Jeff Salway: New Year’s Resolution - don’t be the next mis-selling statistic

I HEARD from more readers last year than ever. I wish I hadn’t. But before you choke on your Hogmanay hangover remedy with indignation at my insouciance, let me explain myself.

The fact is that the day companies start treating customers with greater fairness – not just banks, but insurers, energy firms, card providers and mobile phone and home communications groups – is the day when the calls from readers dry up.

For despite all the slick campaigns boasting of a dedication to customer service – Royal Bank of Scotland deserves a special mention for its laughable pledge to become “Scotland’s most helpful bank” – desperate times have given rise to desperate measures, and not only among hard-pressed individuals. It’s fair to say that in the taking-customers-for-granted stakes, the UK’s high street banks remain the biggest culprits. By this benchmark they make even the energy suppliers and HM Revenue & Customs seem respectable.

Every week I’m contacted by readers worried that they’ve been browbeaten by commission-hungry branch staff into making the wrong decision, complaining of poor treatment or simply unable to get a straight answer from anyone at their bank

If there’s one thing the financial services industry has to tackle next year before public trust is eroded beyond repair, it is this culture of rampant mis-selling.

They may claim to be changing for the better, but there is just no evidence of that yet.

As it happens, I was on the receiving end of a robust sales pitch in my local bank branch last month, having gone in with a simple query. I stayed quiet while I was told why I should take out a particular savings product by someone who had not asked a single question about my circumstances or needs.

On learning that I was a financial journalist he changed the subject instantly – as good as an admission of guilt.

More typically, however, banks tend to prey on older customers whose trust they can exploit and profit from. Deliberate mis-selling is rife on the high street and has been unstoppable since interest rates began falling more than three years ago. That’s when pensioners in particular began to see their all-important savings income deteriorate, forcing them to look for alternatives.

Unfortunately that led many into their bank branches and into the grateful arms of sales staff who happen to be paid commission for flogging investment bonds and structured products. The products aren’t necessarily the problem, for all their potential flaws. But when someone in their 60s, 70s or 80s and looking for an alternative to cash is persuaded that their best move would be to invest in a bond, structured product or fund with exposure to equities, the sale is fraudulent and immoral.

And when that sale involves a pensioner locking away their money for a certain term – usually five years – the financial wellbeing of the customer has been utterly disregarded.

This is one of the biggest scandals of our time and one that banks and regulators are doing too little to tackle. Barclays was fined £7.7 million last January and told to pay £60m in compensation to thousands of older customers mis-sold investment products. Last month HSBC was fined £10m and ordered to pay £40m in compensation after a subsidiary, NHFA, was found guilty of mis-selling investment bonds to elderly people in care.

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it: if you’re investing a substantial sum of money, need help with your finances or want guidance on something more complex than a simple bank account, do not take financial advice from your bank. It could cost you far more in the long-term than the fee for a decent IFA.

When it comes to your finances, that’s one New Year’s resolution worth sticking to.

Wake-up call to banks

Talking of New Year, it would be wrong to pass up the chance to make a prediction that will doubtless come back to bite me. However, I reckon I’m on safe ground when I suggest that 2012 could be the year when the status quo in the banking and energy markets faces a substantial challenge.

In the former we have Virgin taking over Northern Rock (as of today) and the Co-operative set to boost its high street presence by taking 632 branches off Lloyds Banking Group’s hands.

That doesn’t mean the big high street names will be incentivised to treat customers more fairly, unfortunately. But switching levels in the current account market are too low, largely because of the perception that they are all the same. That’s not necessarily true, but the high street expansion of two household names aiming to compete with the brands currently dominating the market could be the spur needed.

If that is the case, 2012 may be the year the low esteem in which the high street banks are held by consumers begins to hit them where it hurts – in the pocket.