Hi again,
I did not mention in my original post that the Co op bank dishonoured my cheque with the answer "no mandate". This was because even though my wife and I had handed the forms in to their branch in Belfast they had not updated thier computer system in a timely manner, timelines as follows, account openened and welcome to the Co-operative bank letter dated 25/10/14, cheque written on old account on 8/11/2014, switch completed from the Nationwide to the Co-operative dated 13/11/2014 then cheque "dishonoured and debited to my credit card account on 04/12/2014. This means they had the forms with my signature for in excess of a month and had not updated thier computer system.
Is "no mandate" a recognised "answer" when dishonouring a cheque ?
The Co-operative Bank say they tried to phone me twice to verify if the cheque had been written by me. both calls made to my home number. One call was recieved by my wife and she told the caller I was at work and asked could she take a message, she was told no and the caller hung up. My wife is a party to this joint account so they could have discussed thw matter with her but chose not to. They held in thier records my work and mobile numbers which they could have contacted me on, but did not try to ring me on either of those numbers. In fact, I believe they put very little effort in to trying to contact me to verify I had written the cheque.
Does BCOBS apply to the above ?
Moving on to the current account switch guarantee. The Payments council website frequently asked questions has the question "Will switching my current account affect my credit rating ?"
The answer, "No, providing you repay any outstanding overdraft on your previous account as required by your old bank or building society. If there are any problems with payments (as part of the switching process) your new bank or building society will correct them and ensure your credit rating is not affected."
I am writing to my credit card company as suggested but do you think I can force the Co-operative bank to comply with the current account switch guarantee ?
I think I will write back to the Co-operative as suggested before progressing the matter on to the Financial Ombudsman service. I believe that if I do not like the ombudsmans decision I can still progress the matter through the small claims route.
Other things the Co-operative bank failed to do include not telling me they had bounced my cheque which resulted in me raising a complaint against the Nationwide as I had thought it was them that bounced the cheque.
Also the cheque was made patable to the credit card company followed by my name as the account. eg XYX bank Ltd a/c little old me. They concentrated too hard on the signature missing from thier records and did not see that the drawer of the cheque and the beneficary account payee were one and the same which should have been recognised as meaning minimal risk to the Co-operative bank.
Sorry to have been so long winded but they had no right to dishonour my cheque !