Download a copy of these T&Cs
At Vernon Building Society, we are committed to providing the best possible service to our Members. As part of that commitment, these Terms & Conditions (known as the ‘Conditions’) apply to all savings accounts with the Society, except where special conditions detailed in a particular product leaflet apply. If a special condition differs from these Conditions, the special condition will apply.
You should read the Conditions carefully. If there is anything that you do not understand, please ask us. You have a right to obtain a copy of the Terms & Conditions that apply to your account at any time while it is open.
There are additional Conditions relating to Cash ISA products offered by Vernon Building Society, which are contained in Section B.
These Terms and Conditions also cover the use of Online Services (the system we provide that allows you to manage your account online). These are contained in Section D.
In these Conditions:
You can contact us at any time using the details at the end of this booklet.
If these Conditions apply to your account, you will be a Member of the Society and therefore our Rules will apply. However, these Conditions, or any relevant special conditions for your account, will override the Rules in the case of any inconsistency. The Rules can be found on our website or are available on request.
When you open your account, you agree to assign any windfall benefits to the Vernon Charitable Foundation for the first 5 years of your membership. Windfall benefits may arise in the unlikely event that we transfer our business to another company or building society.
The Charitable Assignment agreement is set out in the savings application form or explained when you opened your account. The scheme applies to all new Members joining us after 1st January 2025 and does not apply to those who became Members before this date.
All communication between us will be in English. All contracts entered between you and the Society will be governed by the laws of England and Wales. Those laws are also taken as the basis for the establishment of relations with you prior to the conclusion of any contract between us.
Where we hold an email address, the Society will use this to communicate with you, unless you tell us otherwise. Should you require your communication in an alternative method such as large print or braille, this can be arranged upon request.
The Society will treat you fairly and reasonably when providing you with products and services, particularly in the following key areas:
The Vernon has a wide range of savings products which are intended for the purpose of helping you save and grow your savings. They are not designed for making regular payments to manage your everyday affairs. Before you become a customer we will:
Full details of all our accounts, including current and previous interest rates, are available from our website, head office or any branch.
Most accounts can be opened in a branch or online – please check the options that apply specifically to the account you require. If you wish to open an account by post, you can call, email, or write to us for an information pack. Alternatively, you can download and complete an application form and then post or email it back to us.
You must be a UK resident to open an account, and you must notify the Society immediately if your tax residency status changes or if you cease to be resident/ordinarily resident in the UK. In this situation we would typically require you to close your account.
We have a responsibility to record, and report where required, your tax residency status and information relating to your account.
We are required by law to confirm your identity when you open an account. If the account is in the name of a company, charity, club, or association this applies to authorised operators, directors and beneficial owners. Please refer to our Our Identification Requirements leaflet for further details of acceptable ID documents.
We may use a credit reference agency search to confirm your identity & address. This will only be for this purpose and will not affect your credit worthiness.
If you are unhappy about your choice of savings account, you may cancel it within 14 days of opening it by emailing info@thevernon.co.uk or telling us in branch or by post. We will treat the cancellation as having been notified on the date you sent the letter, emailed us or came into branch. We will also require your passbook if you have one. We will help you to either switch to another of our accounts or refund your money and any interest earned within 30 days of your notification. Any refund will be to a bank account in your name or via a cheque payable to you. Any cheque paid into the account must clear before we return the money, and we'll waive any notice period required for the account.
Once the 14-day cancellation period has elapsed, depending on the specific conditions of the account, you may have to give notice or incur a loss of interest to close the account.
We will use the address, email and phone number(s) that you provide on the application form to communicate with you. It is important that you tell us in writing straight away if there are any changes. We may ask for identity documents to prove some changes and if you have a passbook, we will need to update it.
Unless the special conditions for a particular account specify otherwise, accounts can be opened in the names of 2 or more people (up to a maximum of 4). Although joint accounts can be convenient, it is very important that you understand the consequences of having an account in more than one name.
Where an account is in more than one name, all the money is held jointly. Joint account holders can choose how many signatures are required for any withdrawals or amendments. If individual account holders can sign alone, they have access to all the money in the account and can decide what to do with it.
If we have reason to think that there is a dispute between account holders, we will require the signatures of all account holders to transact or make amendments, or in some cases we may freeze the account. However, we will not be obliged to do this, unless we are ordered to do so by a court.
