TSB savings error cost us over £700 in lost interest

MY WIFE and I received letters from TSB saying our cash Isas would mature in April 2018. We were offered a further fix for two years at a rate of 1 pc, which we found acceptable in the current low interest rate climate.

I sent off the forms, but then we got letters back on May 14 saying our money was being invested at just 0.2 pc for two years.

We therefore decided to transfer to a one-year Virgin Money account paying 1.3 pc. I expected to lose 180 days’ interest at 0.2 pc but, in fact, TSB charged us 180 days of lost interest at 1 pc: £410.70 in my case and £307.19 for my wife.

I checked with my local branch and was told an error had been made with the letter when it said we would be earning 0.2 pc for two years. It should have said 1 pc for two years.

The branch said I would have to complain to head office. We have received seven letters apologising for the delay in dealing with our issue, but it still has not been resolved. A. A., North Yorks. I SOMETIMES wonder why banks bother to fight such cases. We are not talking about a massive sum of money and it is clear you only closed your account because TSB made a mistake.

So why not own up, cancel the penalty and move on? That would have avoided wasted time and saved TSB a large amount in administration costs — not to mention an extra charge it faces because you have taken the case to the Financial Ombudsman!

The letters from TSB clearly stated you would be paid 0.2 pc for two years, so it’s no wonder you transferred your money when you were suddenly led to believe you would be getting one-fifth of the interest you’d signed up for.

Someone, somewhere at TSB seems to think the bank has a defensible case. I don’t — and neither will anyone reading this.

TSB did resolve your case on its own. However, it was only when I became involved that it moved swiftly to resolve your wife’s, too.

It has refunded her £307.19 plus interest, along with £50 to cover expenses and £150 for the stress and inconvenience. You have also received a phone call from TSB. EQUINITI claims to have sent me a dividend cheque for £146.56 on January 1, 2001, for shares held in Lloyds Bank. I never received the cheque, so it must have gone astray in the post.

So why, after almost 18 years, has it now written to me about this matter? I have lived at the same address all of this time.

It is charging me a £40 administration fee to claim the money, which bears no relation to the size of the dividend. A. T., South Shields. EquInITI has looked into your issue and it seems the dividend relates to a payment made to you on May 16, 2017. It was reissued as part of a standard process when you updated your details in november 2018. The firm says there seems to have been a glitch, which led to the confusion over the original payment date.

It has now refunded the £40 fee to compensate you for the inconvenience and a spokesman has apologised for the confusion. I HAD 14 solar panels installed in May 2018, at a cost of £7,000.

Since then, we have fed 250 kilowatt hours of energy into the National Grid, yet have not received a payment from E.ON.

We have phoned its customer services, to no avail. It is still sending us bills, but we have not received a penny for the electricity generated. We have also asked for a smart meter, but this has not been installed.

I am 96 and not in good health and my wife is disabled. We are finding this very stressful. J. R., Nottingham. I dOn’T want to add to your stress, but I cannot help wondering why someone sold you solar panels in the first place. I’m a great fan of them, but they are a long-term investment, especially since the money paid for generating electricity has so far fallen.

At the time of your installation, you would have got around 4p per kilowatt hour generated, plus 5.24p for every kilowatt hour that you do not use and which is fed into the national Grid.

You cannot possibly hope to get back the money you have invested at your advanced age.

It may be that you wanted solar panels for their environmental qualities but, if the salesman in any way implied they could save you money, he or she misled you.

I strongly suggest you talk to a close family member about this.

There was a problem with your paperwork, which E.On and the installer have helped to resolve, so your feed-in payments will start, backdated to June 29.

E.On should now have read your meter and your smart meter request has been recorded.