I switched current accounts on Friday 30 April from the Co-op (basic Cashminder account) to First Direct. I had reservations about it being on Friday because I knew I had a weekly wage payment coming in from Hays (an agency that I am currently temping through) but this payment was showing up on the Co-op app at 8.30am in the morning as having been credited to the account.

Then when I checked again at 9.30am, the Co-op balance was correctly showing as zero and the First Direct account was showing the correct amount. So far, so good.

But on Saturday, I logged into the Co-op account to look at my savings account and noticed that it was now saying that the current account was now in an unauthorised overdraft by exactly the amount of the Hays wage payment! Looking at their website, it's as if the Hays payment never entered the account. Despite it being shown on my account on the Friday morning, and First Direct obviously transferring that amount in good faith, it has apparently vanished into thin air.

I have written to the Co-op via their secure message system and have also emailed the COO and the Co-op's complaints email address to get to the bottom of this, but as it's a bank holiday weekend there is nobody around to respond. I have tried phoning their 'helpline' a couple of times but gave up after being on hold for half an hour each time.

First Direct by contrast have answered the phone almost instantly (it's one of the reasons why I transferred) and have confirmed their side of the situation and told me that they transferred the correct balance at 9.07am on Friday.

I need to speak to Hays payroll on Tuesday (although that will also involve a long wait in a telephone queue too) to see what the hell they are playing at. Reading between the lines, I fear they may have pulled back the payment because I did change my bank details later in the afternoon so that the next week's payment would go through without problems. I thought this was doing the right thing to avoid problems next week, but I suspect that they must have pulled back Friday's payment as that's the only reason I can think of for the payment apparently vanishing after showing up on the account earlier.

Bottom line is this - I fear that this is going to show up on my credit files as an "unarranged overdraft" through no fault of my own, ruining what is currently an "Excellent" record on all three main CRAs. What can I do to prevent this?

By the way, I subsequently transferred all the savings to First Direct. Not because their savings rates are any better (they're just as poor) but because I learned the hard way many years ago about banks being able to "set off" money from one account with them to pay another.

On that past occasion I was luckily able to get it refunded - and Niddy thought I was very lucky indeed for that to happen!

Hi

Are you saying your pay has gone missing or was it paid into both accounts and then reversed. - Do you have the right amount of money in over the two accounts? It may well be because of the weekend and when you wake up on Tuesday morning all will be set right. I know in the past I have panicked because things seem wrong and then they all get sorted over the weekend .

Hi Warwick,

I'm pleased to say that this seems to be resolved. The COO of the Co-op responded to my email on Sunday and said he'd get his staff to look into it on Tuesday and try to get it resolved. I've had a call from their Customer Resolution Indicator and it seems that credits going in on the day of an account switch go into some kind of holding account. It's all been resolved now and is showing a nil balance again.

She also assured me that it shouldn't show up on the credit report (which was obviously my biggest concern as those can stay on there for six years). So hopefully all is well now. I think my other options would have been to ask my new bank to sort it out vis the Current Account Switch Service guarantee or, failing that, take it up with the FOS (although I would have had to wait 8 weeks or until deadlock for that).

The reason I thought the agency may have pulled back the payment was that it was my best guess at what might have happened, as I had changed my bank details on their site a couple of hours after the transfer. I thought that might possibly have caused some automated action and that they may have attempted to redirect it to the new bank account.

But anyway, it appears to be resolved now. :)

Remember, with FD they do a single credit search at outset. So if you've got login access sorted and wanted to get their credit card; just login and click into credit cards and then select purchase / balance transfer and next. It'll then show a circle with a preset limit (not on the app - use browser), if you select that limit and proceed you're usually guaranteed it. It's scored at the same time as the first account.

I opened the first account in December and then in January clicked into cards and opened the gold one (as I don't need a BT card) and it showed £14,000 on the slider circle. I left it and just clicked apply and was instantly opened with no additional search.

My mate did similar but his limit showed £1500 and he used the slider to £10,000 and it was referred. They called him and he had a grilling before being offered the same £1500 limit so don't move the slider and you'll be fine.

presumably you did the switch offer?

Hi Niddy, long time no see! :)

That's a good tip there, I'll give that a try! Yes, I did the switch offer so presumably will get a £100 bonus at some point.

I really don't "need" credit as such at the moment, especially as there hasn't exactly been much to spend my money on during lockdown :pissmy, but I am still anxious to protect my credit rating as who knows what I might need over the next six years?

Acquiring another card without having another hard search on the record will be very useful, so that's an excellent tip. MSE's Credit Club also says I'm 95% likely to be accepted for an American Express card - just not sure which would be the most useful to go for. I thought the BA one with the Avios might potentially be useful once we can travel again without too many restrictions but I'm not sure how useful Avios really are. Might just be better off with the cashback or Nectar points instead.

Hmmm, have just applied for their gold card without changing any sliders, but they are going to do "final checks" over the next couple of days apparently. Nothing to hide, though.

You'll be fine - if the slider was preset then you should "qualify" for that. Out of interest what did yours say...

Ive heard they're generous when you get your foot in the door. I only use it as a spare account - Santander is my main bank still. Loyal to them as they stood by me when I was facing crap years back.

Only £7,000, so half of yours. One possible snag is that I've only just changed jobs and I kept the employer I have just left on there to keep it simple, but that may be what's triggered the check. We'll see.

Regards Amex, use their own eligibility checker. They're accurate - I've got 3 Amex cards. The platinum everyday (cashback), the gold card for free airport passes and the green charge card. Once you get one, you'll be able to get a second a month or two later.