Only the first person named on a joint account (the “representative joint account holder”) has voting rights at General Meetings of the Society. This person is the only one who will receive meeting notices and can attend and vote at these meetings. All correspondence about the account will go to this first named account holder. You can choose the order of names on the account, and if you want to change it, let us know and we’ll update our records within a reasonable time.
In the event of the relationship between joint account holders breaking down, you should both contact us to arrange for the joint account to be closed and for new accounts to be opened in sole names. You will need to tell us how the money in the joint account is to be divided between you.
Where one account holder dies, we will, on receipt of a death certificate or grant of probate, treat the surviving account holder(s) as being the beneficial owner of the account. The other terms of the account will remain unchanged. Our Customer Service Advisers will be able to advise you of the relevant process to be followed.
Joint account holders are responsible for the account as a group and as individuals. For example, if you owe us money, we may try to recover it from any one of you or all of you.
We do not have to recognise the interest or claim of any person other than the account holder(s) in respect of any money held in the account (and we will not have any liability for failing to do so), except as may be required by law.
The minimum and maximum amounts that can be held in any particular account are set out in the special conditions contained in each product leaflet.
If an account balance falls below the minimum, we have the right to close it but will give you at least two months’ notice before doing this. During this period, you can pay in more money to bring the account balance up to the minimum. Instead of closing the account, (or during any period when it is below the minimum amount), we may pay a reduced rate of interest.
The overall maximum holding by any one person in respect of all savings accounts with the Society is £1,000,000.
Unless special conditions for a particular account specify otherwise, you can generally pay money into your account at any of our branches, by electronic transfer or by post. Please refer to Section A Condition 10 as to when interest becomes payable on money paid into your account. Payments into your account can only be made in £ Sterling. The Society does not accept cheques drawn on a bank or institution outside the United Kingdom or in currencies other than £ Sterling.
For security reasons, we will not accept cash sent by post. We may also refuse to accept large sums of money in notes or coins for security reasons. When paying in money by cash, you need to produce your passbook or provide your account number. Money paid into your account by cash will be available for withdrawal immediately after we receive it, subject to Section A Condition 12.
Cheques made payable to the Society will only be accepted for payment into an account if the payee line contains the name(s) of the account holder or account number so that it is clear who the money is intended for.
When paying in money by cheque, you need to produce your passbook or provide your account number. You can withdraw funds from this deposit on the seventh working day after the cheque is paid into the account. This allows time for the cheque to complete the initial 3 day central clearing cycle and the subsequent 3 day period in which it can be returned unpaid.
Electronic payments can be made to your account by using either CHAPS, Faster Payment or by Standing Order.
When paying money in you should quote the following details:
Payee account type:
Personal or business (select the appropriate option)
Account name:
Your name / your organisation or business name
Sort code:
20 - 55 - 34
Account number:
10920320
Reference number:
This is your Vernon account number
The reference number is your Vernon account number. Without this we will be unable to pay the money into your account and the funds will be returned to you. Your Vernon account number is printed at the top of the right-hand page of your passbook.
If money is paid into your account by mistake, we are obliged to provide information about you, your account and the payment, to the payer’s bank to help them recover the money. We must provide all relevant information that they need to collect the payment. This information will include your name and contact address.
We use the Confirmation of Payee service. This means that when you, or someone else, sends a new payment to your Vernon Building Society account, the name, sort code, account number and reference field (your Vernon Savings account number) will be verified. This is done to help check that payments aren’t sent to the wrong account by mistake. It also prevents against fraud.
You can opt out of having your account details checked, although we would strongly advise against this as it increases the risk of fraud. If you opt out, a message will be displayed while making a payment to your account stating your details can’t be checked.
We will confirm the interest rate earned by your account when you open it. You can check the interest rate on any account at any time by contacting your branch, telephoning us on 0161 429 6262 or by visiting our website.
Interest is calculated on a daily basis, accumulated and then credited (capitalised) to the account or paid to an alternative account at your request depending on your account type and/or your instructions.
The frequency and timing of when interest is paid are set out in the special conditions relating to individual account types. Amounts transferred across from another Vernon account, or cash paid into a Vernon account, will earn interest on the day of receipt whereas amounts paid in by cheque will earn interest from the following day. Amounts withdrawn do not earn interest on the day of withdrawal. Interest is paid without tax deducted.
