Are Co-Op really ethical?

[fleeced_by_rbos]

I found this story, it is over 2 years old but has anyone seen any other reports on the claimed ethical policy of the Cooperative Financial Services group?

 

SchNEWS 539 - The ethical policies of banks like the Co-op and Standard Life are so full of holes [insert gag here...]

 

I like the mention of going £1 overdrawn and being charged £30. They do that to me all the time.

[SkemDosser]

LOL the co-op in general may try to be 'ethical' but their finance arm is as cut throat if not moreso than any other bank. They whopped charges on me and closed my current account immediately with the first whiff of my financial probs a few years ago [divorce, illness, usual suspects] and quickly dumped me onto Fredricsons/Bryan Carter. That was after years of being a customer and a member of the Society itself since time began.

 

Nope, the Co-Op Bank has as a few scruples as any other big bank but go the extra mile by annoyingly making out they're all caring and 'ethical.' Nothing but candyfloss. Whatever, I am about to do battle with Bryan Carter now armed with what I've learned here and i'd never thought I'd see the day, but I'm looking forward to it, after all the pooh they've piled on me over the years

[rev.ian]

Hi years ago The Co-op sold me a loan with PPI all well and good till I got ill, then the PPI didn’t cover my illness. Far from being understanding they gave the case to every ones friend Bryan Carter & Co., and to this day I am paying him £5.00 per month.

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Hi Rev Ian,

 

Perhaps you could claim the PPI payments back due the possibility of it being "mis-sold". Depending on how long ago the load agreement was made, you could also request your CCA from both Bryan Carter and Co-op.

[fleeced_by_rbos]

SkemDosser - what strikes me is that it is worse for a company to claim it is ethical and not behave so than just to be unethical while not claiming any different.

 

So Co-op in my mind are the worst of the bunch. At least the major banks don't pretend to be anything they are not.

 

Banking was never an honourable profession as others have mentioned!

[rev.ian]

Hi fleeced_by_rbos I am going down that road but don’t want to take anymore of this thread up have my own thread Bryan Carter Again You will see how THE NOT SO CO_OPERATIVE BANK are behaving now.

[lexis200]

SkemDosser - what strikes me is that it is worse for a company to claim it is ethical and not behave so than just to be unethical while not claiming any different.

 

So Co-op in my mind are the worst of the bunch. At least the major banks don't pretend to be anything they are not.

 

Banking was never an honourable profession as others have mentioned!

 

I completely agree. Co-op are the smallest balance of all my cards, but were terrible with agreeing a payment plan when our income evaporated.

 

I am currently paying them £10 a month on an £850 debt - and they've only just stopped charging a fiver interest on that after a rather snotty phonecall I had with them a few months ago. Compare that with my other cards, who may have taken some persuading, but all accepted my pro-rata offers and froze interest etc without issue. My next nearest card is about 4k, but I'm only paying them about £6.50 a month!

 

The amount they should be getting, if they stuck to the pro-rata agreement like all the rest, would be about £1.20. The extra £8.50 is taken out of my grocery budget, as we really couldn't afford more than we offered, so thank you Co-Op, you bunch of bankers.

 

Ethical my bum:mad:

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Laughably given the way Un-co-op seem to behave, they sent me an email containing the following link to vote on their ethical policy!

 

The Co-operative | 2008 Ethical Policy vote

 

I'd say I strongly agree with all of the points in their policy and would add some regarding how they treat customers, but what is a policy worth if they ignore it as they see fit?

[phatram]

No !!!

[pompeyfaith]

If you really want to know how the un-ethical bank operate then read here:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/payment-protection-insurance-ppi/151052-pompeyfaith-co-op-ppi.html

 

and here

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/payment-protection-insurance-ppi/178529-ive-done.html

 

cant wait for my day in court.

 

Regards

 

Pompeyfaith

[fleeced_by_rbos]

I've had a nice letter from Power 2 Contact who are threatening to call around to my home to have a nice chat. Maybe some biscuits and afternoon tea is in order while I tell them to go and **** themselves thrice.

 

More scare tactics from the so called "ethical Co-operative Bank".

[fleeced_by_rbos]

I checked back through my statements online and although I can only go back a year I've found over £500 worth of charges. I'm sure some people have had more extorted from them than that, but still it is quite a bit of cash to have leeched from you by your bank.

 

Anyways, I recently complained in a secure message about another £60 of charges for 2 direct debits bouncing on the same day as a CHAPS payment went in and they responded with the usual "in accordance with our published tarriff" bull that would make any politician proud.

 

So I have told them that I look forward to having the money back + interest once the court case / OFT ruling concludes. They said that the charges are considered "valid". By whom I am not sure, as Mr Justice Andrew Smith has never said that, the high court believes they are subject to the law and the OFT has given a preliminary ruling that they are unfair.

 

What f******* planet are these greedy, arrogant, scumbags on?

 

[end rant]

 

For now, I consider these charges to be a forced savings account to which I will be withdrawing with accrued interest once the ruling takes place.

