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We asked you to tell us who's left you feeling ripped-off | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
and you contacted us in your thousands by post, e-mail, | 0:00:04 | 0:00:09 | |
even stopping us on the streets, and the message couldn't be clearer. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:14 | |
I think there's a lot of hidden information about your bills | 0:00:15 | 0:00:18 | |
that should be made a lot more clear. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:20 | |
I don't feel I get treated how I should be. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:22 | |
You've told us with money tighter than ever | 0:00:22 | 0:00:24 | |
you need to be sure that every pound you spend is worth it. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:28 | |
How do I get my money back? I just think I'm entitled to it. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:30 | |
So, whether it's a deliberate rip-off, a simple mistake, | 0:00:30 | 0:00:34 | |
or a catch in the small print, we'll find out why it is | 0:00:34 | 0:00:37 | |
that you're out of pocket and what you can do about it. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
Keep asking the questions, you know, go to the top if you have to. | 0:00:40 | 0:00:44 | |
We do get results, that's the interesting thing. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:46 | |
Your stories, your money. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:48 | |
This is Rip-Off Britain. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
Hello and welcome to Rip-Off Britain, | 0:00:53 | 0:00:55 | |
where today we have the banks firmly in our sights. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:59 | |
A topic that this year has filled the headlines | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
as much as it has our postbag and our inbox. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:05 | |
It really isn't so long ago that the banks were among the most respected institutions around. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:10 | |
But as you know, times have definitely changed. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:13 | |
Although their reputation's taken quite a battering recently | 0:01:13 | 0:01:16 | |
it does seem that in some cases they've only got themselves to blame. | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
Of course, typically, it isn't one of those big financial scandals | 0:01:19 | 0:01:24 | |
the banks are embroiled in that you write to us about. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:26 | |
It's always those small, everyday scandals of their customer service | 0:01:26 | 0:01:32 | |
and you tell us about that all the time. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:35 | |
So a bit later in the programme we're going to be asking | 0:01:35 | 0:01:38 | |
just how it is the banks plan to win back much of that lost trust? | 0:01:38 | 0:01:41 | |
Also on Rip-Off Britain - | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
Why this woman's bank can't tell her what happened to the £25,000 she put there. | 0:01:44 | 0:01:49 | |
It's not been taken out, it's not been transferred. | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
It's not upstairs, it's not under the floorboards, | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
I've not spent it on a yacht. | 0:01:55 | 0:01:57 | |
It's still in the bank somewhere. | 0:01:57 | 0:01:59 | |
How thousands of family businesses have been pushed to the brink | 0:01:59 | 0:02:04 | |
because of what their banks talked them into. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:06 | |
I always had the attitude that if you went to the bank | 0:02:06 | 0:02:09 | |
you went for help, and you would get the best advice. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
That seems to be something that's gone by-the-by. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
And we hear your gripes about the nation's banks face to face. | 0:02:17 | 0:02:20 | |
Now, they do say that if you look after the pennies | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
then the pounds will look after themselves. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:26 | |
But I think most of us would like to think the pounds are looked after pretty well too | 0:02:26 | 0:02:30 | |
and certainly one of the best places that you can do that has always been the bank. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:34 | |
Well, certainly that's what Linda Bond thought | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
when she opened an account to keep her money secure. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:39 | |
And quite a large sum of money it was too. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
So why is it that now it's no longer there? | 0:02:42 | 0:02:47 | |
And, just as importantly, | 0:02:47 | 0:02:48 | |
why can no-one at the bank tell her where it's gone? | 0:02:48 | 0:02:52 | |
Linda Bond has always believed that, like knitting. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
money is made slowly one stitch at a time. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:02 | |
Mum and Dad worked all their life and they put money away | 0:03:02 | 0:03:07 | |
so when they died, obviously, they left it to us to be comfortable. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:11 | |
Linda wanted to carry on saving that money for when it was needed | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
so over three years, from 1996 to 1999, | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
she deposited a total of £25,000 into an account with the Abbey National. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:25 | |
We didn't need to spend the money | 0:03:25 | 0:03:26 | |
because we was both working at the time | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
and we was quite comfortable, so we thought we'd just use the money | 0:03:29 | 0:03:34 | |
that we got from our work and we'd just put it away for a rainy day. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:39 | |
Linda's bank book sat in her kitchen drawer for the next 11 years | 0:03:39 | 0:03:44 | |
until in December 2010, | 0:03:44 | 0:03:46 | |
the rainy day that she'd been waiting for arrived. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:51 | |
Linda and her husband decided to move house | 0:03:51 | 0:03:54 | |
and their thoughts quickly turned to the £25,000 in that account. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:57 | |
Deciding that the time was right to withdraw her cash, | 0:03:57 | 0:04:01 | |
Linda went to her local Santander branch in West Thurrock, | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
Santander Bank having taken over the Abbey National in 2004. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:09 | |
I went up to the lady, said, | 0:04:09 | 0:04:11 | |
right, you know, I need to take some money out. | 0:04:11 | 0:04:15 | |
When she went on the computer she said the account doesn't exist, it's closed. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:20 | |
Shocked and baffled, Linda asked to speak to the manager. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:25 | |
but the news was no better. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:27 | |
He couldn't tell her what had happened to the money either | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
and suggested that she contact head office. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:32 | |
When she did they confirmed what she'd already been told. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:36 | |
Santander said that the account, it just doesn't exist, | 0:04:37 | 0:04:42 | |
they've closed it. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:44 | |
And I wasn't very happy with that and if I needed to take it further | 0:04:44 | 0:04:48 | |
that I should get in touch with the Financial Ombudsman | 0:04:48 | 0:04:51 | |
So that's what she did. | 0:04:51 | 0:04:54 | |
But with no proof that she hadn't closed the account | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
