Metro Bank moved our £61,000 savings pot without asking

I HAVE a joint savings account with my husband at Metro Bank. When I checked in November, the account balance was £61,000.

But when I looked at the account again online the following month — because I wanted to move some of it to another bank to get a better rate — there was only £11 left. The rest had disappeared.

Neither my husband nor I had received any communication from Metro Bank. It was a huge worry.

I telephoned the bank and only after several days did I discover that the bank had removed the money from my account, apparently in order to give us more interest after a recent base rate change.

After we complained, the bank said it would return our money, but weeks later this still hasn’t happened.

M. H., Portsmouth. IT MUST have been a heart- stopping moment to see your savings balance shrink to £11 — not helped when you failed to obtain a speedy explanation for its disappearance.

When you finally received an answer from the bank, it told you the missing £61,000, which had previously been held in a Metro Bank savings bond that had matured in March 2021, had been moved to another fixed- term account with the bank.

But you hadn’t given it a licence to move your money. You said you were not told what the term was, nor the interest rate, though you later found out it was a oneyear bond paying about 2 pc.

This was not particularly competitive, considering rates as much as double that level were available elsewhere at the time. You rightly wanted your money to work harder for you and you didn’t want to miss out.

Bonds are certainly back, with savers pouring more of their money into fixed-rate accounts at the tail-end of 2022.

In December, 2.1 pc of all savings were in fixed- rate accounts, according to the Bank of England. This compares to a record low of just 0.6 pc in December 2021.

Fixed-rate bonds tend to offer higher rates than easy-access savings accounts, but the money must be locked away for a certain period of time, which might be one, two or three years, or more.

Savers usually cannot touch the cash during this period, or if they are permitted to withdraw any, will face penalties.

You told me that the plan had been to take out a portion of your joint Metro Bank savings to spend on a special Caribbean holiday to begin celebrations for your husband’s 80th birthday in February. You hoped to take your children and grandchildren with you.

You earmarked the remaining balance for a one-year bond, which you had opened with Leeds Building Society, paying 3.75 pc. So, I can imagine your shock when you saw that there was just £11 left in the account.

When you protested about the bank’s actions, it agreed to give you access to your money, but this didn’t happen.

You said you were kept on hold for many hours without getting through to a human to sort out the issue. You even made a pilgrimage to your nearest Metro Bank branch, 20 miles away in Southampton, to try to deal with it face-to-face.

Nice as the branch staff were, no one seemed to have the authority to sort out the matter. As well as being worried that savings rates might have peaked, you were concerned that you might miss the boat on the best fixed-rate savings deals.

You decided it was time to request my assistance.

I applied some readers’ champion charm on Metro Bank, and it went off to investigate.

A couple of days later the issue was resolved and the bank finally arranged for your money to be returned, along with the interest already accrued and £350 as a gesture of goodwill.

A spokesman says: ‘We are sorry for the service M. H. received, which was not up to our usual standards. We have agreed that we will break the terms of the fixed-term account.’

You were mightily relieved to have your money back to do with what you wished. When I caught up with you last week you said you had transferred most of the balance to a one- year fixed-rate bond with Investec, paying 4.15 pc.

As it turns out, this was better than the Leeds deal you had lined up. Despite all the stress involved, the delay worked in your favour financially at least.

The trip to the Caribbean is on the backburner for now, and you decided to celebrate in a more low-key way with a family party at your son’s house instead.

I hope you and your husband had a very happy day with your loved ones.

I HAVE sold £2,500 of designer clothes on the Vinted online marketplace without a problem. But recently, I sold a Vivienne Westwood shirt and was disappointed when the buyer questioned whether it was genuine.

To my dismay, Vinted said it believed it was fake, so refunded the buyer and told him to keep the item. I have sold several similar shirts that I originally purchased from TK Maxx without any problems.

I have messaged Vinted on numerous occasions to ask why it thinks the shirt is fake. It refuses to answer and says the matter is closed.

A. F., Middlesbrough, Teesside. THE Vinted marketplace is hugely popular with sellers because, unlike eBay, for example, there are no vendor charges involved.

It is the buyer who pays fees — from 30p to 80p plus 3 pc to 8 pc of the purchase price.

In return, buyers get protection if the items aren’t as described or as shown in the photos uploaded by the sellers, or if they arrive damaged — as well as if they are found to be fake.

You were a happy seller on the site until this unfortunate incident where the buyer of your £ 30 Vivienne Westwood garment queried its authenticity.

You were obviously mortified by the insinuation that you were selling fake goods, but when you tried to complain to the company, you got nowhere.

I felt you had been hard done-by, so I was happy to intervene. Vinted re-examined your case and a few days later I am pleased to say it overturned its original verdict.

A spokesman told me: ‘ After careful investigation, we believe that the item is indeed authentic.’ Vinted apologised and credited the funds to your account.

Though you were relieved to get your money, you have decided to part ways with the marketplace. You told me you found the customer service ‘appalling’.

You felt it was unfair that a buyer could query the authenticity of a purchase, be refunded by Vinted and yet be permitted to keep the item.

I asked Vinted to explain its process for checking the validity of a disputed item.

The spokesman says: ‘ We’re unable to disclose this information in detail as it helps to reduce the risk of fraud.

‘If our team determines an item to be a replica, the buyer isn’t obligated to return the item, although both members can agree with each other that the item will be returned.’

WRITE to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email — include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.