Ive got a code that'll earn you loads of points if you're interested? The gold card - credit card not charge card. If so message me and I'll give it you for bonus points. You use points for avios or against spend. :)

Forget searches - I've had over 125 in the last 12 months, they're not looked at if your overall record is good with plenty accounts and biggish limits. :)

evilcartman;n1540068Only £7,000, so half of yours. One possible snag is that I've only just changed jobs and I kept the employer I have just left on there to keep it simple, but that may be what's triggered the check. We'll see.

They won't know - that would help as it'd tally with N Hunter so don't mention new job yet. Hopefully your salary is old employer - as in ready for next month?

Just don't lie - so if your bank account used old job then keep it the same for now. Then when your new employer pays your salary into fD you'd then use that in any future applications as it'd record on N Hunter but watch the date.

so example, if your new job is May and the first pay is due 30th May; use that date as start date on any applications you make. If not you risk a cifas as the dates won't match.

So don't apply using a mix. Don't use new job yet. Use old job until first paydate of new job then use this as the job start date in future applications (AFTER the pay date). That will keep N Hunter accurate.

you don't need to notify anyone of job change. Just ensure you use the same date on future applications. Even 01/06/21 is ideal if you actually started this month as fD will record the data supplied today so technically as of today, you're still at your old job.

Well, it's more complicated than that. I've been in agency work for quite a while. The last 'employer' was an agency that I was contracting through, although the end client was a government department. I've been on a very high daily rate (well, high to me anyway) through the agency. I put down the agency as being the 'employer'. I started a new short-term contract with an NHS trust in April, again via an agency. As with the first agency, they've been paying weekly.

I haven't heard of N Hunter, so have I messed things up here?

N Hunter records application data. Click the link at base of forum in footer regards credit & fraud. It's all explained there.

My advice - right now apply for nothing else. All I'm saying is that you *must* ensure that whatever info you put under employer on the fD bank account must match the fD credit card if they call you (unlikely).

So essentially for now stick to the exact same info you used on the fD bank application.

Once the credit card is sorted, any further applications *must* use the current & correct employer. However the issue is your start date can't be earlier than today as your fD application today, shows your old job details. You can't alter this do your new job must use a date greater than today or N Hunter could flag you for fraud / application mismatch.

Following me?

The only incoming payments to FD so far have been the current account balance transfer, followed by the savings account transfer over the weekend. These make the balance a five-figure sum, which should hopefully keep them happy. There will be no sign of the new employer on FD until the next Hays payment comes in on Friday.

I work part time for unitemps but when I get paid it says university of xxx even though I work for different people. Luckily my main pay is that as well.

Im really pleased you got it all sorted. I know how stressful it is when things don’t go to plan.

evilcartman;n1540071Well, it's more complicated than that. I've been in agency work for quite a while. The last 'employer' was an agency that I was contracting through, although the end client was a government department. I've been on a very high daily rate (well, high to me anyway) through the agency. I put down the agency as being the 'employer'. I started a new short-term contract with an NHS trust in April, again via an agency. As with the first agency, they've been paying weekly.

I haven't heard of N Hunter, so have I messed things up here?

Perfect. So if anything use tomorrow as your start date on new job. It doesn't matter the pay date. That's not important at all.

So once fD sort the card, any applications afterwards means you use your new and current employer with a start date no earlier than today.

Warwick65;n1540074I work part time for unitemps but when I get paid it says university of xxx even though I work for different people. Luckily my main pay is that as well.

Im really pleased you got it all sorted. I know how stressful it is when things don’t go to plan.

Exactly. Who pays you isn't important however fD is unique in that they use humans more than machines so a lot of manual stuff. They may ask why salary is different name on Friday and all OP says is yea, started Weds (tmw), and paid Friday as I did a couple shifts last week on top of my normal (old) job.

Easy to hide it, saying something as above. But unlikely fD will ask / care.

I did get a call and when I explained it was contract work, she did ask me how long I'd been in that and I said it had only been since November. They'd really like to see how things pan out over a period of 12 months or so, which I think is fair enough, so I asked if i could withdraw my application for the time being and that was fine. I'd rather be safe than sorry and don't want to mess up my CRA and CIFAS records for the sake of a card that I don't even need right now.

Seriously, they didn't proceed (based on income / job)! That's a new one.... maybe stricter as you're getting the switch bonus, I wasn't eligible as I've had HSBC Advance for a while & got that reward.

Thing is they're pretty good so as you say, wait a wee while and try again. No search would have been done anyway - guessing your credit file is thin, hence the call? Again, difference with me is I've got dozens of accounts and a large utilisation so it must play a part. But anyway, best to be safe and wait a month till your feed updates before more applications using different employment.

So to summarise, I'm guessing your credit file is thin - as in literally a handful of accounts; if that?

Yeah, it is pretty thin really. There's the Co-op current account, three credit cards (all with zero balances for a few months), Virgin Media, British Gas and Yorkshire Water. There's also a house insurance policy from Admiral on a monthly payment.

I wouldn't have gone to BG by choice. What happened there is that I switched from EDF to White Rose, who promptly went bust and were bought out by BG - I stayed with them as they promised to honour the fixed rates offered by White Rose. I hadn't realised that they report to CRAs.

There is no adverse information on my file apart from two late payments recorded by our old friends Yorkshire Water from five years ago. Once those roll off, the file will be squeaky clean. But I doubt that those ones are making a difference after all this time anyway - I have an "excellent" score with all three main agencies.