that didn't clear things up either. | 0:04:57 | 0:04:59 | |
The Financial Ombudsman said that Santander has gone as far | 0:05:00 | 0:05:04 | |
as they can looking for the account and the Financial Ombudsman | 0:05:04 | 0:05:09 | |
just took what they said and said that's it, can't go any further. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:14 | |
I just feel I'm knocking my head against the wall. | 0:05:14 | 0:05:17 | |
It's one thing to have no record of an account | 0:05:17 | 0:05:21 | |
but obviously for Linda the main issue is, what's happened to her £25,000? | 0:05:21 | 0:05:26 | |
She can't understand why no-one, | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
especially the place where she left it, can tell her. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
They're saying to me that I closed it down. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
Right, if I closed it down, where is the proof that I did close it down? | 0:05:36 | 0:05:41 | |
It's not cancelled, it's not been taken out, it's not been transferred, | 0:05:41 | 0:05:45 | |
it's still in the bank somewhere. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
You'd think that if, at any stage, Linda had closed the account | 0:05:49 | 0:05:53 | |
and withdrawn so much money, she might have remembered doing it. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:57 | |
And if she had taken out her £25,000 shouldn't the proof be here | 0:05:57 | 0:06:02 | |
in her account passbook? | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
After all, it says very clearly that no money can be withdrawn | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
without the passbook which is in Linda's name only. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
But the only recorded withdrawal was £583 back in 1999. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:19 | |
After that, the passbook seems to back up what Linda's said | 0:06:20 | 0:06:24 | |
that there has been no activity on that account since. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:28 | |
There's certainly nothing to suggest that it was closed. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
So it's stalemate. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:35 | |
Linda says the bank must still have her money. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:39 | |
But the bank insists that it doesn't. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:42 | |
They can't prove to me where it's gone to | 0:06:42 | 0:06:44 | |
because they don't know where the money's gone themselves. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:48 | |
They just said that I possibly could have taken it out | 0:06:48 | 0:06:52 | |
or transferred it, but I can't, cos it's in the book. | 0:06:52 | 0:06:56 | |
Unfortunately for Linda, | 0:06:56 | 0:06:59 | |
both Santander and the Financial Ombudsman say a passbook | 0:06:59 | 0:07:04 | |
does not prove that an account still exists | 0:07:04 | 0:07:06 | |
and it would have been possible to close the account without it, | 0:07:06 | 0:07:10 | |
using other suitable ID. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:12 | |
I've not taken the money out and put it into another account. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
If I did, it would be in another account. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:19 | |
In black and white it would actually say, right, | 0:07:19 | 0:07:21 | |
that's been put into that account, that's been put into that account. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:25 | |
It's not upstairs, it's not under the floorboards, | 0:07:25 | 0:07:28 | |
I've not spent it on a yacht. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:29 | |
This isn't the first time that Rip-Off Britain's been asked | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
to look into a missing Santander account. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
Last year, we met Margaret and Brian Mitchell | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
who were in a very similar position. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
We got a letter back which more or less tells me | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
that the money's not ours. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:47 | |
We don't own it any more, we have nothing to do with it. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:49 | |
12 months on, Margaret and Brian are no closer to having things resolved | 0:07:50 | 0:07:54 | |
although Santander say they will look at the case again | 0:07:54 | 0:07:59 | |
if the couple find any additional information that helps them trace the account. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:04 | |
So what does the bank have to say about Linda's case | 0:08:04 | 0:08:07 | |
and what happened to her £25,000? | 0:08:07 | 0:08:10 | |
Well, Santander have told us that they... | 0:08:12 | 0:08:14 | |
They reiterate that the ruling was in their favour. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:25 | |
They suggest that as they can see Linda was sent annual tax statements up to the year 2000, | 0:08:27 | 0:08:32 | |
the account must have been closed over the next year. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:35 | |
The reason they can't be more definite about that | 0:08:35 | 0:08:38 | |
is because they are... | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
Like all banks, they only need to keep records | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
for six years after they've been closed. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:52 | |
And although six years of inactivity on an account | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
may result in it becoming what's called 'dormant', | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
in those circumstances they will still have records. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:03 | |
So they're confident that that is not what's happened here. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:08 | |
Which means the mystery remains unsolved. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:12 | |
Linda is equally confident that the account wasn't closed | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
and right now, she really could do with the money. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:19 | |
We hoped to give our granddaughter some money | 0:09:19 | 0:09:23 | |
because she's going to college in the next couple of weeks, | 0:09:23 | 0:09:28 | |
to help her along obviously. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:30 | |
I don't know now, I don't know whether we can | 0:09:32 | 0:09:35 | |
if we want to be comfortable and retire, | 0:09:35 | 0:09:37 | |
whether we can actually do that and it is just not right. | 0:09:37 | 0:09:42 | |
If you've found yourself in a situation where, | 0:09:42 | 0:09:45 | |
for whatever reason, you can't retrieve your bank account | 0:09:45 | 0:09:48 | |
or the money that's in it, | 0:09:48 | 0:09:49 | |
here's Kevin Mountford from MoneySupermarket | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
with some essential information on what you can do. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:55 | |
Back in 2008, the industry set up a website mylostaccount.org | 0:09:56 | 0:10:00 | |
and this is the first port of call | 0:10:00 | 0:10:02 | |
if you want to be married up with your lost account. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:04 | |
Bear in mind an application through this is free of charge. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
£175 million has actually been given back to the rightful owner | 0:10:07 | 0:10:11 | |
so it is certainly worth making that effort. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:14 | |
It's believed there's about 150 million accounts | 0:10:15 | 0:10:18 | |
in circulation in the UK and about half a million of these | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
could be dormant so if you want a chance of matching up these accounts | 0:10:21 | 0:10:24 | |
