I'm not talking about the credit crunch, but you can easily see how it happened with this level of incompetence...
So I opened a joint web saver account with Halifax as we already have a joint current account with them, but it was opened with W's maiden name instead of her married name (and I must admit to a sneaking suspicion that this was my fault) and £150 was taken from our current account to open it.
To access the account, we both had to agree the terms and conditions, but W couldn't do that as the account wasn't in her name. I tried telephoning their helpline to change W's name but they said they needed to see a marriage certificate. I already tried taking our marriage certificate to the Halifax branch, but they said W needed to be there in person for them to change it.
So I have just spent 32 minutes on the phone to their online helpline trying to close the account and get our £150 back.
But here is where it got weird. They couldn't close the account until the Terms and Conditions were approved; W couldn't agree to the terms and conditions until her name was changed. I argued what happened if we didn't agree to the T&Cs and just wanted to close the account. They said (again) to close the account, we would both have to agree the T&Cs. I said what if we got divorced tomorrow and W didn't want to agree the T&Cs on a joint account. They said we would have to go into a branch with evidence of the marital difficulties (honestly they did) and then it would be up to the discretion of the branch.
They asked a senior colleague who agreed with all that had been said. I asked to speak to him. They refused. I asked to speak to the duty manager. They put me on hold...
And I was finally put through to customer services who said they would change the name on W's account so the T&Cs could be agreed so we could access the account and close it. Now why could they have not done that 30 minutes ago!!
I was angry but trying really hard not to be, so the only retort I managed to make was 'Good. Goodbye', which is a shame really...
I really, really want to change banks now, but the hassle you have to go through...
