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Whistleblower: 'RBS trains staff to lie'
Royal Bank of Scotland stands accused of training its staff to mislead customers to prevent them from cancelling their Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) policies on credit cards.
The allegations come from a whistleblower within the bank's 'customer loyalty team', who recently detailed claims of the abuse to the City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority.
The whistleblower claims that staff stall calls by passing them on to the person next to them in an attempt to thwart cancellation of the policies.
The customer is reportedly later offered a 'goodwill gesture' to convince them not to cancel their policy.
The sale of PPI along with loans and credit cards was lambasted by the UK Competition Commission earlier this year.
The insurance is sometimes added on to loans and credit cards without the customer's consent and adds significantly to the cost of borrowing, it said in an official report.
The memo, seen by This is Money, alleges RBS trains its advisers to tell customers seeking to cancel PPI on their credit cards that they were being transferred to another department. Often the adviser is actually transferring them to the colleague sitting next to them.
The customer is then allegedly kept on hold for five minutes in the hope that they will hang up. If they do not, it is claimed they are then told that they cannot cancel the PPI without also cancelling the credit card and paying off their debt in full.
As a 'goodwill offer', advisers are then instructed to persuade clients into accepting a two-month 'free trial' of the insurance policy to placate them; however the free trial was in effect only for one month as the policy had until recently a 30-day cancellation period.
For going through these motions and preventing a customer from cancelling their PPI, advisers are allegedly paid £5 in tax-free shopping vouchers. Then could earn up to £500 worth of these per month.
This compares with £1 for retaining a customer looking to cancel a current or savings account.
The source, who does not wish to be named, said that they raised a moral objection with senior members of staff, but requests to have the procedure revised were apparently ignored. He said: 'I believe the whole process is dishonest and unethical and I refused to take part in it.'
His comments are backed up by two other members of the Customer Loyalty team, who were contacted by This is Money.
The FSA declined to comment, but said it takes all allegations against regulated companies seriously.
RBS said the matter is 'the subject of an ongoing investigation'.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-...9&in_page_id=7
Oh if only I could find a Welcome Finance Whistleblower
Royal Bank of Scotland stands accused of training its staff to mislead customers to prevent them from cancelling their Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) policies on credit cards.
The allegations come from a whistleblower within the bank's 'customer loyalty team', who recently detailed claims of the abuse to the City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority.
The whistleblower claims that staff stall calls by passing them on to the person next to them in an attempt to thwart cancellation of the policies.
The customer is reportedly later offered a 'goodwill gesture' to convince them not to cancel their policy.
The sale of PPI along with loans and credit cards was lambasted by the UK Competition Commission earlier this year.
The insurance is sometimes added on to loans and credit cards without the customer's consent and adds significantly to the cost of borrowing, it said in an official report.
The memo, seen by This is Money, alleges RBS trains its advisers to tell customers seeking to cancel PPI on their credit cards that they were being transferred to another department. Often the adviser is actually transferring them to the colleague sitting next to them.
The customer is then allegedly kept on hold for five minutes in the hope that they will hang up. If they do not, it is claimed they are then told that they cannot cancel the PPI without also cancelling the credit card and paying off their debt in full.
As a 'goodwill offer', advisers are then instructed to persuade clients into accepting a two-month 'free trial' of the insurance policy to placate them; however the free trial was in effect only for one month as the policy had until recently a 30-day cancellation period.
For going through these motions and preventing a customer from cancelling their PPI, advisers are allegedly paid £5 in tax-free shopping vouchers. Then could earn up to £500 worth of these per month.
This compares with £1 for retaining a customer looking to cancel a current or savings account.
The source, who does not wish to be named, said that they raised a moral objection with senior members of staff, but requests to have the procedure revised were apparently ignored. He said: 'I believe the whole process is dishonest and unethical and I refused to take part in it.'
His comments are backed up by two other members of the Customer Loyalty team, who were contacted by This is Money.
The FSA declined to comment, but said it takes all allegations against regulated companies seriously.
RBS said the matter is 'the subject of an ongoing investigation'.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/saving-...9&in_page_id=7
Oh if only I could find a Welcome Finance Whistleblower
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