it's imperative you provide as much information as possible. | 0:10:24 | 0:10:28 | |
So if there is a sort code, an account number, | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
an account type or even a pass book, if you've got that information | 0:10:31 | 0:10:34 | |
make sure it's part of the submission. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:36 | |
One thing to consider with these dormant accounts | 0:10:39 | 0:10:41 | |
in noting how long that they've been around, there is a chance | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
the account could have been opened in a different name, | 0:10:45 | 0:10:47 | |
particularly if you've been married or divorced. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:49 | |
They could have been opened by parents or grandparents. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:52 | |
So consider that when you make an application | 0:10:52 | 0:10:54 | |
and it might be their names that you need to submit. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:57 | |
In your efforts to try and chase down a dormant account | 0:10:57 | 0:10:59 | |
no doubt there will be companies claiming they can do this for you | 0:10:59 | 0:11:03 | |
but bear in mind there are proven routes to getting matched up to your account | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
and they are free of charge, that's the important thing. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:09 | |
Either go to the website or go to your bank or building society | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
but do not pay a fee. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
Now that we've seen the launch of the Big Society | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
and the monies from dormant accounts have been put to good use, | 0:11:16 | 0:11:19 | |
that doesn't mean it's lost forever, you always have the rights to access | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
these accounts as long as you can prove you are the rightful owner. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:27 | |
It's not just the reputation of our banks that's been transformed in recent years. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:34 | |
The way we bank is now completely different from the days | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
when a handshake from your local branch manager | 0:11:37 | 0:11:40 | |
was all you needed to be sure your finances were being looked after. | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
Today, many of us have our only contact with the bank | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
through machines, disembodied voices or even our own computer screen. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:52 | |
While that changed relationship isn't the cause of the bank's problems | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
it may explain why there aren't more people rushing to their defence. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:59 | |
It's been a summer of scandal for British banks. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
Hardly a week went by without them hitting the headlines | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
and for all the wrong reasons. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:12 | |
From allegations of money laundering | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
to revelations of a global rate-rigging scandal. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:17 | |
The Deputy Governor of the Bank of England | 0:12:17 | 0:12:20 | |
compared parts of the industry to a 'cesspit'. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
So when you add to all of that to the ongoing debate | 0:12:23 | 0:12:27 | |
over bosses' bonuses, and the continuing concern | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
over mis-sold payment protection insurance, | 0:12:30 | 0:12:33 | |
is it any wonder that these once respected institutions | 0:12:33 | 0:12:37 | |
seem to have become the villains of the High Street? | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
I've got a few bob in the bank but it makes no interest, | 0:12:41 | 0:12:44 | |
no interest at all, yet they're still paying salaries | 0:12:44 | 0:12:48 | |
which are outrageous in my view. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:51 | |
They were too interested in selling rather than sorting the problem. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:54 | |
I'm of the opinion that they're a load of rogues. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:57 | |
They give you no confidence whatsoever. | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
I've not got the trust I used to have before in them. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:01 | |
They're not interested in you, they're just interested in their bank | 0:13:01 | 0:13:05 | |
and you putting in their bank, that's all. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:07 | |
Perhaps the biggest banking scandal to instantly affect customers came in June. | 0:13:07 | 0:13:13 | |
17 million people were left without access to their cash | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
after a computer glitch left the RBS Group, | 0:13:16 | 0:13:18 | |
which takes in the Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest and Ulster Bank, | 0:13:18 | 0:13:22 | |
unable to send or receive payments between customers' accounts. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:26 | |
For one long week, businesses right across the country ground to a halt, | 0:13:27 | 0:13:32 | |
mortgages didn't get paid, and families were forced to borrow cash just to buy food. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:37 | |
The banks were forced to say sorry. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
The computer meltdown was, of course, a bad period | 0:13:41 | 0:13:43 | |
and, I did then and I do again, apologise to our customers who were affected. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:47 | |
The banks moved quickly to try and put things right | 0:13:47 | 0:13:51 | |
with extended opening hours into the night | 0:13:51 | 0:13:53 | |
and over the weekend to help clear the backlog. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:56 | |
But while the problems were sorted relatively quickly | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
at the NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland, | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
at the Ulster Bank things dragged on quite a lot longer. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:05 | |
And our next story shows the impact that had on ordinary families. | 0:14:05 | 0:14:09 | |
After months of saving, Eoghan McElhinney and a group of mates | 0:14:12 | 0:14:17 | |
from County Derry were gearing up for the holiday of a lifetime. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:20 | |
It was planned for months before, we just couldn't wait. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
We were just so excited, first lads' holiday, no parents, nothing. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:27 | |
We booked it about three, four months before we went. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
We were saving, talking about it all the time, | 0:14:30 | 0:14:32 | |
really excited about getting away for a week. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:34 | |
No problems or nothing just a bit of a craic of a week. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:37 | |
And across the Irish Sea in Edinburgh, | 0:14:39 | 0:14:41 | |
although he didn't know it yet, Eoghan's brother, Sean, | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
would soon end up having to make a journey of his own. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
Eoghan and his friends had saved for months for their holiday | 0:14:47 | 0:14:51 | |
and little did I know that their holiday was going to cost me | 0:14:51 | 0:14:56 | |
hundreds of pounds myself. | 0:14:56 | 0:14:58 | |
