Rotten service levels from banks extends to charities as well - Yorkshire Post Letters

You reported (The YP, May 8) on the rotten service being given to small businesses by the banks. As a trustee of a small local charity I can say that this problem extends to the voluntary sector.

About nine months ago, a fellow trustee and I applied to become signatories to our two bank accounts. We filled in all the forms, then more forms followed by silence. After about six months a message came from the bank that they needed to speak to one of the retiring signatories. This was done and he reported that the log jam was cleared and the deed was done.

Three days later I received a further eight page form which my colleague and I duly filled in, signed and returned. The next event in the saga, about eight months from the start of this nonsense, is that they needed me to prove my identity (My fellow trustee is already a customer of the bank so they risked assuming he is real).

The bank has shut its local branch but retains a one room office to which I went armed with proof of my existence. Failure again. The office does not have a photocopier so they could not record my documents. The nearest branch (shortly to close) is 12 miles away so I duly attended with my documents.

At last, after about nine months of not being able to access our money, my colleague attempted to make a payment to be told that, as the account had been long inactive, it was closed.

Anyway this was overcome and my colleague tried to reimburse me for the payments I had been making on behalf of the charity only to be told that the account with most of the money in it was still inaccessible.

My colleague and I should have been appointed signatories to these accounts nine months ago by return of post. No wonder people despair of the service they get from the banking industry.