Subject to any special conditions relating to interest rate changes which cover a particular account, we may change interest rates at any time if we reasonably believe that the change is needed for any of the following reasons (which may relate to circumstances existing at the time or those that are reasonably expected to apply in the near future):
Any change we make to interest rates will be proportionate to the circumstances which give rise to the change.
| Interest rate movement | Affected accounts | When we will inform you | How we inform you |
| Increase | All | As soon as reasonably possible | By notice in our branches and on our website |
| Decrease | All with a balance less than £100 | At least 14 days’ notice | By notice in our branches and on our website |
| Accounts that don’t require you to give notice for withdrawals with balance of £100 or more | At least 14 days’ notice | By email or letter (if no email address held), and notice in our branches and on our website | |
| Accounts that require you to give notice for withdrawals with balance of £100 or more | The notice period required by the account plus 14 days* | By email or letter (if no email address held), and notice in our branches and on our website |
*On occasion we may give less (but not less than 14 days) advance notification of a rate reduction applying to a notice account. In this instance you will have a period of 30 days from the date of the notification, during which you may close or switch your account without having to give any period of notice or having to lose any interest or pay additional charges.
We do not charge for routine transactions carried out in the normal course of administering Members’ accounts. There are situations where a charge is made for certain services. Details of our current fees and charges are on our website, in branch or by request.
We may change our charges at any time, if we reasonably believe that the change is needed for any of the following reasons which may relate to circumstances existing at the time or those that are expected to apply in the near future:
Any change we make to our charges will be proportionate to the circumstances giving rise to the change.
Where we introduce new charges, or increase existing charges, we will publish this on our website at least 60 days before the change comes into force. A change which abolishes a charge, or reduces the amount of an existing charge, may be introduced with immediate effect, without notice.
Withdrawals may be made in-branch or requested through Online Services (subject to any special account conditions and to any withdrawal limits we reasonably impose). We will only allow withdrawals if you have sufficient cleared funds in your account.
Our current limits for withdrawals are:
Electronic payments to a bank account in your name:
Any electronic payment to a 3rd party bank account: £85,000.
We may consider exceptions to these limits.
No withdrawals will be allowed:
At any time, we can restrict the amount that can be withdrawn from any account, but we will only do this if:
In the case of the last two scenarios listed above:
Where restrictions on withdrawals affect accounts generally, we will advise you by notices on our website and in our branches. You can contact us to discuss any restriction in person at any of our branches, or by telephoning us on 0161 429 6262.
Where a withdrawal is made from your account by Society cheque payable to a third party, the cheque can only be stopped if we receive written confirmation from the cheque payee.
Where the specific conditions of your account allow, you may make electronic payments from your account by Faster Payment or CHAPS. Some electronic payments may incur a fee, details of which can be found on our website or in-branch. Electronic payments must be in £ Sterling and the Society does not offer the facility to transfer funds outside of the UK.
To make an electronic payment you will need to provide us with the payee’s bank account number, bank account name, sort code and the bank’s name and address. You may also need to provide us with some identification and/or security details. You must provide us with a fully completed and signed withdrawal slip to provide your consent for the payment. You may withdraw your consent at any time, up until the point we execute your authorised payment instructions by notifying us by email or telephone.
Some account conditions permit electronic withdrawals only to your nominated bank account, for which you must have provided a sort code and account number. If you change your nominated bank account you must provide full details in writing, or through Online Services. Your new nominated bank account must be in your name, and we may ask you for some documentary evidence such as a bank statement in order to protect against fraud.
Electronic payment requests received after 3pm will be processed the next working day.
Payments sent electronically will normally arrive at the destination account:
As Society savings accounts are not ‘payment accounts’, it is not expected that they will be used for making regular payments to manage your everyday affairs.
Easy Access accounts are intended to provide the reassurance of quick and penalty-free access to your savings should you need it, not as a means of using the accounts for day-to-day transactions. We will monitor transaction patterns, and should we believe your account is being used for day-to-day transactions, we may contact you to discuss whether you are in the right account.
An ‘Account Document’ means a passbook, certificate, or any similar item relating to your account. They remain our property and must be returned to us whenever we reasonably request them from you. You must produce the relevant Account Document before making a withdrawal. Account Documents are important, and you agree to keep them safe - care should be taken to ensure that they are not mislaid or stolen. If you have reason to believe that an Account Document has been lost or stolen, you must immediately notify us.