Hundreds of pounds that I would have preferred not to have had to spend. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:03 | |
On June 19th, the night before the boys were due to travel, | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
there was a failed computer software upgrade to the RBS Group's computer systems. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:12 | |
But with no idea of that yet, next morning, before Eoghan set off, | 0:15:14 | 0:15:18 | |
his dad Paddy took him to their local branch of the Ulster Bank. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:22 | |
On the day that they were leaving, I took Eoghan round to the bank | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
to put his, to put his holiday money into his account | 0:15:25 | 0:15:29 | |
so he would have access to it through the hole on the wall. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:32 | |
And the lady in the bank told me and explained to Eoghan that | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
that was the best way to do it, so he wouldn't have to carry cash. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:38 | |
With Eoghan's money safely in the bank, the boys flew in to Portugal | 0:15:39 | 0:15:43 | |
in time to see the country crash out of the European Championships. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:47 | |
Next day their holiday spirits would face a crash as well | 0:15:47 | 0:15:50 | |
and the first sign of that came in a text Eoghan sent to his brother, Sean. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:55 | |
The first that I heard that there had been a problem in Portugal | 0:15:56 | 0:16:00 | |
was on the Thursday which was the day after Eoghan had left. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:04 | |
He had sent me a text message and said, my bank card isn't working, | 0:16:04 | 0:16:07 | |
can you contact the Ulster Bank fraud department for me. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:11 | |
I excused myself from work, and rang the Ulster Bank fraud desk | 0:16:12 | 0:16:16 | |
who advised me that there was absolutely no problem with his card, | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
there was no problem with his account and what he should do | 0:16:19 | 0:16:24 | |
is try different bank machines in the resort where he was staying. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:27 | |
But later that day, Sean realised what was really at the root | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
of his brother's problems. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:34 | |
When I got home on Thursday evening, I turned on the TV | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
and it was headlines in the news that a number of banks | 0:16:37 | 0:16:41 | |
had suffered, as it was described at the time, a technical glitch. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:46 | |
It became apparent very quickly this was more likely to be the reason | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
that Eoghan couldn't withdraw money from his account | 0:16:49 | 0:16:52 | |
and sending him from bank machine to bank machine around the resort | 0:16:52 | 0:16:56 | |
that he was unfamiliar with was unlikely to end up with him getting any money. | 0:16:56 | 0:17:00 | |
In the UK, the RBS Group was attempting to reassure | 0:17:00 | 0:17:04 | |
the millions of other affected customers | 0:17:04 | 0:17:07 | |
that their money was safe even if they couldn't access it | 0:17:07 | 0:17:10 | |
and they were extending their banks' opening hours into the night to try to help. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:14 | |
But that was no use to the boys in Portugal. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:18 | |
Over the weekend, one by one, they all realized | 0:17:18 | 0:17:22 | |
they were unable to get hold of their own money. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
So we were aware that they were bad but we weren't aware just how bad they were, | 0:17:25 | 0:17:29 | |
and Sunday morning I then contacted Eoghan to ask him | 0:17:29 | 0:17:32 | |
how the holiday was going, how he was getting on, was he enjoying it? | 0:17:32 | 0:17:36 | |
And the response I got was from a very despondent 18-year-old. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:42 | |
The fact was that the boys were in Portugal, in their apartment | 0:17:42 | 0:17:46 | |
with only a loaf of bread, a tin of beans | 0:17:46 | 0:17:49 | |
and someone had taken the notion to buy a tin of sausages | 0:17:49 | 0:17:53 | |
because they were particularly cheap. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
That was all the food that they had, they had one bottle of water | 0:17:56 | 0:18:00 | |
and no more money that they could spend. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:04 | |
Even before they went on holidays, | 0:18:04 | 0:18:06 | |
we were worrying, but we were excited for him. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
But, once we found out that they had no money, there was just, | 0:18:09 | 0:18:13 | |
there was very little sleep, I can assure you, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
there was very little sleep. It was all worry from that moment onwards. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:20 | |
With no idea how long the situation might continue, | 0:18:20 | 0:18:24 | |
and with the bank unable to transfer any money at all to the boys abroad | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
the families could think of no other option but to pool together their cash and take some drastic action. | 0:18:27 | 0:18:34 | |
At half four on the Sunday evening we realised | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
that I was going to have to fly to Portugal. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:40 | |
Over the course of the next half an hour I had to find flights. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:43 | |
I found them, they flew from Derry which was close by. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:46 | |
Erm, they were expensive | 0:18:46 | 0:18:48 | |
but to be honest, at this point, that was the least of my worries. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
I had to get in touch with the parents of each one of the other four boys | 0:18:51 | 0:18:55 | |
to ask them all to get some money to me if they wanted to send it out to the boys. | 0:18:55 | 0:18:59 | |
Within about two hours, | 0:18:59 | 0:19:01 | |
I had gone from having my feet up, ready to eat my Sunday dinner | 0:19:01 | 0:19:05 | |
before flying back to Edinburgh for work on the Monday, | 0:19:05 | 0:19:07 | |
to packing a bag to fly to Portugal, with all this money. | 0:19:07 | 0:19:12 | |
It was surreal at that point but it was absolutely manic, it was hectic. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
In Portugal, Sean was given a hero's welcome. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:21 | |
But such an unexpected expense because of trouble at the bank | 0:19:21 | 0:19:24 | |
isn't something that he felt he should have had to pay. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:26 | |
So in the weeks since he got back, he's been left wondering | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
whether he'll ever get his money back. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
I stayed out for three days because the flights were cheapest that way | 0:19:32 | 0:19:37 | |
and it certainly wasn't a holiday, | 0:19:37 | 0:19:39 | |
it wasn't money that I would otherwise have spent. | 0:19:39 | 0:19:43 | |
To be very clear, I'm not asking for any sustenance for most of like, | 0:19:43 | 0:19:48 | |
I'm only looking what I believe is a fair amount which is the flights. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:54 | |
Meanwhile, while the rest of the RBS Group was getting things back on track | 0:19:54 | 0:19:59 | |
Ulster Bank announced it would be several further weeks | 0:19:59 | 0:20:02 | |
before their service would return to normal | 0:20:02 | 0:20:05 | |
