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Stories Tagged ‘Complaints’

‘Bank Forged my signature then told me to pay £1.2m’

This is the headline of an article in the Sunday Times on March 14th, 2021. The article can be read here

 

In summary, a high court judge found that Aldermore Bank had tried to enforce a personal guarantee that was not genuine. The Sunday Times advise that a High Court judge found that Lynch’s signature on the guarantee was not genuine, but “signed by a person at the bank”.

 

Roderick Lynch had entered in to an invoice finance agreement with Aldermore. His business, Ruskin Private Hire, provided transport for disabled children and vulnerable adults in London.

 

Mr Lynch was made bankrupt.

 

Aldermore were ordered to pay Lynch’s court costs estimated to be £430,000. Lynch claims that this was because Aldermore pursued him under the forged personal guarantee.

 

In my opinion, this fits in with many instances of poor behavior from Aldermore and in particular their invoice finance arm. It has been written about previously on this forum and can be viewed here There seems to be a common theme of not supporting businesses, profiteering when they can and rushing in to deals that they don’t understand. In rushing in to deals that they perhaps don’t understand, the consequence for their clients can be severe. This seems to be demonstrated with the failure of Ruskin Private Hire and the bankruptcy of Roderick Lynch. Another example of this lies in the registered charges against Canute Haulage Group Limited. You can see Aldermore made an entrance with an invoice finance facility which they quickly pulled. Sadly, the disruption caused to the business likely contributed to it’s ultimate demise, in my opinion.

 

Take a look at some of their Trustpilot Reviews – click here

 

Aldermore Invoice Finance is the 2nd incarnation of Cattles Invoice Finance. Initially they rebranded as Absolute Invoice Finance and now as the invoice finance arm of Aldermore Bank.

The most startling observation of Aldermore has to be the staff turnover. It is simply astonishing. In speaking with a previous managing director prior to the IPO we were told that the executive team were targeted on recruitment and on expanding the sales team in certain areas. This focus on expansion seemed to override the focus on looking after existing staff and they were leaving in droves. Good people from the invoice finance industry were joining and leaving very quickly. Some were even resigning without having jobs to go to.

Another worrying observation was the number of recruits they took from RBS Invoice Finance. A large proportion were from RBS and this was a team that had arguably caused some real issues there. The extent of the problems were somewhat overshadowed by the near collapse of the overall banking organisation but there were specific issues within the invoice finance arm that caused the then MD to lose his job despite his recent arrival.

Having had dealing with Aldermore Invoice Finance I would question their honesty and customer service. I have seen a client that they refused to assist with an increased funding request try to exit the relationship. The relationship manager involved was very aggressive and this resulted in a formal complaint to both Aldermore Invoice Finance and Aldermore Bank including their CEO Philip Monk. Astonishingly the individual involved was named on the formal complaint acknowledgement letter as the individual that would be investigating the complaint. Unsurprisingly he concluded his investigation and advised he had not found any wrong doing. The client wanted to leave to go to another lender that would provide unrestricted funding of their debtor book. Aldermore charged a hefty termination fee which goes against what is advised by the ABFA Code of Conduct. The ‘Guidance to the ABFA Code’ it states:

“3.2.3 Where a client requests termination of a facility without the required or any period of notice, even though Members may not have any legal obligation to agree, they are encouraged to give reasonable consideration to such request, particularly where continuation of the facility may cause hardship to the client.”

The relationship manager advised verbally that he did not care about the ABFA Code of Conduct and they would do as they pleased. This seems to be common practice and I have one client who was arguably forced out of business by Aldermore’s termination fees.

In terms of honesty I have personally had issues with senior members of the Aldermore team in terms of how they have handled enquiries. It would appear that honesty is optional.

There was a case of a large haulage company that was with HSBC and needed a new funder. There were several large players involved and all looked at supporting the business to some degree. However, the Aldermore offer was far more aggressive. One lender had been there doing due diligence for 3 days and was advised that Aldermore had only taken 1 day on their due dilligence. Aldermore funded the deal in January and almost immediately withheld funding. They were aggressive with the management team of the business and ultimately forced them to leave in March. Sadly, arguably due the restricted funding implemented by Aldermore, the business went into administration in the May.

I think you would need to question the competence of Aldermore.

One of the biggest issues Aldermore Invoice Finance has is defining what deals or transactions they can support. They don’t seem to command a particular position in the market. You could argue that they are not particularly good at anything and are more of a generalist. This seems to impact on their ability to win deals in the market and also on their ability to service clients once they are on board.

They also took on board a team from another lender that specialises in construction finance. One of the senior team members, who still works there, is a convicted shoplifter.

