Handling Your Complaints

Our aim is to provide quality products and services at all times

If you feel this hasn’t been achieved, let us know and we’ll do our best to deal with your concerns to your full satisfaction.

You can telephone, write or send an email (please include your account number and a daytime contact number) detailing your complaint to:

Charter Savings Bank
PO Box 855
Wallsend
NE28 5BL
T: 0800 032 9999
E: [email protected]

Please only use email to request a call back. As email isn't a secure channel, please don't include any sensitive or financial information in addition to your account number and telephone number in any messages you send.

How we'll resolve your complaint

We want you to feel that your complaint has been dealt with quickly and fairly, however some complex cases may take time to investigate thoroughly. So that you know what to expect, we’ll work within the following timescales:

  • We’ll always try to resolve your complaint immediately if possible, or within three working days if we need to investigate further. We’ll then send you a written communication to confirm that we consider your complaint is resolved.
  • If we can’t resolve things by the end of the third working day, we’ll send you a written acknowledgement confirming your complaint has been received, together with full details of the person who is handling it.
  • In exceptional cases we may require up to eight weeks, or 35 working days for some complaints about electronic payments, to fully investigate your complaint and issue you with our final response.

We'll keep you regularly informed as to our progress and measures being taken to resolve your complaint.

If you aren’t happy with our final response

If we’re unable to issue a final response within eight weeks, or within 35 working days for some complaints about electronic payments, or you’re unhappy with our final response for any reason, you can refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service who can be contacted as follows:

Telephone

Call them on 0300 123 9123 or 0800 023 4567

Website

Visit www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Email

Send a message to [email protected]

Post

Write to them at:

The Financial Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower
London
E14 9SR

It's important that our complaints procedures are finalised before you contact the Financial Ombudsman, as they will only investigate once we have issued our final response, or after the end of the eight week or 35 working day period.

If you are not satisfied with our final response and you wish to refer to the Financial Ombudsman Service, you only have six months from the date of our final response to refer it. However, none of these procedures affect your legal rights.

Financial Services Compensation Scheme

Your eligible deposits held by a UK establishment of Charter Savings Bank are protected up to a total of £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, the UK’s deposit protection scheme. Any deposits you hold above the limit are unlikely to be covered. Please click here for further information or visit www.fscs.org.uk.