leaving Sean facing his own problems back in Edinburgh. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:08 | |
I obviously arrived back from Portugal expecting to be able to go to the bank myself | 0:20:08 | 0:20:12 | |
and I soon found out that certainly wasn't going to be the case. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:16 | |
Ulster Bank hadn't processed my own salary. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
I had a number of direct debits and standing orders | 0:20:19 | 0:20:22 | |
that had to be paid for rent, Scottish Power, gas and electricity | 0:20:22 | 0:20:26 | |
and the one that probably affected me the most | 0:20:26 | 0:20:30 | |
was my Orange phone bill. | 0:20:30 | 0:20:32 | |
Because my bill hadn't been paid I was actually then cut off | 0:20:32 | 0:20:36 | |
for the subsequent week. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:38 | |
To be honest I was starting to get a little bit worried. | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
If I'd run out of money, who's going to fly out with anything for me | 0:20:41 | 0:20:46 | |
and what was going to happen if my well ran dry? | 0:20:46 | 0:20:50 | |
Countless other families will have their own stories to tell | 0:20:51 | 0:20:54 | |
not to mention extra costs as a result of the problems at Ulster Bank. | 0:20:54 | 0:20:58 | |
But the bank does seem determined to put things right. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
They've just announced details of how they will be refunding customers | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
for any money lost, | 0:21:05 | 0:21:07 | |
telling us that... | 0:21:07 | 0:21:08 | |
They are already refunding all fee charges and interest incurred | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
and expect to have completed that process by the end of October. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:21 | |
They also say they will be... | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
..and they are working with Sean to... | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
They also say they did find ways to help people access cash abroad | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
for example, by increasing limits on credit cards, | 0:21:35 | 0:21:38 | |
or using a money transfer service. | 0:21:38 | 0:21:42 | |
But Eoghan's family say that was not their experience | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
and they don't feel they were given help where they needed it. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:49 | |
Basically, they really let us down so, as soon as, | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
as soon as everything's sorted, as soon as our accounts are up to date, | 0:21:53 | 0:21:56 | |
this is three weeks on and my account still isn't up to date, | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
once it's up to date we're definitely going to leave, 100%. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:03 | |
Things did go wrong and whereas that can happen anywhere, | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
I think that the mistakes on Ulster Bank's behalf, | 0:22:06 | 0:22:11 | |
came with how they dealt with things. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:14 | |
Still to come on Rip-Off Britain - | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
We take the bankers to task. How do they explain themselves? | 0:22:18 | 0:22:22 | |
When you go to a party and someone says what do you do for a living? | 0:22:22 | 0:22:25 | |
Would you be embarrassed to admit, I'm a banker? | 0:22:25 | 0:22:27 | |
Well, I think I think it is very regretful that you would | 0:22:27 | 0:22:30 | |
probably think twice about admitting that you were a banker. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
Rip-Off Britain is on the road again. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:44 | |
Yes, thousands of you wrote to us with all your complaints | 0:22:44 | 0:22:48 | |
and your gripes and we thought the thing to do was to come up | 0:22:48 | 0:22:50 | |
and see what you had to say face to face. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:53 | |
What we've done, literally, is to transform a shop overnight | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
and we have put inside a whole team of experts, | 0:22:56 | 0:22:59 | |
so I think the best thing to do is for us to go in, | 0:22:59 | 0:23:02 | |
and see if we can get some of those problems sorted. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:05 | |
Personal finance expert Sarah Pennell's next case, Jill, | 0:23:07 | 0:23:12 | |
thinks that her elderly father is being ripped-off by his bank | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
and wants to know if she can intervene on his behalf. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
I mean, he's getting on a bit and he is not very well | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
and the last thing he needs is most of his pension going on bank charges | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
which is what's happening, so I'm trying to help him. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:29 | |
OK, so how much in all do you think he's been charged by the bank? | 0:23:29 | 0:23:34 | |
About £1,300 now over 18 months. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
Having had a look your father's bank statements, | 0:23:38 | 0:23:40 | |
it definitely looks like the bank could've taken a step back | 0:23:40 | 0:23:43 | |
and tried to look at the overall situation | 0:23:43 | 0:23:45 | |
rather than just applying charges month in month out. | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
So what I would do is get back in touch with your father's bank | 0:23:48 | 0:23:52 | |
and tell them that you would like them to consider | 0:23:52 | 0:23:55 | |
to at least write-off a percentage of the charges they've already made. | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
If they don't agree, say that you want a final letter | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
and then go to the Financial Ombudsman Service | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
which is a free-to-use complaints service and they will look into the complaint for you. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:08 | |
I would recommend that you ask your father | 0:24:08 | 0:24:11 | |
if you can be added on as a second name | 0:24:11 | 0:24:13 | |
-so you become a joint account holder. -Oh, that's a good idea. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:16 | |
In the longer term, it might be worth your while | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
taking out a power of attorney, your father taking out a power of attorney. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
The point of it is if at some point in the future | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
he isn't capable of making decisions then you can not only deal with this bank account | 0:24:25 | 0:24:30 | |
-but other ones as well and any other bills. -That's really good advice. Thank you. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:34 | |
Consumers have been popping in all weekend to see our experts | 0:24:36 | 0:24:40 | |
who are only too happy to help. | 0:24:40 | 0:24:41 | |
Gloria can I have you over here for a minute, we've got an interesting one. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
You sound excited or worried. One or the other. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:48 | |
'Which? Magazine's money editor, James Daley, | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
'has been hearing about Anne and Terry's case. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:54 | |
'The couple have been accused of being dishonest by their bank | 0:24:54 | 0:24:57 | |
'after finding themselves the victims of credit card fraud.' | 0:24:57 | 0:25:02 | |
Three hotel stays in Cheltenham, | 0:25:02 | 0:25:03 | |
quite a long way from Bishop Auckland where they live. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:07 | |
You must have been shocked when you saw these rather large items on your credit card? | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
