Existing abbey\santander credit card owners listen up!

abbey_guy

Hi guys! My first post here so be gentle I am an experienced employee of Abbey, working mainly with credit cards - if you have any questions about your Abbey card or any other Abbey product I'd be more than happy to give you tips on how to work the system in your favor! I really enjoy my job so this isn't a case of vendetta - I simply would like to do my bit for the MSE information base. Anyhoo, to the main point of this post!

If you are an Abbey or Santander credit card owner, it's more than likely that you will within your next statement recieve a notice informing you that, like most other credit card companies in the current exonomic climate, they are about to raise the various interest rates on your card (obviously this won't affect any 0% rates you have). Take the Abbey Zero for instance; BTs and purchases will be going up to from 18.95% APR to a whopping 29.95% APR - as for cash: the exact figure slips my mind but I think it could be going up to around 40% APR. You will be given 30 days notice, as per your terms and conditions, before the new rate will be applied. This will be a bitter pill for many customers to swallow as this will also raise most people's minimum payments by around 1/3. Before you freak out, you will be glad to know there are solutions to this!

Abbey, having preempted many angry responses to this, will be offering an interest rate freeze option to all effected customers. The deal is: you can keep your interest rates as they are for as long as you like however you must agree to your card being blocked. This means no card usage but you keep on making your monthly payments. Fair dos ay? Well, this is where it gets interesting...

If after this rate freeze you decide you need to use your card, Abbey are obliged to unblock your card to use again. As per your terms and conditions: as long as your account is still open and you are up to date on payment you are entitled to full use of your credit card for purchases, balance transfers and cash withdrawls. A quick call to the credit card department and your card will be instantly usable again. The especially great thing about this is that I am under good information that even with your card now being in full functionality, you will still benefit from the freeze in interest rate! It seems the system that freezes your rates is fairly basic and can not have a request reversed.

Obviously, you ideally would just move your balance to another card at 0% interest, however if you're anything like me you may be finding that getting a credit card with the limit you need is getting harder all of the time, so at least this will reduce the cost of your debt. If this post has been helpful or you have any questions I can help with, feel free to let me know below! Cheers - AG

Paul_Herring

t's more than likely that you will within your next statement recieve a notice informing you that, like most other credit card companies in the current exonomic climate, they are about to raise the various interest rates on your card

Would this be the current economic climate the rest of us live in where interest rates are going down for those with savings and mortgages?

abbey_guy

yes it would be, sick eh? I assume that any credit card company that does this is actively seeking to lose customers as there is literally no other explaination I can see.

Also - i have posted this in quite obviously the wrong section as it has nothing to do with stoozing. Is there a way to move this thread to the main credit card section?

co123456

Accounts (Current account and Zero Card) closed. I think your customer service is good but you're let down by your products, policies, and infrastructure.

Paul_Herring

abbey_guy wrote: »

Also - i have posted this in quite obviously the wrong section as it has nothing to do with stoozing. Is there a way to move this thread to the main credit card section?

You could click the 'report abuse' button on the first post, to get a moderator to move it, or probably better, private message the two board guides (nearlyrich and nickmack) to do so. (They're listed at the bottom of the message list on the board.) Provide a link to the thread.

Mids_Costcutter

abbey_guy wrote: »

Take the Abbey Zero for instance; BTs and purchases will be going up to from 18.95% APR to a whopping 29.95% APR - as for cash: the exact figure slips my mind but I think it could be going up to around 40% APR. You will be given 30 days notice, as per your terms and conditions, before the new rate will be applied.

That's interesting, I have an Abbey Zero card which I was about to close after paying off balance, but last weekend customer services assured me that new offers would be sent out to customers in the next week including (for some) balance transfers at 0%!

Richard019

Mids_Costcutter wrote: »

That's interesting, I have an Abbey Zero card which I was about to close after paying off balance, but last weekend customer services assured me that new offers would be sent out to customers in the next week including (for some) balance transfers at 0%!

For some it will be a 0% offer, for others it will go sky high. I wonder if it will be stoozers who see their rates go Sky high while those who transferred a balance and then took a few months after the 0% ended to pay it off get new offers.

I would have thought the 6 month dormancy fee (introduced on the organic and zero cards in October) will be more of an issue for Zero card holders than rising rates on BTs. Those who got it for their summer holidays each year and didn't read the paperwork when the change was made are in for a shock fairly soon.

EDIT: As he's posting as an employee to help customers does OP need to contact admin to get himself verified (or whatever it is they do in these situations)?

co123456

Mids_Costcutter wrote: »

That's interesting, I have an Abbey Zero card which I was about to close after paying off balance, but last weekend customer services assured me that new offers would be sent out to customers in the next week including (for some) balance transfers at 0%!

I got the same here. I'd wager money that this is simply a bluff to retain customers, and I'll have an e/w bet that Abbey has a staff policy requiring employees not post on public finance related message boards. If I was the running Abbey, I would write this into employees terms and conditions. 'Anyhoo', seeing as I've said bye bye to Abbey, I'll not need to 'listen up'.

JanineB

Hello Abbey guy, bit off topic but, Ive just applied for an admin position in Abbey! lol I worked for a year and a half for Capita (with Santanders life products). Any tips you can give gladly appreciated.

Drop me a mail if you can help.

Thanks!

Mids_Costcutter

Any existing Abbey customers received a new offer by post in the last week?

scott_lithgows

When is the big credit card offer to Bradford + Bingley and Alliance +Leicester account holders that we were promised at the Santander takeover ?