Shelby thought she had opened a Lifetime ISA online, but then discovered it was a general savings account.
What happened
Shelby used her bank’s online service to open a Lifetime ISA. She paid her full year’s subscription into it using her debit card. A year later, she realised that she hadn’t received her bonus.
Shelby called her bank and it told her that she hadn’t opened a Lifetime ISA. She had instead opened a sub-account that was a standard general savings pot and had named it ‘LISA’.
Shelby was very upset and disappointed about this and came to us with her complaint.
What we said
We asked the bank to show us how its online platform worked. It gave us screenshots that showed what a customer needed to do to set up a Lifetime ISA. They showed where a customer would need to click through when opening a general savings pot as well as a Lifetime ISA.
The screenshots showed that the Lifetime ISA option was listed under the option for a general savings pot. We felt that the website was clearly laid out and that the two options were separated enough to be considered as different things. The screenshots also showed how a general pot would be recorded on the system and how a Lifetime ISA would be recorded.
Shelby told us that she just clicked on the link that the bank gave her. We didn’t think Shelby lied about this and that she genuinely intended to open a Lifetime ISA. But there was no evidence to show what had happened after she clicked the link.
The bank also showed us that it hadn’t had any reported faults on its system at the time Shelby opened the account. So we did not uphold Shelby’s complaint.