Not upheld: Account administration errors complaint against Gatehouse Bank Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mr R complained to Gatehouse Bank about several service issues following the maturity of his one-year fixed term deposit account on 25 July 2023, which was converted to an easy access savings account. His complaints included: not receiving a promised secure message after a call with Gatehouse, the account retaining the same number (with different prefix) rather than receiving a new number, and not receiving a closing statement for the matured account. The ombudsman found that Gatehouse's automatic systems likely sent the closing statement, the account number retention was within Gatehouse's discretion, and the online account information issue was resolved the same day with Gatehouse's apology being fair resolution. The complaint was not upheld, though the ombudsman encouraged Gatehouse to resend the closing statement.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Gatehouse most likely sent the closing statement as part of their automatic process, and any non-receipt was likely due to factors outside Gatehouse's control. The ombudsman noted that Mr R already had full understanding of the fixed-term account from the maturity call and therefore suffered no detriment from the lack of a separate account number. The ombudsman considered the issue about the online account information to be resolved automatically the same day, and Gatehouse's apology to be fair resolution for the missed secure message, as there was no material impact on Mr R.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website