Abbey Regular Savings Closure Farce

from_suffolk

I went to close my maturing account today and took along my pass book and passport.
After presenting myself to the teller and listening to a sales pitch for another product I had to wait twenty minutes until I was handed my cheque.
I had anticipated that I may be asked for ID and hence that I took my passport, however I did not expect such a palaver as the teller took my passport to get it authorised as this was the same ID I used for opening the account.
I'm afraid that after waiting for such a lengh of time 'I lost it' and did that very unbritish thing of complaining and making a scene!
I made the point of if it took this long to open an account they would have no customers!
I suppose I feel a little bit guilty as the teller was 'only doing his job' but the experience has left me feeling that I won't use Abbey again

Robert_Sterling_3

"I went to close my maturing account today and took along my pass book and passport.
After presenting myself to the teller and listening to a sales pitch for another product I had to wait twenty minutes until I was handed my cheque."

That was much too long. Five minutes maximum would have been OK.


"I had anticipated that I may be asked for ID and hence that I took my passport, however I did not expect such a palaver as the teller took my passport to get it authorised as this was the same ID I used for opening the account."

I think this is not relevant. They need to use due diligence. But it should not take 20 minutes in all.

"I'm afraid that after waiting for such a lengh of time 'I lost it' and did that very unbritish thing of complaining and making a scene!"

You are losing the moral high ground now.

"I made the point of if it took this long to open an account they would have no customers!"

OK

"I suppose I feel a little bit guilty as the teller was 'only doing his job' "

Quite so.


"but the experience has left me feeling that I won't use Abbey again"

Your choice

from_suffolk

Quite so.
"but the experience has left me feeling that I won't use Abbey again"

Your choice[/QUOTE]

Until they offer another superdupa account paying over the odds, that is!

Robert_Sterling_3

That is more like it.

Almost_Redundant

Until they offer another superdupa account paying over the odds, that is![/QUOTE]

I too closed my abbey regular saver (was it 7%) after spending the most frugal year of my life squirreling away £500 per month. I was handed my cheque without showing passport. This was nothing compared to the feeling of utter dismay when i noted my total interest after tax was in the region of £160. £160 for a years worth of doing without putting one third of my wages into a savings account.

Monthly savers definately another clever ploy by the institutions to relieve us of our money.

Incidently, I ordered some Euros on line through LLoyds TSB recently. After visiting my branch with a the printout of the online transaction, i was duely handed 1500 euros with no check on my identity whatsoever! Outrageous :mad:

jimclark1967

Almost_Redundant wrote:

This was nothing compared to the feeling of utter dismay when i noted my total interest after tax was in the region of £160. £160 for a years worth of doing without putting one third of my wages into a savings account.

Welcome to the site A_R :beer:

Would you rather have received £115 for putting it in a normal savings account? You'll never get rich quick by putting a few hundred away each month for a year but it's much better than nowt

JC

RubyBish

I dont think I ever recieved a pass book for this account.
Does everybody have them?

charlieboycat

RubyBish wrote:

I dont think I ever recieved a pass book for this account.
Does everybody have them?

My wife and I both do. Came in the post a couple of days after we'd handed in application forms and cheques in branch.

papaya_2

Interest paid on this type of account is less obvious, and mine was seriously underpaid.

Apparently Abbey has been so inundated as a result of miscalculations that a separate department has been set up to deal with the mistakes.

I had the proceeds of my RS A/C transferred immediately to my Abbey current A/C. You can also insist on a BACS transfer to an external current A/C.

Of course Abbey would prefer to hold onto your money for longer, by giving you a cheque!

Indispensable_Hobbes

I had a right !!!!!! on with mine too.

Called Abbey to see how I should go about closing the account, the lady said to write a letter. Called about 5days later to be told that I have to close it in a branch and my letter would be ignored (so would anyone call me to tell me i had to close it in branch if i had not called myself... we'll never know).

I asked if I needed to call the branch I was visiting to enable them to have enough funds, I was told I would get one cheque, I wanted either 2 cheques or some cash to open a new account.

Got to the branch, she offered me £500 cash and the rest in a cheque. I wasnt asked for ID either.

Pff

p3gg

from_suffolk wrote:

I made the point of if it took this long to open an account they would have no customers!

Hmmm. Only problem with that argument is that in an Abbey branch, as often as not it DOES take that long to open an account...