Our worst money experiences

What gets our goat?

During August, we’re running a Your Money, Your Voice campaign with our sister site Smart Money People, to encourage you all to talk more about the good and bad interactions you’ve had with banks, insurers and other financial businesses.

The more you all share, whether with friends, strangers or the brands themselves, the more likely it is others can learn more about who they do business with.

Here the Be Clever With Your Cash team share those frustrating and nightmare encounters. We’d love to hear about your own experiences, so please do comment at the end.

Some articles on the site contain affiliate links, which provide a small commission to help fund our work. However, they won’t affect the price you pay or our editorial independence. Read more here.

Our insurance wouldn’t cover our claim

Andy, Editor-in-chief

Many of my worst experiences with banks and other financial providers are thanks to poor customer service. The biggest frustration is the inability of the customer service agents to have their own agency. When they’re clearly following a script and unable or unwilling to actually listen to what I was saying I know it’s going to be a battle.

Among the worst have been TalkTalk, Three and Virgin Media. Ultimately, because I’m prepared to fight if needed and escalate to get a result, these experiences tend to cost me time rather than money.

But it’s a different story when it comes to buying and using insurance – both of which are always a major headache – and usually end up with me missing out in some way.

Fortunately I’ve rarely had to claim on insurance. Yes we’ll usually get some money back for our claim if we do, but there’s always some exclusion which rules out a full refund on costs.

Most recently, in trying to find the source of a leak in our basement, we found our policy only covered leaks from pipes, not from the outside. We didn’t know what was causing it, but confusingly, Halifax would only pay for us to find out where it was coming from if the source was from a pipe. Yet since we didn’t know what was causing the leak, there was no way we could know in advance! It felt like a clause which was almost impossible to claim for.

Yes that was in the policy documents when I bought it, so that’s ultimately on me not them. But with so much information to go through, and with there being a good chance you won’t know what to look for until after you’ve experienced it, it feels like there’s always going to be a risk. Still, better to have some cover in place than none at all.

My ISA transfer took forever

Amelia, Deputy editor

I had a nightmare transferring my cash ISA from Royal Bank of Scotland to Shawbrook Bank and I felt both providers could’ve done more. Initially neither bank would take responsibility for whatever had gone wrong despite the ISA transfer request being repeatedly rejected.

It went on for MONTHS and I felt completely stuck in the middle and powerless.

Finally, nine months after the initial transfer request, and following complaints made to both banks, the matter was resolved. RBS discovered it may have actually made a mistake but both banks could have been more helpful.

I received compensation from RBS and Shawbrook Bank, but the experience left a bit of a sour taste. When Trading 212, a digital provider, launched a market-leading cash ISA, I opened an account. I had to wait while it put ISA transfers on hold due to the volume of subscriptions it had received but as soon as it allowed them again, I moved my money from Shawbrook Bank.

And much to my delight, the transfer was swift and seamless.

My daughter’s car insurance nightmare

Katy, writer

Without doubt, my worst experience with a financial services provider was courtesy of Hastings Car Insurance.

My daughter who was a brand new driver had taken insurance with them and paid around £1,500 for the year. She didn’t realise but they’d emailed and asked her to send a copy of her driving licence to validate the cover.

The email had gone to my daughter’s junk folder and they’d only sent her the one message.

By the time she saw the email, the seven day deadline to reply had passed and Hastings had cancelled her car insurance. No chaser email, no phone call.

When contacting Hastings, they said they couldn’t reinstate the cover – she’d have to find a new policy. We managed to find one with People’s Choice. But having to take cover that started on the same day and being required to state that a previous policy had been cancelled meant the new cover was £1,000 more expensive.

When the documents came through, we realised People’s Choice was a Hastings company. We panicked and called Hastings to let them know that we’d accidentally taken a policy with them. Because surely they wouldn’t accept her as a customer when they’d cancelled her first cover less than 12 hours before?

We were completely shocked to hear that they were more than happy for her to take a new policy with them. So, although they’d refused to reinstate her original policy, they would take her back instantly as a new customer. Oh and of course charge her an extra £1,000 for the privilege.

We were told by Hastings that “this situation happens all the time” which is shocking. It seems like an easy way for insurers to make even more money out of people who are already struggling to pay soaring premiums.

My near miss when selling a car

Zoe, Senior writer

My worst money experience has to be when I sold my car. The buyer took the car and logbook and it resulted in his speeding and parking tickets on my doorstep. Luckily I recognised it as a scam and notified the DVLA, otherwise I could’ve found myself in a sticky situation.

Home buying collapse cost us thousands

Nicky, Writer

My complaint isn’t with one individual financial organisation, but with the overall process in place when buying a property in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Having just been through it all again, it is a money pit. You find your dream home, start the conveyancing process when the chain is in place, pay out thousands of pounds for solicitors fees, searches, surveys etc. Then someone down the chain pulls out for whatever reason, and all that money you shelled out is lost. And this could happen any number of times.

It’s like gambling, with money and your heart. When the chain falls apart for whatever reason, you not only lose the money you paid for solicitors, searches, surveys etc, but you more often than not, lose your dream home.

Why is no one held responsible for this and who on earth came up with this system?

Paying out for searches, legal fees and surveys before any contract is exchanged is madness, yet this is what we have to do to buy a property in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

We should adopt the Scottish system – once you’ve put your offer in, you are financially committed to the purchase.