credit union errors

In January I got a "reminder" letter from my CU demanding arrears owed to them. 1) There were no arrears owed to them, my loan account had always operated perfectly 2) I never got the original letter, only the one claiming to be a reminder 3) My repayments are made by direct debit on a weekly basis and I never missed one.

They explained the mistake to me "grudgingly" in a one liner letter saying it was a clerical error due to a mix up with payment protection (which i hadn't taken out but had been added onto the account).

Last week I asked for a copy of my statement and when looking through the loan account i noticed 4 transactions all around €900 being added and subtarcted off the account. 2 of these transactions are for exactly the same amt so obviously they balance out. However the other 2 are about €50 out. Obviously there would be a small amount of interest on this amount also owed to me. Also on my current account, it shows a transaction of lodgement of 8460 last year and a withdrawal of €200 however when I questioned this the girl said to me I Lodged 8860 and withdrew 400!!

Where to go with this... The girl I spoke to yesterday said herself or the credit controller could not deal with my queries but said the manager would call me back, and then today after I called twice the same girl tried to say she had looked at it and she basically tried to confuse me into thinking it was all ok, but then back tracked and said the manager would be in contact with me by the end of the week.

I was always of the opinion that if a financial institution made a transaction on your account they had to write and tell you? Does this apply to credit unions. I would really value peoples advise and opinions on this as I am very annoyed over the whole thing and feel invaded!! (I hope that doesn't sound too dramatic!) Also it might be worth mentioning this CU is registered with the ICB.

Put your queries/complaints and request for rectification clearly and calmly in writing to the manager or other relevant branch staff member. Get a reply in writing. If you are not satisfied then consider taking the matter to the [broken link removed]. However as a member/shareholder of your CU you should have a lot of power to have any actual errors rectified to your satisfaction. Raise the issue at the next general meeting if you see fit.

IME this is not uncommon.

I have had incorrect lodgements made, incorrect (unauthorised) withdrawals made to "balance out" the incorrect lodgements and incorrect splits between loan and share accounts. When I complained, more incorrect (unauthorised) debits and credits ensued again in an attempt to balance the books.

Very confusing, very annoying and very worrying.

I have never had any of this explained to me to my satisfaction by my former credit union.

Possibilities - untrained staff, poor control systems, "computer error", I just don't know but I drove me nuts for a while.

The supervisory committee in a credit union should do some random checks every year to ensure that peoples accounts are in order. IMHO, you should write to the supervisory committee expressing your concern both about the actual financial movements and the lack of clarity when you made inquiries in the branch.

As per the thread title, 'errors' do happen but it seems to me that you have more than your share of them on your account.
It is possible that they are just sloppy computer entries but in a financial institution I would expect accuracy to be a highly desirable attribute.
If your account is not the exception to the rule, that CU must be wasting serious time and money tracing and remedying the errors.
When you flagged their error about your ‘arrears’ and then the numerous error postings to your accounts you would think someone would take responsibility for getting and presenting to you the full facts behind each and every error made, if only to reassure you that they are aware of what did happen.

You could contact the Supervisors or you could go down their 'Complaints Procedure'. Either way you should keep asking questions until you get satisfactory answers. I would expect them to volunteer information as to how they intend to proceed so that these frequent errors will not continue.
If that doesn't happen then I'd make them, as mathepac appears to have done with his, your former CU. If they don’t want to look after your money find someone else who does.

thanks for the replies and opinions.. I would love to know if I am correct in saying that if an institution makes an error on your account or indeeed any transaction without your consent they should inform you in writing? (eg, you get a letter prior to any banking charges)

Just wanted to update, the manager of the CU rang me yesterday, tried to convince me firstly that everything was in order but thankfully I had the statement to hand and was able to give him transactions and dates... Grudgingly, he then admitted that there were discrepencies, when i put it to him that they(CU) had "dropped the ball", he laughed and said "we punctured it".. he hadn't looked into the queries i had in my current account. appalling in my opinion.