Yeah, I just couldn't believe it. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
And they refunded it but then a few weeks later they wrote them a letter | 0:25:14 | 0:25:18 | |
and said we've had a look at these transactions | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
and we actually now think that you did carry them out | 0:25:20 | 0:25:23 | |
and we're going to take the money off your card again and it's £1,125. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:27 | |
On what basis did they say that they felt you guys had been in Cheltenham | 0:25:29 | 0:25:33 | |
and that you had actually had the use of this hotel? | 0:25:33 | 0:25:36 | |
They think that it hasn't been a fraud, it's been a genuine thing | 0:25:36 | 0:25:42 | |
that I've actually made the payment with my own card. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:45 | |
Would Terry and Anne actually have to prove that they were never near Cheltenham? | 0:25:45 | 0:25:50 | |
No, they don't actually have to prove that. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:53 | |
It's up to the bank to prove that Anne and Terry did carry out those transactions. | 0:25:53 | 0:25:56 | |
What the bank has done is they've gone back to the hotel, | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
they've got them to send through the details of these transactions | 0:25:59 | 0:26:03 | |
and they've sent them through the credit card receipts for those payments. | 0:26:03 | 0:26:07 | |
But if you look at them closely here | 0:26:07 | 0:26:09 | |
-what it actually says is customer not present. -Oooh. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:11 | |
And so what that means is that these transactions have taken place | 0:26:11 | 0:26:16 | |
over the internet but there's absolutely no proof that Anne and Terry made that. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:20 | |
What kind of redress do they have in this case? | 0:26:20 | 0:26:22 | |
The best thing you can do is make a complaint to the bank. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
Insist that they refund you first and investigate later. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:29 | |
But then if they do accuse you of fraud you just need to | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
stick with your guns and say no we weren't there, this is a fraud | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
and make a formal complaint to them. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:37 | |
If they still won't refund you at that point, | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
then you take that complaint on to the Financial Ombudsman Service. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:43 | |
It's totally free to take your claim on to them. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:45 | |
If you know you're in the right, then almost certainly your case will be upheld. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:49 | |
'But Anne and Terry didn't have to take their complaint that far. | 0:26:49 | 0:26:53 | |
'Thanks to James's advice, they've since had the money | 0:26:53 | 0:26:56 | |
'they were wrongly accused of spending refunded by the bank.' | 0:26:56 | 0:27:00 | |
I hope you know by now just how much we love getting your mail. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:06 | |
But amongst all the complaints that you've sent us about the banks this year, | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
this next one has simply got to be one of the worst. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
Countless businesses have found themselves saddled | 0:27:12 | 0:27:15 | |
with costs of tens of thousands of pounds | 0:27:15 | 0:27:17 | |
and in many cases, sadly, face going under | 0:27:17 | 0:27:20 | |
thanks to something which the bank has talked them into. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:23 | |
And even when the disastrous consequences became clear | 0:27:23 | 0:27:26 | |
the solution offered by the bank, unbelievably, | 0:27:26 | 0:27:29 | |
was to ask for even more cash. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:31 | |
Like many across the country, | 0:27:33 | 0:27:36 | |
the high street in the market town of Watton in Norfolk | 0:27:36 | 0:27:39 | |
has its share of struggling businesses. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:41 | |
But things are particularly bad for the family | 0:27:41 | 0:27:43 | |
that runs Adcock's electrical retail business - Adcock and Sons Ltd. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:48 | |
This is my great-grandfather, Earnest Adcock. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:51 | |
It's been a thriving business for four generations | 0:27:51 | 0:27:55 | |
but all that's changed. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:56 | |
The company at the moment is on its knees because the bank | 0:27:56 | 0:28:00 | |
that's supported us all these years has thought it wise | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
that we have this horrendous product that's brought us to our knees. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:07 | |
The Adcocks' troubles are down to a financial product | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
Paul was sold five years ago by Barclays Capital, | 0:28:12 | 0:28:14 | |
the investment arm of the family's trusted bank. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:17 | |
Known as an interest rate swap, it was supposed to help him | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
if interest rates changed, a bit like a fixed rate mortgage does. | 0:28:22 | 0:28:27 | |
It was offered at a time when he'd taken out some extra loans to develop the business. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:31 | |
Whilst the expansion was underway | 0:28:31 | 0:28:35 | |
out of the blue almost we had a call from our relationship manager | 0:28:35 | 0:28:38 | |
that suggested we consider some kind of interest rate protection. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
He declined the offer, but a year later | 0:28:43 | 0:28:45 | |
Barclay's Capital started to call again and again. | 0:28:45 | 0:28:49 | |
We were getting sort of phone calls fairly regularly, you know, | 0:28:49 | 0:28:53 | |
suggesting it would be good for us, it wouldn't cost us anything. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:57 | |
I sort of succumbed just, really, for not having the guts to say | 0:28:57 | 0:29:00 | |
sorry, I don't want it, I'm not interested, | 0:29:00 | 0:29:03 | |
because I didn't want to upset the bank. | 0:29:03 | 0:29:05 | |
But Paul didn't realize how complicated this product was | 0:29:05 | 0:29:08 | |
and that in fact it worked rather like a bet. | 0:29:08 | 0:29:12 | |
He'd signed up to what was effectively a huge gamble | 0:29:12 | 0:29:16 | |
that interest rates wouldn't fall below a certain point | 0:29:16 | 0:29:19 | |
and if they did what he'd pay would go up. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:22 | |
It's a bit like being sold a time bomb because at the time | 0:29:24 | 0:29:28 | |
and for a year or so afterwards there was no affect | 0:29:28 | 0:29:32 | |
because interest rates were that bit higher. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:35 | |
So it wasn't until the end of 2008 when interest rates started to go down, | 0:29:35 | 0:29:40 | |
suddenly we had this additional interest payment of about £2,000. | 0:29:40 | 0:29:45 | |
And from then on the super low interest rates | 0:29:45 | 0:29:48 | |
that the Bank of England engineered to support small businesses | 0:29:48 | 0:29:51 | |
had the opposite effect for Paul. | 0:29:51 | 0:29:55 | |
To date he's now paid over £188,000 on this product. | 0:29:55 | 0:29:59 | |
That's on top of the repayments on his original loan of £970,000. | 0:29:59 | 0:30:04 | |
The impact has been two members of long-term staff have had to go | 0:30:04 | 0:30:08 | |
because we simply couldn't afford to keep them on | 0:30:08 | 0:30:12 | |
which is very difficult in this kind of business. | 0:30:12 | 0:30:15 | |
