Our investigation

We reviewed the staff member’s notes of the conversation. The notes described a conversation about the possibility of Bartholomew’s moving to lower rates. At the time of the conversation, the bank’s rates were higher than the rate Bartholomew was committed to, and the staff member pointed out this fact. The staff member recorded that Bartholomew decided not to pursue the matter any further.

The calculation to determine whether a customer must pay an early repayment recovery fee is a complex one – and certainly, not one that a frontline staff member could perform on the spot. It requires the use of an internal digital tool to determine the applicability of such a fee. We found no record in the bank's systems of any use of that tool in relation to Bartholomew's loan.

We therefore found the bank had not misled Bartholomew, and that Bartholomew had suffered no financial loss.

Outcome

We did not uphold Bartholomew's complaint.