to throw a major strop at my bank who say they will only deal with my DS not me?

[AbyCat]

Actually, no, I think IANBU, but I also need some good witty retorts for the dim witted guys on the "help" desk.
OK, I set up a savings account for DS (now 5 months) a while ago, just to pay in the cheques sent to him (made out to his name) by various relatives when he was born. Took bloody ages to set up as their computer kept saying "NO" at various stages - like the one where they asked for further ID of previous addresses because he'd only lived at this current address for 3 months ...you get the picture. Anyway, since then, we've not had any confirmation of the account, no paying in book, no way for me to transfer any money over to it - nothing. The phone banking non help desk refuse to speak to me & say they can only speak to DS. The fact that he's only 5 months old seems to be beyond their comprehension.

Should I just throw a strop at them or carry on politely explaining that as advanced as DS is , he still can't form whole sentences at 5 months & therefore can't come to the phone to confirm his identity?

Is it a child's account? My younger DC have accounts in their names on which I am named as trustee. DD is 10 and is now responsible for her own account.

Can you put your DH on the phone? "Yes this is DSofAbyCat speaking, what's that you say? I quite agree my voice has dropped very soon, I'm vairy advanced for my age" or similar

I'd go to the branch and bring him in, in his car seat. Bring his birth certificate with you. Politely demand to speak to someone in charge. Hold up the queue. Make sure you speak LOUDLY to the person at the desk when you sweetly explain the WHOLE situation, so that EVERYONE in the queue can hear what fuckwits these people are.

Dare we ask what bank it is?

You need to name and shame - this is atypical. My DCs accounts (3 different providers) all have an adult operator of the account in the child's name and until the child reaches a specified age to operate it independently (that age may vary), then it has to be that adult making transactions.

In the short term, you'll need to call into a branch with proof of both your IDs and collar someone and not let them go until they sort it out properly.

LOL - love it, BluddyMF.

Purple - yes, when I set up the account (a young persons savers a/c) I was named as the person to deal with it, so I thought that would all be on the system , but apparently not according to the help desk!

Santander, even .

sorry absolutely nothing constructive to add but ROFL at wanting to speak to5 month old. Brilliant

Just showed this to DH, he is off to make an appointment with the bank for DS tomorrow! He says he's going to put the poor mite down in his car seat in the managers office & go and stand outside the door til they see sense....

Unfortunately, I arranged the initial appt with the branch that I use for my company banking as I thought they've known me for years. It's a bit of a drag to get down there & queue for ages to see someone, but hey ho, it might be more fun than arguing with the phone banking robots.

They've already got copies of my passport, driving licence, recent bills, DS's birth certificate & passport...god knows what more they want (apart from a lesson in common sense)

This is really simple to sort out. I bet what's happened is the person opening it has opened the account without you as trustee.

You have two choices. Either complain to the branch manager where you opened the account and get them to fix it (you may need to sign another form because the last one will have been for the wrong terms and conditions) or you can use the main complaints department who you can always phone or write to and sometimes email too depending on the bank.

Either way don't stress about it or try to get it sorted via the call centre people on £6.50 an hour. It'll just make everything take longer and stress you out.

Oh and I'll bet you 50p there was nothing wrong with the computer system - it was the person putting the information in who was wrong.

Looks like you'll have to wait a few years until DS can talk to sort it out

I agree with asking for an interview and taking him down to discuss his account, would be worth it just to see their faces!

By the way, is it one of the new children's ISAs? If not it might be worth considering opening one instead... Our friend is a financial advisor and when we asked his advice on what was the best way to invest money given to us on the birth of our DD he said they would be best option, plus hopefully the banks are geared up to allow parents to administer them!

Katie is right as always _wink]

I used to work for a bank call centre. Basically the computer will say no, the ac has been set up incorrectly and should have been done as AbyCat re BabyAbyCa or at least in babyabycars name and yourself with full authority on the ac.

The best way is to either go down like you've said or to insist on speaking to a manager over the phone. It should be obvious what has happened as soon as they look at the sob for the ac holder

Hopefully it is a simple human error ie when inputted and not that the branch failed to get something completed/signed.

Hth

From the sound of it, it was the computer operator's fauly. I have two very young grandsons who live abroad. Sometimes cheques arrive for them so I opened, with no trouble at all, a National Savings Investment account for each of them and the cheques are paid in with no trouble.

We had a very good sub-postmistress who did the work.

Haha, I hope your DH does just that.
Do come back and let us know how your DS 'interview' goes!!!

at the thought of Master Abycat & his interviews!!

FWIW Could you get the relatives in future to do a bank transfer to save you/DS trotting off to the bank with cheques whilst you're so busy?