[smouk]

The 'ethical' policy idea is actually commendable. However, much like Robin Cook took the idea of an 'ethical foreign policy' too far for the Reverend Blair's liking and got booted out of harms way, so the Co-op's ethical policy has been, er, 'steered'. For example, the bank will not invest in or offer banking services to the merchants of death (armaments manufacturers and/or dealers) but still manages to extend very favourable overdraught terms to the Labour Party who have acquired quite a knack for joining in illegal wars.

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Just got this in email from Smile, I wonder if this is one of the first signs that banks have to think about phasing out their charges or at least lowering them to appear fair. Perhaps another little cynical tactic by the legalised criminal organisations we call banks:

 

IMPROVEMENTS TO THE WAY WE CHARGE FOR INFORMAL OVERDRAFTS AND UNPAID ITEMS

Dear MR FBR

We have reviewed and updated the way that we calculate and apply informal overdraft charges and unpaid item charges on your smile current account. These changes are effective from 3rd July 2009.

At the moment, if you request an overdraft informally (that is to say by making a payment or withdrawal from your account which would take you overdrawn or over your agreed overdraft limit, without agreeing this with us first) we may charge you some or all of the following charges:

 

• Informal Overdraft Service Charges (the Monthly Service Charge and Daily Service Charge), which are charged when your account becomes overdrawn or the overdrawn balance increases, respectively
  
• Unpaid Item Charge, which is charged when we have returned a cheque, standing order or Direct Debit as we have been unable to pay it.
  

We are making three main changes to the way that these charges are calculated and applied, as follows:

helping with infrequent charges

 

However carefully you manage your account you may occasionally go overdrawn when you hadn't intended to, resulting in charges. In future, we will automatically waive these charges when you request an informal overdraft, providing that:

 

• you have maintained your account in credit (or within any agreed overdraft limits) for the previous 366 days, and
  
• you return your account to credit (or inside an agreed overdraft limit) within 6 working days.
  

putting an upper limit on charges

 

In 2007 we placed an upper limit on our Informal Overdraft Service Charges of one Monthly Service Charge and four Daily Service Charges per month (which is currently equivalent to £300 per quarter).

We are now improving this by:

 

• limiting your charges to £150 per quarter (if we have provided you with any refunds during that quarter then this amount will increase by the amount of those refunds)
  
• including Unpaid Item Charges in addition to Informal Overdraft Service Charges within this upper limit.
  

keeping you informed

 

To ensure that you can plan for the payment of any charges you incur we think it is important that we tell you about the charges before we apply them to your account. We already do this for Informal Overdraft Service Charges and Debit Interest, where we provide a message on your online statement detailing the charges and interest incurred in the previous month and advising you when they will be applied, generally about 2 weeks later.

We are now improving this by including Unpaid Item Charges in this 'pre-notification'.

The calculation and application of debit interest and all other charges will continue as previously advised.

These changes form part of the Account Charges Leaflet for your account, effective from 3rd July 2009. If you would like a copy of this or if you have any further questions, please refer to

our website.

Yours sincerely,

 

smile

[lexis200]

OH had a letter from Smile yesterday (from my pet hate of a woman Val McCarren who 'deals' with my Co-op card) telling him due to his account conduct they had cancelled all direct debits.

 

He'd had a payment go in a few hours after some d/d's had gone out, so for about a nanosecond was over his overdraft - this is what they decided warranted stopping his d/d's.

 

I wouldn't have had such a huge issue with this, but the letter was dated the 18th, but only sent on the 22nd, and then by 2nd class! As a result he had a load of 'why haven't we been paid' letters and emails because he was unaware it had happened!

 

It really irks me that if they want a payment from you, they are on the phone within the hour, but when they are cutting off possibly essential d/d's, it's ok to send a letter by 2nd class post.

 

I really really hate the Co-op, but it's ok coz I cancelled my standing order to the bas***ds a couple of days ago due to their amusing CCA:D Oh, and the termination notice I've got which sadly doesn't have a friend in the form of a DN:D

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Oh they love doing that don't they! I think it is childish spite as they are rather adolescent in their dealings with customers.

 

They seem to be getting worse, I don't think they are a bank worthy of survival (as if any really are from a purely darwin point of view!).

 

They failed to take payments from my account for a loan, despite me sending them secure messages repeatedly asking them to do so. Now they are threatening me with a default if I don't pay them!!! They are such morons....very stupid, very childish, very unethical, very unprofessional, just a sorry excuse for a business.

[jamesbond]

they have no ethics at all about you or banking, its just another cash cow dressed up...use the mattress!!!!:grin:

[colinisnotmyname]

hi

 

just found this thread, in the light of the recent events surrounding the cooperative bank. I'm considering writing a letter of complaint.

 

It's a long story, Lowell Portfolio declared me bankrupt, I tried to fight this but ended loosing my house, I have a solicitor challenging the charges associated with this, Lowell have not come forward for any money! but the coop have. The circumstances of my bankruptcy are complicated, but I would live to compose a letter to the coop as they are jumping on the bandwagon just cashing in on the 'cash cow' that is my house.

 

I don't want this to turn in to a personal rant, any ideas anyone?

 

thanks