When you have notified us of loss or theft, we may issue a replacement Account document but this may be subject to the following requirements:
We can stop the use of your passbook, certificate, or other similar document if:
We will notify you that we intend to stop the use of your document and explain our reasons for doing so, either by telephone or in writing. If for any reason we are unable to notify you before we stop or block their use, we will notify you afterwards without delay.
We will allow the use of your document, or we will replace it, as soon as possible after the reasons for stopping its use no longer apply.
We’ll only carry out a transfer or payment for you if you ‘authorise’ it. To do this, you must tell us the account details, payment amount, payee, date and give us any security details we need.
If we make an error on a payment then we will put it right, this may include attempts to trace the original payment.
If you send money from your account to someone you didn’t intend to pay, or for what you thought was a genuine purpose, but turned out to be fraudulent, this is called Authorised Push Payment fraud.
On discovering such a payment, you must contact us as soon as possible, and within 13 months from the date of the payment, so we can investigate and take the necessary steps to protect your account. We will reimburse you as and when required by the Faster Payment Scheme reimbursement rules.
If you have acted fraudulently, or you have authorised another person to use your account, you will be liable for all losses incurred as a result of the transaction.
If you have deliberately, or through gross negligence, failed to comply with your obligations in relation to any Account Document or Security Details, you are liable for all losses relating to transactions up to the date you notify us.
Where you are entitled to a refund, we will make this to your account (less an excess of £35). If we make a refund and then discover that you did authorise the transaction or are otherwise liable, we may reverse the refund. We will notify you before we do this.
If we fail to carry out a transaction instruction in accordance with these Terms and Conditions, then we are liable for any losses that you incur.
Our liability will be limited to the amount of the payment and any interest or charges you may have incurred because of the delay or error. Where a payment is made late, at your request, we can ask the payee’s bank to add the payment to the receiving account as if it had arrived on time.
We are not liable if:
If we send money to the wrong account because you gave us incorrect details, we will do our best to recover it. You may be charged for any costs we incur.
You can close your account at any time, subject to any special conditions that apply and normal administration requirements. We can close your account at any time but (except in the cases of suspected fraud or other criminal activity, threatening or abusive behaviour or in response to a bankruptcy notice) we will give you at least 2 months’ written notice. We will, however, not use this right to repay a fixed term savings before the end of the fixed term. If we close your account, we will pay interest at the agreed rate up to and including the date of repayment. We may make repayment by sending you a cheque to your last known address. If we close your account in full and make repayment to you, in person or by post, then you will have no further rights or interest in the account.
Unless the specific conditions of your account require it, we do not ordinarily send statements for our accounts. Instead, our accounts either have a Passbook, or are managed through our Online Services, where transactions and the balance can be viewed and downloaded.
Whenever you make a payment out of your account, we will give you information about that payment, in one of the following ways:
Information about automated payments (of any kind) into or out of your account can be provided on request at any time by presenting your passbook for updating, accessing our Online Services or asking at a branch.
You should check your passbook and/or your Online Services regularly. If you notice an entry which seems to be wrong, you should tell us as soon as possible, so that we can investigate the matter. Please refer to Section A Condition 16 for more details.
Business and charity accounts are only subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority where:
The Society will treat all savings customers in the same way, regardless of their regulatory status. However, business and charity customers falling outside these FCA definitions, will not have the statutory protections afforded by the FSCS.
On opening your account, you will be required to provide written authorisation for individuals able to operate the account. We will not discuss your account with, or accept instructions from, anyone not specifically authorised by you. You may change your authorisation list at any time by providing written notification.
Partners in a partnership (and other operating signatories) have joint and several liability for the conduct of their account. If you authorise a single individual to transact, that individual can withdraw the entire contents of the account, subject to account specific conditions relating to withdrawals.
Before instructing us to act on a single authority, partners should consider the implications, including those if the relationship with the other partner ends. If the relationship between partners in a partnership (or other joint signatories) breaks down, all signatories should contact us to arrange for the account to be closed. We will need you to tell us how the money in the account is to be divided between you. If there is evidence of a dispute, we may freeze the account in accordance with Section A Condition 12 until you reach a resolution.
Where one account holder dies, we will, on receipt of evidence of the death, treat the surviving holder(s) as being the beneficial owner(s) of the account.
