Is your bank annoying you?

[JamesT]

Has anyone managed to get any coherent explanation (or clue even) from their bank as to why they are troubling them?

It is annoying. It's all to do with the IRS trying to catch tax defaulters. Fair enough. But my only financial connection with the US is the ludicrous sums of money spent in the Florida theme parks. So what makes my bank think I might be a US citizen or resident other than in the UK? Grrrrr!

Do you have a common name? It wouldn't surprise me if the IRS have merely submitted 'John Smith' from Guildford, so the bank is hitting everyone that might match to make sure.

 

[Oldgaloot]

As it happens I have a rather uncommon name but I don't think that's the problem in that it's not the IRS generating this nonsense. I have now made a Subject Access Request of my bank to see what info they hold on me.

What can possibly go wrong?

 

[35B]

The system hasn't improved since the 2016 change. Tax was deducted and you didn't have anything else to do unless you were a higher rate taxpayer and the additional tax was dealt with in your self-assessment or you had enough personal and other allowances to cover your income and you claimed a refund. I couldn't see what was wrong with that but George "Pasty Tax" Osborne knew better, of course.

It now takes at least a year to get your code adjusted to the right figure and further time to get your liability finalised. If you do your tax online you get a little message telling you not to expect anything final for months.

Since COVID HMRC has been a mess. I don't wish to offend anyone but I think everyone should be back in the office.

Having had to deal with the paper generated for the old system, I'll take the new.

 

[Oldgaloot]

Fair enough, but in this all-singing, all-dancing, high tech world, I don't see why what was previously paper can't now be digital.

But I think we're going off topic, though I accept that's probably my bad. Whatever that means.

 

[Kite159]

As it happens I have a rather uncommon name but I don't think that's the problem in that it's not the IRS generating this nonsense. I have now made a Subject Access Request of my bank to see what info they hold on me.

What can possibly go wrong?

Getting a letter saying "We have decided we no longer wish to deal with you, and are giving you 30 days notice before we close any accounts you hold with us, there is no appeal to this decision"?

 

[nlogax]

Has anyone managed to get any coherent explanation (or clue even) from their bank as to why they are troubling them?

While banking customers from all walks of life and financial backgrounds do receive these forms, the chances are higher should you happen to have / had a US source of income and as part of that you've filed a W8-BEN form with the IRS to certify not being a US taxpayer.

Receiving bonuses in the form of stock from a US-headquartered employer is a pretty typical example of where this happens.

 

[chrisjo]

Is my bank annoying me? Yes it is. (but not a lot).

I had a Bank of Scotland credit card that I hardly ever used. Because I didn't use it often enough for BOS's liking they decided to cancel it, so I took out another one with another company that I've used infrequently ever since.

Within six months of taking it away, BOS started pestering me with emails trying to persuade me to take out another one, and this has gone on for about five years on a monthly basis. I just wish they'd ask me to complete a survey. Idiots.

 

[AM9]

May main bank of over 40 years hasn't annoyed me so far (tempting fate here).

 

[aftv]

Nationwide haven't annoyed me (yet) either. In fact they more often than not please me especially this year.

 

[1D54]

Received a text from Barclays in the early hours saying they have declined a payment because it was attempted on an old card.

Off i went to investigate and it was indeed an attempted scam but while i was talking to a customer service agent about it on no less than three occasions was he interrupted by colleagues needing advice on other matters.

In the end he had had enough and told the last one that he was dealing with a customer. He apologised to me profusely and pointed out that not one of his colleagues had approached me and asked if i minded if they could briefly interrupt.

The best and worst of banking customer service was had by me in the space of 10 minutes. I suppose i am in a fortunate position of having a bank to visit in the first place to iron out such matters unlike a growing percentage of the population.

 

[Tetchytyke]

It seems to be a Halifax thing.

I am not a UK resident for tax purposes and have told Halifax this. They now keep asking for a reference number that the Isle of Man- where I am resident for tax purposes- does not issue. I've tried explaining this, they don't grasp it. But I have found that putting the number 1 in the form makes it go away. Happy days.

As for tax codes and assessments and what not, here in the Isle of Man everyone has to submit a tax return every year, within 6 months of the tax year end. Employees do pay tax in advance by deduction from their wage, the deduction being set by a tax code. But only when the assessment has been done will your tax liability for the year be finalised, and if you've underpaid you've got 30 days to settle. So be careful what you wish for...

My main bank, First Direct, doesn't annoy me at all. They don't have any multiple choice phone menus, you simply ring them up, someone answers the phone, and you tell them what you want. It really is heaven.

 

[styles]

Received a text from Barclays in the early hours saying they have declined a payment because it was attempted on an old card.

Off i went to investigate and it was indeed an attempted scam but while i was talking to a customer service agent about it on no less than three occasions was he interrupted by colleagues needing advice on other matters.

I had this with a Monzo card once, but it was real.

Monzo cards for me seem to stop working after a couple of years. Usually the contactless goes, but I had one where the chip wouldn't work either, and it's pretty hard to convince merchants to use magstripe (understandably!)

I got a replacement card but forgot to update one of my recurring payments, but this was for a credit agreement.

Payment day comes and it gets declined. I call up the credit provider and make the payment within minutes (a whole £8), but they say it'll go down as a late payment on my credit report, which it did, because they say it can take a few days to clear so they'll have received the money late.

I'm thinking about making a formal complaint about it actually, even though it was nearly 3 years ago. Because from my point of view I made the payment that day using the only available payment method. It's a black mark on an otherwise squeaky clean credit report.

 

[Bletchleyite]

If you have a premium Monzo account you can create virtual cards and so decouple everything non-physical from the physical card. You can even add virtual cards to Apple/Google Pay now so if you lose your actual card or there's fraud the Apple/Google Pay one still works.

 

[philjo]

A couple of banks (including Halifax) keep sending letters each month relating to my late Father’s accounts requesting me to send them a copy of the grant of probate. Based on recent experiences of a couple of friends I don’t expect to get the probate grant until next year. It doesn’t help that those banks no longer have any local branches.

 

[Cloud Strife]

While banking customers from all walks of life and financial backgrounds do receive these forms, the chances are higher should you happen to have / had a US source of income and as part of that you've filed a W8-BEN form with the IRS to certify not being a US taxpayer.

It's pretty common for it to appear through my Polish bank as well, and I don't have anything to do with the US financially. Having said that, the declaration is nothing more than a couple of taps on their app or a couple of clicks on the internet banking, so it's not a big deal.

 

[simonw]

A couple of banks (including Halifax) keep sending letters each month relating to my late Father’s accounts requesting me to send them a copy of the grant of probate. Based on recent experiences of a couple of friends I don’t expect to get the probate grant until next year. It doesn’t help that those banks no longer have any local branches.

Seems very odd, they usually suspend the account(s) following notification of death, until you tell them you have probate, or that it's not required. I would be on the phone to their bereavement team.

 

[35B]

Seems very odd, they usually suspend the account(s) following notification of death, until you tell them you have probate, or that it's not required. I would be on the phone to their bereavement team.

I'm getting that from a number of my late father's financial institutions. It seems to be an automated process of a "don't forget we're here" type, and a part of the bereavement process.

As his estate includes a number of "orphan" accounts that I've had to push to get reactivated, its a minor issue and I just add them to the file I'm keeping.