It's thought around 20,000 small businesses | 0:30:16 | 0:30:19 | |
may have fallen foul of these interest rate swap products | 0:30:19 | 0:30:22 | |
which have been sold by all the big four banks. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:25 | |
Another one is Darby's Glass and DIY Store | 0:30:29 | 0:30:31 | |
in Marske-by-the-Sea, Cleveland, run by Stephen Lilley and his daughter, Liz. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:36 | |
They insist their bank pushed them | 0:30:36 | 0:30:38 | |
into buying the product that has devastated their business. | 0:30:38 | 0:30:41 | |
We bought the business in 2006 as a general DIY store | 0:30:43 | 0:30:48 | |
and it's a family business. | 0:30:48 | 0:30:50 | |
We sell hardware, we sell timber, | 0:30:50 | 0:30:53 | |
we sell glass, we sell plants. | 0:30:53 | 0:30:54 | |
To purchase the shop, they took out loans for £425,000 with HSBC. | 0:30:55 | 0:31:00 | |
But the bank rang to persuade them into buying a product | 0:31:02 | 0:31:05 | |
to protect them from interest rate rises | 0:31:05 | 0:31:07 | |
and said the interest rate swap was the most 'appropriate' for them. | 0:31:07 | 0:31:11 | |
I said to him, before we accept any of these products you're offering, | 0:31:11 | 0:31:17 | |
I'd like to see something in writing | 0:31:17 | 0:31:20 | |
so I could present them to our accountant for further advice. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:23 | |
But the bank rang again and spoke to Stephen's daughter, Liz, | 0:31:24 | 0:31:28 | |
and in a brief conversation, she was sold the interest rate swap over the phone. | 0:31:28 | 0:31:32 | |
The conversation with him on the mobile phone | 0:31:32 | 0:31:34 | |
to commit the shop to a ten year base rate swap, | 0:31:34 | 0:31:38 | |
was a three minute conversation. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:40 | |
The family only began to understand the implications | 0:31:40 | 0:31:43 | |
of what they'd ended up with once interest rates started to fall | 0:31:43 | 0:31:47 | |
and the extra charges kicked in. | 0:31:47 | 0:31:48 | |
As interest rates have come down we're actually paying more money. | 0:31:49 | 0:31:54 | |
So we started off, interest rates came down a little bit, | 0:31:54 | 0:31:57 | |
and we pay £200. | 0:31:57 | 0:31:58 | |
The interest rates have come down more and we pay £800. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:03 | |
And now the interest rates have really dropped, we're paying £1,200. | 0:32:03 | 0:32:07 | |
In 2010, the family made a complaint of mis-selling | 0:32:07 | 0:32:11 | |
to the Financial Ombudsman Service. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:14 | |
But they found in favour of the bank | 0:32:14 | 0:32:16 | |
and since then the product has continued to have a disastrous effect. | 0:32:16 | 0:32:20 | |
To be honest, I'm pretty tired because I have to work all the time. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:25 | |
At most weeks I work seven days a week and I just feel very bitter. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:29 | |
We've paid HSBC £50,000 towards this base rate swap so far. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:35 | |
We've laid-off staff, we've had to put back growth of the business | 0:32:35 | 0:32:39 | |
and development of new ideas. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:41 | |
At the beginning of this year, the bank told them there was a way out. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:46 | |
They could cancel the product by paying an extra fee. So, how much would that cost? | 0:32:46 | 0:32:50 | |
£49,000 if we want to buy ourselves out of the product. | 0:32:52 | 0:32:55 | |
Back in Norfolk, Paul's bank, Barclays, also told him | 0:32:56 | 0:33:00 | |
he could pay a fee to cancel. | 0:33:00 | 0:33:02 | |
But in his case that would be a hefty £224,000. | 0:33:02 | 0:33:07 | |
Neither of these families, and plenty of others | 0:33:07 | 0:33:09 | |
in the same boat can quite believe that their bank could have sold them | 0:33:09 | 0:33:13 | |
something so that's proved to be so catastrophic. | 0:33:13 | 0:33:15 | |
I always had the attitude that if you went to the bank | 0:33:15 | 0:33:19 | |
you went for help and you would get the best advice. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:22 | |
That's seems to be something that's gone by-the-by. | 0:33:22 | 0:33:25 | |
In June, after a two month industry-wide review, the Financial Services Authority said it found | 0:33:25 | 0:33:31 | |
'serious failings' in the way all the major banks had sold these products. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:36 | |
The regulator said in many cases the banks failed to disclose | 0:33:36 | 0:33:38 | |
the costs of exit fees, sold swaps that weren't appropriate, | 0:33:38 | 0:33:42 | |
and didn't always ensure their customers understood the risks involved. | 0:33:42 | 0:33:45 | |
They also announced they'd reached agreement with Barclays, HSBC, | 0:33:45 | 0:33:50 | |
Lloyds and RBS over providing redress | 0:33:50 | 0:33:53 | |
and that such products should no longer be marketed. | 0:33:53 | 0:33:56 | |
Barclays, which sold the interest rate swap to Paul Adcock | 0:33:56 | 0:34:00 | |
for his electrical store, told us they're 'finalising the detail' | 0:34:00 | 0:34:03 | |
of the FSA review, but 'welcome the clarity' it will bring. | 0:34:03 | 0:34:07 | |
They say... | 0:34:07 | 0:34:08 | |
They will... | 0:34:11 | 0:34:12 | |
They say they have an on-going dialogue with Paul | 0:34:14 | 0:34:17 | |
utilising the expertise of their business support team to work with him. | 0:34:17 | 0:34:21 | |
Meanwhile, HSBC told us it would be inappropriate to comment | 0:34:21 | 0:34:25 | |
on Stephen and Liz's case as it's... | 0:34:25 | 0:34:26 | |
They insist the family's complaint has already been fully investigated | 0:34:30 | 0:34:34 | |
and rejected but they'll be contacting Stephen with details | 0:34:34 | 0:34:38 | |
of the FSA's process and hope that will enable them to reach a... | 0:34:38 | 0:34:41 | |
Both banks maintain that 'when sold properly' | 0:34:44 | 0:34:48 | |
interest rates swaps remain an appropriate and effective tool for businesses | 0:34:48 | 0:34:52 | |
wanting to... | 0:34:52 | 0:34:56 | |
The review by the FSA doesn't mean automatic compensation. | 0:35:00 | 0:35:04 | |
So Paul Adcock has now started legal proceedings against Barclays Capital. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:10 | |
And Stephen and Liz have also got solicitors working on their behalf. | 0:35:10 | 0:35:14 | |
I feel very bitter towards the bank | 0:35:16 | 0:35:18 | |
because I don't think they're responding responsibly. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:22 | |
We're just very, very hopeful, again, with the findings of the FSA on our side, | 0:35:22 | 0:35:29 | |
that the bank will take a responsible attitude | 0:35:29 | 0:35:33 | |
and resolve that situation because if they don't, there's no question, | 0:35:33 | 0:35:37 | |
the business won't be here not even years, but in months. | 0:35:37 | 0:35:41 | |
That's the fear of other family businesses | 0:35:41 | 0:35:44 | |
who feel they've been let down by their banks the same way. | 0:35:44 | 0:35:47 | |
If the FSA's review can't help them | 0:35:47 | 0:35:49 | |
thousands face shutting up shop forever. | 0:35:49 | 0:35:52 | |
As you've heard, the Financial Services Authority | 0:35:54 | 0:35:57 | |
has been highly critical of the way many of these interest rate swaps were sold. | 0:35:57 | 0:36:01 | |
So let's hope that one way or another, | 0:36:01 | 0:36:03 | |
the businesses we came across, and the others in the same boat | 0:36:03 | 0:36:07 | |
can get their situations resolved. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:09 | |
Sometimes, when you feel ripped off, | 0:36:12 | 0:36:15 | |
it could be you that's made a mistake. | 0:36:15 | 0:36:17 | |
Perhaps you didn't read the small print | 0:36:17 | 0:36:19 | |
or realise the consequences of what you signed up to. | 0:36:19 | 0:36:22 | |
Whoever's at fault, you need to know what to do about it. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:26 | |
