Clydesdale Bank error - you must now pay an extra £300, every month

I really feel sorry for customers of the Clydesdale Bank and it's sister Yorkshire Bank Building Society, who today if they have a tracker or variable rate mortgage have received notification that they owe the bank money.

This error by these two banks affects around 18,000 customers, two thirds of which are in Scotland.

Some customers are having to find an extra £300 every month to cover the shortfall, this is despite the mistake being that of the banks, not the customers.

Clydesdale Bank said it had now contacted 99% of those affected by the problems and insisted half of those would see their payments rise by no more than £25 a month.

In my eyes that means half of the customers will see repayments rise by between £25 and £300 per month.

Steve Reid, retail director for Clydesdale Bank spokesperson said:

"First and foremost we are very sorry that this error has happened and for any inconvenience it may have caused those customers affected

“We would like to reassure mortgage customers that they need take no action unless they have received a letter from us. The vast majority of our customers are not affected and, of those that are, 99 percent have already received their letter advising them of the specific impact on their account. The other 1 percent will hear from us in the next couple of weeks advising them of options to bring their account back on track."

A pathetic sorry is not good enough from either of these financial institutions, how have these massive errors got past their own accountants and auditors?

I have now been onto the websites of both the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks and there is not one mention of this mistake or how customers, who will be rightly worried should contact the banks to discuss this.

What I did find though was a statement by Lynne Peacock, Chief Executive Officer of Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank where there were items listed under a banner of "Key Highlights" which included;

• Underlying profit up 11% to £264 million

• Pre-tax cash earnings grew by over 17% to £81 million (from £69 million)

• At 31 March 2010, Clydesdale Bank PLC’s Tier 1 Capital Ratio was 8.8% (up from 8.2% as at September 2009)

• Strong liquidity with liquid assets of £10 billion – more than doubled in two years.

Certainly a substantial amount of money, so perhaps Lynne Peacock will put some of that aside to help customers who have just been hit with a demand from her banks for up to £300 a month because of her banks mistake.

Oh and Lynne, perhaps put a statement on both of the banks websites telling customer's how you propose to help them, a lot of people will not be able to afford this extra money and as it was your mistake, you should be showing customers how you propose to help them.

UPDATE
I realised yesterday when in Inverness that I had cocked up and said Yorkshire Building Society instead of Bank and thank you to those who commented about it, all published as well.