Are A&L really that bad?

xyz123

Sportbilly wrote: »

The only crucial standing order I have is to our joint account- bills, mortgage etc are paid out of that, and it has to go in by the 1st of the month (I'm paid on the 28th). So it's hopefully unlikely that they'll completely balls things up.

quote]

if there are other standing orders / direct debits on your existing account (i think one must use a+L switching service to get £100) then you can try following.

You can cancel your existing standing order just before you open A+L account. your new a+l account should be up and running in 4-5 working days or so. so let them do the rest of the work but you can manually transfer the standing order for ur bills etc...it shouldnt take more than 2-3 days to set up a standing order...it gives u extra piece of mind...if you dont have anything else on the a/C and you must use their switching service create a dummy extra standing order for £10 or so and let them switch it.....i think they also use faster payments so even if you have to make a manual payment it may go through quickly (depending on the receiving bank as well, of course)....

hope this helps....

tanith

Been with A & L for 20 odd years and never had a problem with them, most of my family are with them also and I have several different types of account .. no problems at all, the internet banking takes a bit of getting used to by if you keep to the T & C then you should have no probs..

TeamMCS

I use[d] A+L for my savings... They seem reasonable.. No problems here.

Though as they are a part of Abbey Nat now, I dont think I want to be with them

emweaver

I am with A&L and can honestly say Ive never had any problems with them and its an english call centre which is a bonus!

i1189

I opened the direct account because I wanted the regular saver a couple of years ago. I didn't have any problems - got the cashback and the overdraft. I don't use it as a proper current account though, so I didn't swap any DDs or standing orders over. Just make sure you pay in the minimum each month though or you get charged a fee though.

I've recently opened up another savings account (over the internet) and an ISA with them (in a branch - staff helpful and friendly) and no problems there either.

In contrast, when I swapped my DDs from Barclays to Nationwide, they messed one up, and I find the staff in my local Nationwide branch rude and unhelpful. So I guess you can have problems with any bank as most people seem to like Nationwide...

Lansdowne

TeamMCS wrote: »

I use[d] A+L for my savings... They seem reasonable.. Though as they are a part of Abbey Nat now, I dont think I want to be with them

A&L aren't part of Abbey National, they are both separate parts of Santander.

Hopefully, when they start merging their processes, they will take the best parts of both UK institutions, which on the banking side should often be A&L's with a long banking pedigree stretching back to the original National Giro.
However, the one commitment Santander made at the time was to move A&L's accounts onto the Santander mega IT platform so the bad stories about Abbey may yet become relevant to A&L.