R
Roger Mills
The leaflet says "Internet Saver for maximum interest with minimum effort".
Well, that's not my experience!
Admittedly I'm trying to do something not 100% straightforward - and that is
to open an account in the name of of my 98-year-old father-in-law, which I
shall operate under Power of Attorney. And yes, this *can* be done - they
have a special application form which you have to download from their
website, fill in, and post to them - together with POA documentation plus a
selection of ID documents for 'money laundering' purposes.
So far, so good! So I start to fill in the form, and find that the
information about what documents are acceptable for money laundering
purposes is highly ambiguous. It says "Tick any THREE items from the list
below", and proceeds to list 8 types of bank statement and utility bill. It
then says "In addition, any of the following documents can also be
provided" - and proceeds to list another 5 items including TV licence,
driving licence, rent card etc. Further, it says that all documents must
have been issued within the last 3 months. I really struggled with this in
respect of my f-i-l. Since he lives with us, he has no utility bills in his
name - and I couldn't find 3 items from the first list - and a lot of the
items in the second list are only issued once per year and are thus likely
to be more than 3 months old.
At another point on the form it says "To assist with the verification
process you can forward a cheque drawn with your name(s) with your
documents". Since I didn't know whether this meant payable *to* us, or drawn
on another account in our names and payable to someone else, I decided to
ring the helpline for clarification - both on this and on the ID documents.
The ID document bit was easy. You can, in fact, send any 3 documents from
the combined list of 13 items, and they don't have to be under 3 months old
as long as they are the most recent ones. In that case, why the b___ h___
doesn't the form *say* that, rather than saying something totally different?
The prospect of sending a cheque caused a bit more fun and games! It has to
be payable *to* us and - wait for it - it has to have the sort code and
account number of the account I'm attempting to open on the back! Work that
one out if you can!! Fortunately, it isn't compulsory to send a cheque.
So I fill in the form, and send it off, together with all the required
documents. A fortnight later, having had no response, I decide to ring up
the helpline to find out what's going on. I have a very confusing
conversation with a droid at the other end who insists on asking for the
account number - which they haven't yet told me, and the pet name which I
specified when I registered on line - which I didn't because I registered by
post. He swore blind that I needed first to open an account on line and then
to use the form to register the POA details. All this despite the fact that
the form very clearly says "This application form should be used by a third
party (the Attorney) to *apply* for a new Internet Saver account on behalf
of another (the Donor) under a Power of Attorney". Having nearly lost the
will to live, I did eventually persuade him to look in his computer,
whereupon he found our name and address details and a record of the POA
having been registered. He swore blind that no ID documents had been
received - even when I pointed out that they were in the *same* envelope as
the application form and POI documents.
When I complained that their processes appeared to be somewhat flawed, he
uttered the immortal words "You have to remember that you're dealing with a
supermarket - not a *proper* bank"!! You couldn't make it up!
He did agree to investigate and, a couple of days later left me a message to
say that everything was in order. I have subsequently received all my
documents back, but I'm still not sure whether the account is yet fully
open.
I ask myself whether I *really* want to deal with these comedians - despite
the interest rate being quite competitive.
Anyone else had any dealings with them?
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored..
Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks. PLEASE REPLY TO
NEWSGROUP!
Well, that's not my experience!
Admittedly I'm trying to do something not 100% straightforward - and that is
to open an account in the name of of my 98-year-old father-in-law, which I
shall operate under Power of Attorney. And yes, this *can* be done - they
have a special application form which you have to download from their
website, fill in, and post to them - together with POA documentation plus a
selection of ID documents for 'money laundering' purposes.
So far, so good! So I start to fill in the form, and find that the
information about what documents are acceptable for money laundering
purposes is highly ambiguous. It says "Tick any THREE items from the list
below", and proceeds to list 8 types of bank statement and utility bill. It
then says "In addition, any of the following documents can also be
provided" - and proceeds to list another 5 items including TV licence,
driving licence, rent card etc. Further, it says that all documents must
have been issued within the last 3 months. I really struggled with this in
respect of my f-i-l. Since he lives with us, he has no utility bills in his
name - and I couldn't find 3 items from the first list - and a lot of the
items in the second list are only issued once per year and are thus likely
to be more than 3 months old.
At another point on the form it says "To assist with the verification
process you can forward a cheque drawn with your name(s) with your
documents". Since I didn't know whether this meant payable *to* us, or drawn
on another account in our names and payable to someone else, I decided to
ring the helpline for clarification - both on this and on the ID documents.
The ID document bit was easy. You can, in fact, send any 3 documents from
the combined list of 13 items, and they don't have to be under 3 months old
as long as they are the most recent ones. In that case, why the b___ h___
doesn't the form *say* that, rather than saying something totally different?
The prospect of sending a cheque caused a bit more fun and games! It has to
be payable *to* us and - wait for it - it has to have the sort code and
account number of the account I'm attempting to open on the back! Work that
one out if you can!! Fortunately, it isn't compulsory to send a cheque.
So I fill in the form, and send it off, together with all the required
documents. A fortnight later, having had no response, I decide to ring up
the helpline to find out what's going on. I have a very confusing
conversation with a droid at the other end who insists on asking for the
account number - which they haven't yet told me, and the pet name which I
specified when I registered on line - which I didn't because I registered by
post. He swore blind that I needed first to open an account on line and then
to use the form to register the POA details. All this despite the fact that
the form very clearly says "This application form should be used by a third
party (the Attorney) to *apply* for a new Internet Saver account on behalf
of another (the Donor) under a Power of Attorney". Having nearly lost the
will to live, I did eventually persuade him to look in his computer,
whereupon he found our name and address details and a record of the POA
having been registered. He swore blind that no ID documents had been
received - even when I pointed out that they were in the *same* envelope as
the application form and POI documents.
When I complained that their processes appeared to be somewhat flawed, he
uttered the immortal words "You have to remember that you're dealing with a
supermarket - not a *proper* bank"!! You couldn't make it up!
He did agree to investigate and, a couple of days later left me a message to
say that everything was in order. I have subsequently received all my
documents back, but I'm still not sure whether the account is yet fully
open.
I ask myself whether I *really* want to deal with these comedians - despite
the interest rate being quite competitive.
Anyone else had any dealings with them?
--
Cheers,
Roger
______
Email address maintained for newsgroup use only, and not regularly
monitored..
Messages sent to it may not be read for several weeks. PLEASE REPLY TO
NEWSGROUP!