We can change the Terms & Conditions on which your account is held at any time, if we reasonably believe that the change is needed for any of the following reasons (which may relate to circumstances existing at the time or those which are expected to apply in the future):
Any change we make in accordance with the above will be proportionate to the circumstances giving rise to the change.
Where we change terms and conditions dealing with the way cash or electronic payments (but not cheque payments) can be made into or out of your account, we will send you at least two months’ personal notice by email (unless we hold only a postal address for communications) before the change comes into effect. At any time, up to the date the change comes into effect, you have the right to switch your account or close it without having to lose any interest or pay any additional charges. If you do not notify us that you object to a change before the date on which it comes into effect, you will be deemed to have accepted it.
In all other cases we can make changes as follows:
If we have made a major change or a number of minor ones in any one year, we will provide you with a copy of, or link to, the new Terms & Conditions or a summary of the changes.
You will be taken to have received any letter or other personal notice 72 hours after we have posted it to you. If we accidentally fail to:
We have the right to retain and set-off all money in any account you hold with us, against any money you may owe to us (whether under a mortgage, loan, guarantee or otherwise) which is due for payment, but which has not been paid. We will not use our right of set-off in relation to money in your account, if we have grounds to believe that the money is needed to meet your essential living expenses or priority debts (such as rental/mortgage payments on your home, utility bills or obligations under court orders or legislation).
We will write to you a minimum of 14 days before we exercise our right of set-off, detailing the date and amount to be debited from your account.
We will not be liable to you if we are unable to provide any service in connection with your account because of abnormal and unforeseeable circumstances, such as strikes, power failures or other causes beyond our control or as a result of our having to comply with any law.
We follow the Building Societies Association guidance for ‘dormant accounts’ (previously referred to as unclaimed balances). We are a member of the Reclaim Fund Limited.
If:
If, however, you contact us at a later date, we will either open a new account or repay the money to you, with interest at a rate we reasonably consider to be appropriate if your original type of account no longer exists.
To help prevent fraud, we will require evidence of your identity before reactivating a dormant account.
To protect against potential fraud, an inactive indicator will be automatically added to your account if you have not made a payment into or withdrawal from it for a period of 48 months. A transaction can be any of the following:
To remove this marker, you will need to provide one of our Customer Service Advisers with one acceptable identification document (see the Society’s Our Identity Requirements leaflet).
Specific Terms & Conditions applying to Cash Individual Savings Accounts (ISA)
Vernon Building Society is your Cash ISA Manager. We will operate and administer your Cash ISA in accordance with the prevailing ISA Regulations. Should we delegate any of our functions or responsibilities, we will ensure that the person or firm is competent to carry out those functions and responsibilities.
ISAs are initiated by the Government and, as such, are subject to change by them.
Under the ISA Regulations, all deposits made to your account(s) are known as subscriptions.
Certain Cash ISA products that we provide can operate as a flexible ISA, which means that when you make a withdrawal from your account, you can replace it without the deposit counting towards the annual subscription limit, as long as the replacement occurs within the same tax year. The product leaflet will tell you whether your Cash ISA is flexible or not.
We will notify you if, due to any failure to satisfy the provisions of the ISA Regulations, your Cash ISA has, or will, become void.
A Cash ISA can only be opened in your own name, and you must be at least 18 years old.
You agree that:
You are required to take all reasonable steps to ensure your continued compliance with the ISA Regulations, including telling us immediately about anything that might affect your eligibility to make subscriptions and/or to retain the tax-exempt status of the account balance(s) and interest being earned.
If you are found to have breached the ISA Regulations, whether by us or by HMRC, the tax-exempt status of your Cash ISA account(s) will cease (unless we might agree otherwise with HMRC), and interest earned in the current and previous tax years may need to be disclosed to HMRC and may be liable to taxation. Details about tax efficient savings and investments can be obtained by visiting www.hmrc.gov.uk/isa
We may prevent you making a subscription where we believe this might create a breach of ISA Regulations. We may also prevent you making a subscription when we need additional information that enables us to be satisfied that we will continue to comply with our legal obligations as Cash ISA Manager and/or ensure our continued compliance with ISA Regulations.
You can generally transfer funds from your Cash ISA to another ISA Manager and funds from another ISA Manager to a Cash ISA with us. Such transfers will, however, be subject to the specific conditions of the ISA product.