If you have a requirement for invoice finance it is safe to say there will be better options in the market than Aldermore. Do your research, look at reviews and take advice.

If you would like to share your experience with Aldermore please feel free to comment.

As an invoice finance broker it is interesting to hear the complaints I hear from clients about invoice finance companies. Some I may add are totally unfounded and relate to the invoice finance company not agreeing to an overpayment or something that they shouldn’t have to do. However, some seem to follow a common theme and these were highlighted in a forum by the Federation for Small Business.

I want to explore some of the themes that were raised:

  • Hidden costs and unexpected fees – it would be fair to say that not all invoice finance companies are as transparent as they could be in relation to fees. We often see agreements where a minimum base rate is hidden in the small prints. Lists of dispursements are also rarely shared at first meetings which makes comparison of facilities almost impossible. On that basis headline rates can be misleading as some companies have virtually no additional fees.
  • Restrictions on funding. I think this complaint often boils down to a lack of understanding on the clients part and poor communication from the lender. It is imperative any company entering into an invoice finance agreement understand what invoices are eligible for funding. In my mind I believe that should be explained properly by the lender at the outset.
  • Termination fees. This seems to be a thorny topic at present and relates to the fees charged should you wish to leave early. The justification of these fees relates to the fact that the costs of setting up a facility are typically incurred either at commencement or even precommencement by the invoice finance company. As such it takes the contract period to recover these costs and turn a profit. Should a client look to leave early then they incur a loss. However, fees such as arrangement fees, legal documentation fees and survey fees have crept into the industry. On that basis surely the initial set up costs are paid for by the client upfront. If this is the case I am not sure early termination fees can be justified.
  • Collect out fees. This is a fee applied to the ledger upon the failure of the business. Some lenders apply a 15% fee the gross value of the ledger when the company fails. Is this excessive? In some instances most definitely. I saw a bank (one that is now government owned) charge a collect out fee on a ledger where there was actually no borrowing. The implications to business owners is often minimal and it is creditors and often HMRC that lose out on the funds being taken. However, where there is a shortfall and a personal guarantee has been given it could cost the directors personally.

I am sure that there are more complaints from many clients but overall I would maintain that the vast majority of invoice finance clients are happy. there is obviously always room for improvement.

From my perspective it just seems a shame that the same invoice finance companies get mentioned time and again and seem to become notorious for certain practices. It can give the industry at large a bad name.

Would you like to review or provide feedback on your experience of Close Brothers Invoice Finance? Reviews are at the bottom of this page and links to some interesting articles and blogs below.

It is probably fair to say that if you are looking for a provider of invoice finance there are better options out there in terms of pricing, structure of facilities and customer service levels. In terms of reputation there are also better options in our opinion. The reviews however will speak for themselves so please take a look at them and feel free to contribute your own experiences.

Close Brothers Invoice Finance are part of Close Brothers Group Plc and provide invoice finance solutions to over 1,000 clients. They are a national player with full UK coverage. They also offer invoice finance facilities in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

They are one of the larger independent invoice finance companies with offices in Brighton, Manchester, Dublin and Belfast.

In our opinion, more common complaints about Close Brothers Invoice Finance include their lack of flexibility, charges such as minimum base rates, their arrogant approach and some people have described them as ‘unapproachable’.

Complaints below highlight their attitude, the poor quality of their system and the high fees some clients are charged for funding which is often restricted.

Read more:

An independent blog post about Close Brothers putting a business into administration – click here

Article on Close Brothers Invoice Finance pricing – click here

Article regarding a restrictive facility structure – click here

Trustpilot makes for some interesting reading – click here

It also appears there is a blog dedicated to Close Brothers – click here

Close Brothers also feature in an article on complaints about wealth management companies where it states, “Close Brothers also features on the list with 169 complaints, but its complaints are related mostly to banking and credit with none related to investments.” While this is not linked directly to the invoice finance arm of Close Brothers we find it interesting as it gives a feel for the overall organisation and what they might feel is acceptable. For the article – click here

An extract from one Trustpilot review reads, “AVOID AVOID AVOID….

When making a complaint no manager or person of authority bothered to speak to me directly then they say they are just closing my complaint down, when I said I’m not satisfied with the outcome, you don’t expect a large company such as this to just ignore customers, in my opinion this company is slimy and deceptive and lack the ability to treat customers fairly.

I’ll wait for the standard message they send saying they are sorry I feel this way, if they were sorry they would of dealt with my issue when they had the chance.
AVOID AVOID AVOID”

 

If you would like to share your experiences of Close Brothers Invoice Finance please feel free to do so but please try to be objective and refrain from abusive remarks.