Abbey £100 for switching

oscarhugo

emma396 wrote: »

Just a quick warning for everyone, if you want a simple account. DO NOT go with Abbey. I opened an account with (i posted the original post) and since then all I've had is trouble. I will be closing ALL of my account with them asap.

Thanks but if I doooo do it, it'll only be to shaft them for the 100 quid if I can. The S/Os will only be temporary ones!

ragingbass

Have to say, I'm regretting not paying more attention to the warnings on these boards about Abbey and just going for the £100 incentive.

I applied to switch an account online a week or so ago, whenever the offer came up on the Abbey website. A few days later I received an email to say that they couldn't offer me the qualifying overdraft account but they could offer me a basic account, which is absolutely no use to me. Despite it saying in the email that they wouldn't go and open the account unless I followed it up, I rang them anyway just to confirm that the account wouldn't be opened and definitely wouldn't be swapped. The guy on the end of the phone told me that nothing would happen unless I followed it up.

So, I figured I'd take advantage of the First Direct offer instead seeing as I was a bit miffed at losing out on a potential £100. So I applied for that and have to say, they've been very good to date and I've been very impressed with their efficiency and every one of the different people I've spoken to on the phone.

Over the last couple of days I've started to get documentation through about my new Abbey account!! I figured it must be the standalone basic account and so, after speaking to someone on the phone again, I wrote a letter to their head office asking them to close the account and took it into my local branch.

But this afternoon, I received a letter informing me that the transfer to my Abbey account was all in hand!! So, yet again, I rang up to find out what was going on, and getting slightly annoyed by this point!! The plot thickened further when I found out that standing orders had already gone out of the account and so the balance was already in the red!!! Now, I can't be 100% sure on this, but I filled out the application online and am fairly certain I didn't physically sign anything to confirm transferring over my standing orders. So I'm at a loss to understand quite how they've done that so quickly!?!? Also, the account opened was actually the account I applied for, with the overdraft, and not a Basic Account at all!!

Fortunately, the last person I spoke to was very good and understanding. She arranged to cancel the standing orders (luckily they hadn't been fully processed yet) asap and even called me back to confirm when it was all done. I'll go into the branch tomorrow with all my ID and close the account first thing tomorrow.

Obviously, had I not applied to move the account to FD shortly after receiving the communication from Abbey, then I could've just let the transfer go through. As it turned out, I've been fretting about 2 potential transfers being messed up and was sure I'd end up worse off with some charge somewhere!! So I've probably got myself to blame a little for being too quick off the mark there. But from this little experience it makes me think that it's been a close call, and I'm now more than happy that I'm moving to FD.

moneysavingallday

ragingbass wrote: »

Have to say, I'm regretting not paying more attention to the warnings on these boards about Abbey and just going for the £100 incentive.

I applied to switch an account online a week or so ago, whenever the offer came up on the Abbey website. A few days later I received an email to say that they couldn't offer me the qualifying overdraft account but they could offer me a basic account, which is absolutely no use to me. Despite it saying in the email that they wouldn't go and open the account unless I followed it up, I rang them anyway just to confirm that the account wouldn't be opened and definitely wouldn't be swapped. The guy on the end of the phone told me that nothing would happen unless I followed it up.

So, I figured I'd take advantage of the First Direct offer instead seeing as I was a bit miffed at losing out on a potential £100. So I applied for that and have to say, they've been very good to date and I've been very impressed with their efficiency and every one of the different people I've spoken to on the phone.

Over the last couple of days I've started to get documentation through about my new Abbey account!! I figured it must be the standalone basic account and so, after speaking to someone on the phone again, I wrote a letter to their head office asking them to close the account and took it into my local branch.

But this afternoon, I received a letter informing me that the transfer to my Abbey account was all in hand!! So, yet again, I rang up to find out what was going on, and getting slightly annoyed by this point!! The plot thickened further when I found out that standing orders had already gone out of the account and so the balance was already in the red!!! Now, I can't be 100% sure on this, but I filled out the application online and am fairly certain I didn't physically sign anything to confirm transferring over my standing orders. So I'm at a loss to understand quite how they've done that so quickly!?!? Also, the account opened was actually the account I applied for, with the overdraft, and not a Basic Account at all!!

Fortunately, the last person I spoke to was very good and understanding. She arranged to cancel the standing orders (luckily they hadn't been fully processed yet) asap and even called me back to confirm when it was all done. I'll go into the branch tomorrow with all my ID and close the account first thing tomorrow.

Obviously, had I not applied to move the account to FD shortly after receiving the communication from Abbey, then I could've just let the transfer go through. As it turned out, I've been fretting about 2 potential transfers being messed up and was sure I'd end up worse off with some charge somewhere!! So I've probably got myself to blame a little for being too quick off the mark there. But from this little experience it makes me think that it's been a close call, and I'm now more than happy that I'm moving to FD.

So you had a lucky escape from Abbey!!! Glad FD is going well for you

emma396

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Could you be more specific Emma?

Of course!! I previously had their 8% account anyway, which came to an end after a year so I closed it. It was then I was told I could open another straight away, so I did. When I opened it, I requested it was linked to my graduate account so I could log into internet banking, the girl tried to do it on the day but said it wouldn't let her, and would diary it in to do on the next day. On the next day I logged in, still not showing online, so I called them and was told you couldn't link 2 accounts if they both have debit cards (this is not true). Later that day I went into branch to try and speak to the girl that opened my account, the cashier said she would pass on a message.

