Abbey Zero card - declined - why??

Red_Elle

Abbey really are a waste of time. I should have learnt my lesson by now, but didn't want to cut my nose off to spite my face. My PO card (which was opened up with no probs in days and a very high limit) is coming to the end of the 0% period, so I decided to apply for an Abbey Zero card.

Did it over the phone and was accepted with a terrible limit of £4300. She told me it was the highest limit she had ever seen, but I don't believe that for a minute. This was all on 16th June. Still nothing in the post. I have called 3 times and told the terms will be here soon.

Called today and apparently they were sent on the 16th. Clearly not as I haven't received them. Possibly not their fault, but the first time they have confirmed that they were sent.

They are going to send them tomorrow. Can't send them today. Have to go second class. Asked the guy why he can't print them himself and send them first class, but that just confused him.
So they could take another 7-10 days, then I have to return them with my ID, then another 5-10 days for the card.

So the application could take 2 months from start to finish. What a joke. I detest this company. Have decided to apply elsewhere, I think it will be quicker.

HamiltonL

rdp1980 wrote: »

Yep, despite some of the stories on here I can't complain about the time taken to receive the pack at all.

When I applied I opted to transfer a balance from two other cards. Any idea how long they are likely to take to process? Will they start as soon as my signed agreement is sent back, or does that process only start once they have sent my card and PIN?

Some people got the cards quickly, some clearly haven't. It's a lottery.

Those BT's should be done once your account opens. Your card and PIN will be sent a couple of days or so after that (PIN first). They will take seven to ten working days max to clear.

And blindman, best to write to the Underwriters as you say for a credit limit increase. Reply quick and they may do it if you can back up your claim. Not sure if you have our Underwriting team's address?

Did it over the phone and was accepted with a terrible limit of £4300. She told me it was the highest limit she had ever seen, but I don't believe that for a minute. This was all on 16th June. Still nothing in the post. I have called 3 times and told the terms will be here soon.

I've seen much higher limits than that. I've seen five figure credit limits for the Zero cards. We've been advising customers that the agreement should take about 2 weeks to arrive, perhaps give a few extra days due to the huge demand for the product. I'm surprised you still have nothing yet though.

Called today and apparently they were sent on the 16th. Clearly not as I haven't received them. Possibly not their fault, but the first time they have confirmed that they were sent.

Were they sent? Usually we're unable to find that out unless we pass the info to the back office. We only know you've been accepted which is the stage of the applicaton for the docs to go out.

They are going to send them tomorrow. Can't send them today. Have to go second class. Asked the guy why he can't print them himself and send them first class, but that just confused him.

Most of our mail goes second class with regards to the cards. Did you speak to the branch or over the phone? The contact centre is Milton Keynes but the actual processing e.g. sending out agreement docs is Bradford. We can't open a draw and send them out. To chase up it gets referred for management to pass to the back office who in turn will contact Bradford operations.

Sun

I guess applications with BT gets priority.

Gambit

I also recently applied for an Abbey Zero credit card but this was a wasted exercise. Like most people, I knew of Abbey's appalling customer serice (no offence HamiltonL but this has been my experience apart from one lady from the high level complaints team who tried to help me a lot over the last few weeks) but this was a good offer and thought I would go through with it. I applied online (might have been my mistake but I always apply online for credit cards/savings accounts) and as most people didnt hear anything. I called Abbey about this and they of course had no record of my application. I called my contact in the high level complaints team and told her about this but she was unable to help and so I gave up and told her to make sure the application (wherever it was) was cancelled. :mad:

I've tried to apply through a branch before but my branch close to my work in Kensington, London never seems to have any staff avaliable. Even the high level complaints dept took a few days to get through to them and apparently their reason for this was shortage of staff... guess everyone is jumping ship! :rolleyes: I tried to apply when Abbey had the special cashback offer for supermarket spend but they eventually got back to me saying there was a problem with my application form. To be honest I was surprised they could read this form as it was a badly photocopied form provided by the branch which I could hardly read so unsure how they managed to read a faxed copy of that... ahh well, least I got some compensation for Abbey for identifying a flaw in their application process! :rotfl:

blindman

HamiltonL wrote: »

Some people got the cards quickly, some clearly haven't. It's a lottery.

And blindman, best to write to the Underwriters as you say for a credit limit increase.
I've seen much higher limits than that. I've seen five figure credit limits for the Zero cards.

I have written to the Underwriters with proof of a higher credit limit.
Not that it matters now as I opened an Ulster card with 0% BT fee.

I was amazed at the speed from Abbey though.

I too have had awful CS from them in the past and was expecting the same.
Obviously my lottery ticket came up as I applied in branch (seems to be the key) and got accepted straight away.
The PIN, card and the BT all happened inside one week!

HamiltonL

That's the way it goes. Did they give you a higher limit?

Sorry to hear about your problems Gambit. Sounds like you had one hell of a nightmare!

HamiltonL

Incidentally the 'No Forex fee' offer on the Zeros has been trialed on existing Abbey credit cards accounts (pre-Zero) until September 1st.

rdp1980

Just a quick update on my application (if anyone is interested lol)...

Received my PIN through the post yesterday, no credit limit info with it though. Checked online banking this morning for the two cards that I applied to balance transfer from and found one has been cleared in the full amount (£1839) and the other has only had a small chunk paid off (£461) so guess that makes my credit limit with Abbey Zero a rather low £2300.

Guess that's a sign of the times.

Thankfully I do have money stashed away to pay off the other card before it starts charging me interest but figured if I could drag out the 0% a bit longer by putting it all on the Abbey Zero then so much the better!

HamiltonL

Are you sure it's 2300?

I think it might be upto 2800. Abbey usually only BT upto within half a grand of the limit, sometimes more. We can do upto 95% on the Zero though (so if it's 2800, then 2660). Just ring up customer services if that's the case when you get the card and they can move the rest over. Remember there's no fee.

rdp1980

HamiltonL wrote: »

Are you sure it's 2300?

I think it might be upto 2800. Abbey usually only BT upto within half a grand of the limit, sometimes more. We can do upto 95% on the Zero though (so if it's 2800, then 2660). Just ring up customer services if that's the case when you get the card and they can move the rest over. Remember there's no fee.

You're spot on. The card arrived and stated limit of £2800 rather than the £2300 I assumed from the balance transfers.

When I noticed the difference I wondered if there was a maximum percentage of the balance which could be allocated to a balance transfer (in the same way that many providers limit your cash allowance to a percentage of your credit limit).

There's no harm in keeping a bit of room on the card so will probably just pay off what remains on the original card.

Thanks for all your advice, it's good to have a bit of inside info!