If you want to transfer part, or all, of the money held in a Cash ISA account with us to another ISA Manager, they must send us a valid transfer instruction. You need to tell us whether the transfer is to be done as soon as possible, or at a future date. When making this decision, check the terms and conditions of your Cash ISA for any interest penalty that may be applied on an immediate transfer and/or for any other product related restrictions that may apply. When we have a valid instruction, we will send the money to the receiving ISA within the timescales required by the ISA regulations.
Subject to the terms and conditions of the Cash ISA account you have with us, we will accept a transfer of part, or all, of the money held in a Cash ISA or a Stocks and Shares ISA with another ISA Manager. You will need to complete our ISA transfer instruction form so we can send it to the other ISA Manager.
No further Subscriptions can be made if you die, and your Cash ISA(s) will retain tax benefits until the earlier of the administration of your estate or the third anniversary of your date of death.
If an account remains open three years after you die, we will either close it and send funds to the Executor(s) of your Estate, or change it to a suitable alternative product, where interest earned may be subject to taxation.
Our Privacy Policy describes how we collect your information, how we use it and why. Contact us to find out more.
You can help to prevent the misuse of your account by:
We aim to provide high standards of service. However, there may be occasions when you feel that you may have a complaint. If this is the case, please speak with our staff who will tell you how to make a complaint. You may request a copy of our Complaints Policy and Procedure leaflet at any time. When we receive a complaint, if we cannot sort it out quickly, we will send you a prompt written acknowledgement to confirm that we are dealing with it and to keep you informed of our progress.
If your complaint (or part of it) concerns a payment transaction, we will endeavour to deal with your complaint within 15 working days. If circumstances beyond our reasonable control prevent us from sending you our final response to your complaint in this timeframe, we will instead send you a holding response explaining clearly why this is the case and specifying when we will be able to. In those circumstances, you will receive our final response within 35 working days.
You may also complain to the Financial Conduct Authority for complaints regarding payment services we have provided.
Whilst we hope we can resolve any problems through these internal procedures, we are also a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service, to which you can refer a complaint after the internal procedures have been exhausted. Details of the Financial Ombudsman Service will be provided on request from any branch or our head office.
You can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service at:
Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR.
or
www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk Telephone 0800 023 4567
We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS can pay compensation to depositors if a building society is unable to meet its financial obligations. Most depositors - including most individuals and small businesses – are covered by the scheme.
In respect of deposits, an eligible depositor is entitled to claim up to £85,000. For joint accounts each account holder is treated as having a claim in respect of their share so, for a joint account held by two eligible depositors, the maximum amount that could be claimed would be £85,000 each (making a total of £170,000).
The £85,000 limit relates to the combined amount in all the eligible depositor’s accounts with the Society, including their share of any joint account, and not to each separate account.
For further information about the compensation provided by the FSCS (including the amounts covered and eligibility to claim) please ask at your local branch, refer to the FSCS website www.fscs.org.uk or call the FSCS on 020 7741 4100 or 0800 678 1100. Please note, that only compensation related queries should be directed to the FSCS.
If we plan to permanently close your branch of the Society, we will tell you at least 12 weeks before we do this by notice in the branch and on our website, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
The following terms and conditions apply when you register and use Vernon Online Services to open, view or transact on your Vernon account.
The service we provide to allow you to open accounts, obtain your account information and carry out transactions on your account over the internet.
Means any savings or other account with us which is held either in your own name or by somebody else.
Means the person(s) in whose name the account is held.
Means the code we send to you to be used the first time you access your account details using Online Services or when your use of Vernon Online Services is being re-activated.
The bank account you have chosen to receive withdrawal payments.
Means the combination of letters, numbers and other characters you select when you register for the Online service, as amended by you from time to time, which we use to check your identity when you access Vernon Online Services.
Refers to Vernon Building Society.
A facility to communicate with the Society securely through Vernon Online Services.
This refers to your User ID, Password and any Two Factor Authentication codes.
This is the security system that requires 2 separate, distinct forms of identification in order to access Online Services. The first factor is a password, the second factor is a text with a code sent to your landline or mobile phone.
Means the unique number we give you to identify you when using Vernon Online Services.
Means 9:00am to 5:00pm not including public holidays and any other day which the Society is not open for business.