Still no internet banking, I call up again, this time get told it's more safe for me not to link the account, I insist it's what I want, so dude on the phone says he'll do it for me. He tells me the graduate account I have needs to be changed to a standard account before he can link the account, but he can't do it on the phone, and I need to visit a branch.

So I visit branch, guy there upgrades account, and tries to link them, he says it won';t let him, but he;ll pass on message to IT dept. The was on the 17th, i still don't have internet banking for new account, and I haven't heard anything from them

In the meantime, I opened a tesco saver (6.5%) and needed to write a cheque to tesco. For my graduate account, for some reason I have 2 cheque books, so I called Abbey to check they were both ok to use (I suspected one had been cancelled) They told me that both were fine, so I proceeded to write a cheque to tesco, after about 10 days tesco called to say the cheque had been reported as lost or stolen so they couldn't take the money, but they said I could bank transfer it instead of writing chq.

So i log in online and send money to tesco, it shows immeadiately as gone, but 2 hours later the money is in my account again, i also get a letter from HBOS about abbey not being able to confirm my DOB to transfer regular payments over to them. So i call abbey, they confirm DOB is correct, and i ask about payment to tesco, girl tells me its gone thru fine on their system.

Log on the next day and all access had been restricted, I need to call an 0845 number. The fraud dept has spotted a large transfer, tried to call me but couldn't get thru so cancelled payment. I go thru secuity questions and i get access online again.

Have written abbey a nice letter, and will be going to close my accounts 2moro.

Check out: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1115755


and i didn;'t open the account for the £100, i opened it for 8%

plus abbey have sent me a letter letting me know they will close my lloyds account for me, I clearly asked them not to :mad:

gelato_cat

I opened one of these in-branch today.

On the switching form, there were four options:

- contact old bank to cancel standing orders, close the account and ask for a list of SOs, DD and bill payments and talk about the account

- contact companies where DDs are set up to ask that future payments are collected from the Abbey account

- set up on the Abbey account DDs, SOs and bill payments

- contact employers/other relevant companies to move regular credits into the new Abbey account

The woman who opened my account told me to tick the third option.

I'll be fulfilling the funding requirements by way of monthly BACS payments (and BACSing the money back out again). However I am not sure if this meets the criteria (contrary to earlier posts in this thread) as, looking at the posters in-branch, the small print said salary had to be switched! So we'll see...

Also, she tried to get me to have an overdraft, which I didn't want. She didn't say this would affect the £100 bonus but now I'm thinking you have to have an overdraft facility to qualify for it - does anyone know?

Suze

sabretoothtigger

masonic wrote: »

Credit scoring for these types of account can be quite strict (A&L have been running a similar series of accounts for some time and it seems more people get turned away than you might typically expect).

So if abbey have previously refused a zero cc card they will most likely refuse an application for this current ac

moneysavingallday

Suzey wrote: »

I opened one of these in-branch today.

On the switching form, there were four options:

- contact old bank to cancel standing orders, close the account and ask for a list of SOs, DD and bill payments and talk about the account

- contact companies where DDs are set up to ask that future payments are collected from the Abbey account

- set up on the Abbey account DDs, SOs and bill payments

- contact employers/other relevant companies to move regular credits into the new Abbey account

The woman who opened my account told me to tick the third option.

I'll be fulfilling the funding requirements by way of monthly BACS payments (and BACSing the money back out again). However I am not sure if this meets the criteria (contrary to earlier posts in this thread) as, looking at the posters in-branch, the small print said salary had to be switched! So we'll see...

Also, she tried to get me to have an overdraft, which I didn't want. She didn't say this would affect the £100 bonus but now I'm thinking you have to have an overdraft facility to qualify for it - does anyone know?

Suze

What OD limit was she offering you?

masonic

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

So if abbey have previously refused a zero cc card they will most likely refuse an application for this current ac

If they guarantee a credit card with this account, and they have previously refused to give you a credit card, then there's a chance you could be refused for this account as well. However, the £1000 you are agreeing to pay in might swing things in your favour. From what PBA has said in this thread, it may be easier to get one of these accounts than I had thought.

sabretoothtigger

catwoman150 wrote: »

I saw this offer in a branch last week so I decided to open an account. I'm now. I explained to the person in the branch that I did not want an overdraft and that I would be in credit when I opened up this current account. The person then said that I would still get the £100 cash back offer. They also said to me that I would have to get a list of my direct debits and standing orders from my old bank account and forward this onto this branch.

After reading this thread does this mean that I will not get this £100 cashback offer. As I did not get an overdraft and that I will be doing all the leg work as they say?

I think that I will give them a ring on monday to find out what is going on as I only decided to switch to get the cash back offer of £100.

You might as well get a free overdraft as it just means they wont try and charge you 20 pounds a cheque if your pay gets delayed or something

gelato_cat

I'd be interested in hearing what you find out as I declined the overdraft as well...

Suze

catwoman150 wrote: »

I saw this offer in a branch last week so I decided to open an account. I'm now. I explained to the person in the branch that I did not want an overdraft and that I would be in credit when I opened up this current account. The person then said that I would still get the £100 cash back offer. They also said to me that I would have to get a list of my direct debits and standing orders from my old bank account and forward this onto this branch.

After reading this thread does this mean that I will not get this £100 cashback offer. As I did not get an overdraft and that I will be doing all the leg work as they say?

I think that I will give them a ring on monday to find out what is going on as I only decided to switch to get the cash back offer of £100.