That is an appalling attitude from the CU manager. I would have no hesitation in writing to the CU's Complaint Officer(they are obliged to have one) and/or the Board itself, pointing out the treatment you have been subjected to and demand restitution for inconvenience and loss of interest.

Slim

whats restitution??

Take your pick from these definitions :

a) the restoration of something lost or stolen to its proper owner : seeking the restitution of land taken from black South Africans under apartheid.
b) recompense for injury or loss : he was ordered to pay £6,000 in restitution.
c) the restoration of something to its original state : the insurance company provided restitution after the fire

thanks for the answers, if any one else has had similar happen to them and went down the road of reporting it to complaints committee of fso please let me know.

re current account issues, it appears that i took in a cheque and asked for some of it in cash and the remainder to be lodged, therefore the cheque lodged was the amount left after i took the cash and they have no signed withdrawal slip for the cash i took. apparently this happens regularly. surely this can't be right, are they not obliged by law to lodge the full cheque. and have my signature on record for any monies i took from it..

indebtedgal said:

re current account issues, it appears that i took in a cheque and asked for some of it in cash and the remainder to be lodged, therefore the cheque lodged was the amount left after i took the cash and they have no signed withdrawal slip for the cash i took. apparently this happens regularly. surely this can't be right, are they not obliged by law to lodge the full cheque. and have my signature on record for any monies i took from it..

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Most financial institutions will insist that if you bring in a crossed cheque it must be lodged to your account in full then they may allow you to take some of its value back in cash by doing a withdrawal. It leaves a good paper trail.
However if you went into the CU and presented a cheque (crossed or not) for €100 and said you wanted to lodge €90 and take €10 cash back and they facilitated you, they could hardly be accused of 'breaking the law'. They may not be complying with the instructions of the cheque drawer and if the proverbial hit the fan, it may complicate matters i.e. it doesn't leave a neat, easy to follow paper trail.
If you went in and specifically requested to lodge the whole amount to your account and then make a share withdrawal and the CU only lodged the €90 and gave you €10 cash back they could be 'guilty' of not complying with your specific request (but again not 'breaking the law').
From their point of view I think they probably did get you to endorse the back of the cheque which in effect is their receipt from you that you have received value for the whole amount of the cheque!

It is indeed advisable to put your complaint in writing to the Complaint's Officer. Seek a copy of the Credit Union's Complaints Procedure. Your complaint should be plainly stated, and, where possible, be supported by references to dates and approximate times. Request a full statement of your account for the past 12 months. If you are unhappy with the outcome of the complaint, refer the matter to the Financial Services Ombudsman's Office. They are very helpful, and do act swiftly, provided you have first put your complaint to the Credit Union (or bank, if applicable). The FSO are professionals at investigating complaints, unlike Supervisory Committees, whose quality tends to be a bit hit and miss, and who do not have the FEAR-OF-GOD factor the FSO has!!!

Here, however, is where I would disagree with Clubman - it is both unfair and unproductive to raise a personal complaint at an A.G.M. - confidentiality obligations will prevent any staff member, or elected official, from debating the workings of a members account at an open forum like an AGM. Anyway, the FSO has the clout to investigate the matter in full.

As regards the encashment of the cheque, the crossing instructions on the cheque generally governs how it should be handled. And, it should be borne in mind, if a bank or credit union cash a cheque for you there and then, they are really giving you money for an uncleared cheque -if you had to lodge that cheque to your account, it will normally take a number of days before your cheque will be cleared for payment to you, i.e. before your account receives the money from the bank that the cheque is drawn on originally. They are doing you a favour, in fact.

I'd agree with Quarehawk in his approach.

I also had a complaint last year with my CU on how they handled my account (long story and won't bore you with it here).

When the CU failed to respond to my complaint I escalated to the ILCU who were frankly useless.

I then escalated to the Financial Services Ombudsman who advised me to request a final response letter from the CU -this had the desired effect in getting a response.

Hilariously (to my mind) the CU insisted that I sign a non-disclosure agreement; I did point out that having told half the country about my dissatisfaction with the CU they were now preventing me from telling anyone that they had finally put the mistake right, apologised and provided due compensation....