So, we've put together a new booklet full of tips and advice. | 0:36:26 | 0:36:30 | |
You can download it on our website. | 0:36:30 | 0:36:35 | |
Or to receive a copy in the post | 0:36:35 | 0:36:37 | |
send an A5 stamped and self-addressed envelope | 0:36:37 | 0:36:40 | |
to the address that we'll give you at the end of the programme. | 0:36:40 | 0:36:43 | |
At Rip-Off Britain we hear all the time the real anger there is | 0:36:49 | 0:36:52 | |
out there about the nation's banks. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:55 | |
We wanted to get some answers to the problems you've raised | 0:36:55 | 0:36:58 | |
from Eric Leenders of the British Bankers' Association | 0:36:58 | 0:37:01 | |
which represents all the big high street names. | 0:37:01 | 0:37:05 | |
Mr Leenders, I don't think I have to tell you of all people | 0:37:05 | 0:37:07 | |
that the reputation of bankers in this country is now in tatters. | 0:37:07 | 0:37:11 | |
Is there within the industry and bankers | 0:37:11 | 0:37:13 | |
a feeling at all of embarrassment or shame for that? | 0:37:13 | 0:37:17 | |
Absolutely, I think so. | 0:37:17 | 0:37:19 | |
I mean I've been in the industry now for some 30 years | 0:37:19 | 0:37:22 | |
and I think it's a very, very difficult period indeed. | 0:37:22 | 0:37:25 | |
I think the question is really how we respond | 0:37:25 | 0:37:27 | |
and what we can do to perhaps restore some of the trust. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:31 | |
When you go to a party and someone says what do you do for a living, | 0:37:31 | 0:37:34 | |
would you be embarrassed to admit I'm a banker. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:36 | |
Well, I think it's very regretful that actually you would probably | 0:37:36 | 0:37:40 | |
think twice about admitting that you were a banker, | 0:37:40 | 0:37:42 | |
but what I'd like to think is that I'm a banker that's trying to make a difference | 0:37:42 | 0:37:46 | |
and trying to change across the industry and restore that faith and trust. | 0:37:46 | 0:37:50 | |
Well, let's talk about poor customer service | 0:37:50 | 0:37:52 | |
that's been associated with the meltdown that happened recently with banks, | 0:37:52 | 0:37:57 | |
when banks suddenly were unable to process individuals' money. | 0:37:57 | 0:38:00 | |
The Ulster Bank for instance, | 0:38:00 | 0:38:02 | |
it's taking them a month to be able to sort out the backlog. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:05 | |
In other words, your customer is suffering | 0:38:05 | 0:38:07 | |
because of the inadequacies and the lack of professionalism of the bank. | 0:38:07 | 0:38:12 | |
I can only I think repeat the apology given by Stephen Hester, | 0:38:12 | 0:38:17 | |
the group chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, | 0:38:17 | 0:38:20 | |
and I think it's laudable that he's also said that no customer, | 0:38:20 | 0:38:23 | |
RBS Group, NatWest, Ulster Bank, | 0:38:23 | 0:38:26 | |
or in fact any other customer of any other bank | 0:38:26 | 0:38:30 | |
will be out of pocket as a consequence | 0:38:30 | 0:38:33 | |
of the IT shortcomings at his bank. | 0:38:33 | 0:38:37 | |
What guarantee is there, it's not going to happen again? | 0:38:37 | 0:38:40 | |
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group has very generously suggested, | 0:38:40 | 0:38:43 | |
where there are lessons learned from the issue that they faced, | 0:38:43 | 0:38:46 | |
they are happy to share that with the industry | 0:38:46 | 0:38:49 | |
to make sure everyone can benefit from the lessons to be learned. | 0:38:49 | 0:38:52 | |
The Financial Services Authority, I understand, | 0:38:52 | 0:38:55 | |
has already been in touch with banks to ask for assurances | 0:38:55 | 0:38:59 | |
around the robustness of their systems to make sure | 0:38:59 | 0:39:03 | |
that wherever possible this won't happen again. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:07 | |
Finally, how can you improve the image of a profession, | 0:39:07 | 0:39:10 | |
which as far as most people are concerned at the moment, | 0:39:10 | 0:39:13 | |
was very happy to pay themselves large salaries | 0:39:13 | 0:39:15 | |
and large bonuses in the good times but then expect the consumer | 0:39:15 | 0:39:20 | |
and the taxpayer to bail them out when things go wrong? | 0:39:20 | 0:39:24 | |
The way that we need to address that is to get back to serving customers well. | 0:39:24 | 0:39:28 | |
I think it's important that when you, as a customer, come to speak to your banker, | 0:39:28 | 0:39:33 | |
you're confident that what they tell you, | 0:39:33 | 0:39:35 | |
the advice they give you, the products and services they offer work for you. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:39 | |
How sad that we're even having to address these questions | 0:39:39 | 0:39:42 | |
that the banks allowed themselves to get into that position. | 0:39:42 | 0:39:45 | |
And from 30 years in banking I can only hope that actually, | 0:39:45 | 0:39:49 | |
in years to come, we get back to our place in society | 0:39:49 | 0:39:52 | |
where we are respected and trusted, | 0:39:52 | 0:39:54 | |
and I can assure you there are a lot of people | 0:39:54 | 0:39:56 | |
at all levels within the banks that are determined to achieve that. | 0:39:56 | 0:40:01 | |
Here at Rip-Off Britain we're always ready to investigate | 0:40:02 | 0:40:05 | |
more of your stories. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:07 | |
Confused over your bills? | 0:40:07 | 0:40:08 | |
Trying to wade your way through never ending small print? | 0:40:08 | 0:40:13 | |
You should read it but it's not in plain English. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:15 | |
It should be simple, you know, ABC, very basic stuff. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:18 | |
Unsure what to do when you discover you've lost out | 0:40:18 | 0:40:21 | |
and that great deal has ended up costing you money? | 0:40:21 | 0:40:24 | |
You get home and you get your bill and it's like £70 when it's meant to be £35 | 0:40:24 | 0:40:28 | |
and basically you get ripped-off, don't you. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:32 | |
You might have a cautionary tale of your own | 0:40:32 | 0:40:35 | |
and want to share the mistakes you made with us, so other people don't do the same thing. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:39 | |
I feel angry, I feel stupid that I'd allowed this to happen to me. | 0:40:41 | 0:40:45 | |
You can write to us. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:48 | |
Or you can send us an email. | 0:40:56 | 0:40:58 | |
Don't forget, the Rip-Off team is ready and waiting | 0:41:04 | 0:41:07 | |
to investigate your stories. | 0:41:07 | 0:41:09 | |
Well, the banks' recent troubles | 0:41:11 | 0:41:13 | |
certainly seem to have been a bit of a wake-up call for them. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:16 | |
For too long some of them have rather taken for granted | 0:41:16 | 0:41:19 | |
the fact that most customers, once they've chosen their bank, | 0:41:19 | 0:41:21 | |
tend to stick with the same one for life. | 0:41:21 | 0:41:24 | |
And that's usually because the idea of unpicking | 0:41:24 | 0:41:26 | |
all those direct debits and standing orders makes moving your account | 0:41:26 | 0:41:30 | |
seem just that bit too difficult but it's quite straightforward. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:34 | |
So if you're not getting the service you deserve or want | 0:41:34 | 0:41:37 | |
then simply don't stand for it. | 0:41:37 | 0:41:39 | |
And why should you? Just switch somewhere else! | 0:41:39 | 0:41:43 | |
And there's evidence more and more people are starting to do that | 0:41:43 | 0:41:47 | |
and you can find out how to do it on our website. | 0:41:47 | 0:41:53 | |
There's lots of useful advice. | 0:41:53 | 0:41:55 | |
But for now that's all we've got time for today. | 0:41:55 | 0:41:57 | |
Thanks once again for joining us and we'll see you again very soon. | 0:41:57 | 0:42:01 | |
-Goodbye. -Bye bye. | 0:42:01 | 0:42:02 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:42:21 | 0:42:25 |