of the bank then you should agree to suppress the late payment information over this period on this evidence alone.

 

I have basically found that three different employees of the bank have very limited knowledge when it comes to complaints of this nature and I have received conflicting advice. In light of the recent judgements I am obviously keen to rectify the damage to my credit file on the back of the verbal agreement with collections.

 

I am interested to know whether there are any other co-op customers who have had similar dealings or have been promised similar outcomes by the collections teams? I strongly believe that the co-op do not know or have not previously known how to handle such requests and rather than refer to legal they have just said and wrote whatever they wanted at the time.

[pompeyfaith]

is this post complete? As im unsure if u are after advice

[ihatemybank]

Hi,

 

I have had a long standing dispute with the Co-Op (Actually a Smile Visa account) since march 2009.

 

Basically I requested a copy of my agreement however I was miss advised by the Collections department Manager with respect to making the minimum payment.

 

Co-Op didnt attempt to provide me with an agreement until May 2009 at which time I had already ceased payments to the account. After speaking with the Collections Manager I was advised not to make repayments until I was happy with the copy agreement provided. In fact Collections Manager who shall remain nameless (unless anybody else has had similar experience) stated that once I had received a copy of agreement that I was happy with they would remove derogotory status on the account with CRA and remove any accrued interest throughout the period of non compliance.

 

Of course this information (with hindsight of Mcguffick judgement) is not the case.

 

To compound matters I also received a letter stating that 'now that we have complied with your request we are not in breach by reporting late payments to the CRA'.

 

I have pressed the Co-Op on these two issues and they flatly deny that they gave this advice and of course my credit has been adversely effected.

 

Needless to say that the Co-Op wrote to me informing me that they no longer have a copy of the agreement in their archives but several months late payments will remain on my file.

 

My argument is that I was miss advised and their letter clearly communicates a confused message. My aim is to have the late payments removed.

 

Would be grateful for advice.

 

Cheers

 

IHMB

[MARTIN3030]

So was this all done in writing ?

[ihatemybank]

Hi,

 

I had an initial conversation with the Collections Manager in May 2009 who informed me that they had already sent out a copy agreement. I told her I hadn't received anything and that is when she advised me to wait until I received a copy agreement that I was happy with.

 

They kept sending me blank poor photocopied agreements that were partially illegible..

 

When I complained I receive the response 'now that we have complied with your request we are not in breach by reporting late payments to the CRA'. It all pointed towards a lack of training and miss information which has cost me in CRA data as when I tried to get the information removed as per conversation they refused and said it was factual.

[ukaviator]

I assume they have added late payment charges to the account, also any overlimit fees?

 

I would write to the Information Commissioner about the sending of your data while the account is in dispute.

 

Do you agree that you owe them money and not trying to wriggle out of paying it back?