Means the customer. In Online Services this means the customer who registers with us to use Vernon Online Services.
Online Services only allows for joint accounts where one signature is required to authorise an instruction. Therefore, Online Services is unavailable for accounts that require two or more signatures to jointly authorise transactions.
By registering for Online Services, you confirm that your joint account holder(s) is(are) happy for you to access your joint account(s) via our Online Services. If a joint account holder notifies us that they wish to change the Account mandate to require joint authorisation, we will immediately suspend use of Online Services.
Each joint account holder must register separately to access their account(s) for Online Services and use their own User ID and Password.
When you register to use Online Services, we will ask you to select a Password. You will need to remember this to operate Online Services.
Online Services uses Two Factor Authentication (also known as 2FA), as this adds an extra layer of security to protect your account if your Password is stolen. A 6-digit code will be sent to either your landline or mobile telephone number.
Prior to the first time you log into Online Services, you will be prompted to confirm your preferred telephone number, and preferred delivery method, this can be a text message or telephone call. When you access Online Services in the future, you will be sent the 2FA code by your preferred method. You can change your contact details or preferred method for Online Services at any time.
Once your registration has been accepted by us and your identity confirmed, we will email your User ID and an Activation Key. You must not disclose your Activation Key to anyone before using it and if it’s not used within 28 days, it will expire. You must keep your Security Details such as your User ID and Password secret. In particular you must:
You must notify us as soon as possible by calling our Customer Services team on 0161 429 4306 or by emailing us at onlineservices@thevernon.co.uk if you discover or suspect that:
If you notify us under the above condition or we reasonably believe it’s necessary in order to protect your Security Details on your Account, we may suspend the use of your Security Details as a means of accessing your Account. Unless its’s unlawful for us to do so or would compromise our reasonable security measures, we will notify you either verbally or in writing in advance to tell you that we intend to suspend the use of your security details and our reasons for doing so. If we are unable to contact you in advance, we will tell you as soon as possible afterwards. As soon as the reason for the suspension has ended, we will either remove suspension or provide you with new security details.
Provided you have not acted fraudulently, or you have not, intentionally, or with gross negligence, failed to take all reasonable steps to keep your Security Details safe, you will not be liable for any unauthorised withdrawals from your Accounts(s).
In the event of a dispute regarding whether or not you originated a transaction or instruction through Online Services, you agree to co-operate with us, the police and / or our insurers in any investigations.
We cannot guarantee that information passing over the internet will remain confidential or will not be interfered with or disrupted and your use of Online Services will indicate your understanding and acceptance of this risk.
We will not be liable to you for any loss or damage whatsoever if:
Online Services is designed to be used with a range of internet browsers and equipment and it is your responsibility to provide compatible equipment and software with which to access it. In order to continue using Online Services you must ensure your equipment and software remains fully operational and take all reasonable steps to keep it free from viruses and other malicious software.
Online Services is intended to be available constantly; however, we cannot always guarantee its availability and there may be times when you are not able to access our website. This may be because the internet may fail through no fault of ours or we may need to suspend access for maintenance, technical or security reasons.
You can request a withdrawal by entering the required security information. Your confirmation can be withdrawn at any time prior to the transaction date by using the ‘Pending Requests’ menu in Online Services.
Withdrawal and transfer requests received before 3pm on a working day will be processed on the same day. Requests received after that time, or not on a working day will be deemed to have been received on the next working day.
Electronic withdrawal requests can be carried out in two ways:
Payments will be credited to the Nominated Account held in your name no later than the end of the working day following the day the instruction was processed.
Transfers to another Account held with us will be credited on the day the instruction is processed.
The bank account you nominate to receive withdrawal payments must a personal account held in your name, operated in the UK.
Withdrawal requests will not be accepted until the nominated account has been validated by the Society, this can take up to one week to process after proof of ownership of the bank account has been received by the Society.
The Society is entitled at any time to refuse to act on instructions given via Online Services, or to ask you to confirm them in writing, if for any reason we think they were not given by you or were not clear. We will inform you in writing as soon as practical, giving our reasons, if we decide to do this unless we are prevented from doing so for legal reasons or where it would compromise our reasonable security measures.
If you no longer wish to be registered for Vernon Online Services, you should inform us by Secure Message through the Online Services, via email or in writing. We will process the cancellation request within 5 working days of receipt.