Dont go near Alliance and Liecester!

Mrs_Ryan

missile wrote: »

I don't understand why? Even if you have poor credit rating, I would have thought it would be easy to open an account with a.n.other bank.

I've got a Halifax Easycash account, but that only has a Visa Electron which is no good to me. I also have a Co-Op Cash Minder but again only with an Electron - I know they've changed now to Visa Debit but I know there's still teething problems with them.

Cant go with NatWest/RBS as they're on my DMP, have a (very old) account with Abbey but it only has a cash card and they cant upgrade it, HSBC, Yorkshire and Barclays have all declined me for their basic accounts (thanks again A&L :mad:) and LTSB again no good as you can only withdraw cash from LTSB machines with their basic account cards and the nearest LTSB is 10 miles away!!!

So not that easy....

Tubby_Hubby

I moved form A&L about 4 years ago because of poor service, I'd been with them for about 20 years. Moved to First Direct, got £100 for switching accounts and have to say they are the best. Phones are answered immediately by a real person in an english call centre, and the they are all so pleasant. I don't need to call them often but when I do I often have a nice chat about weather, holidays etc. Can't see me moving banks again, FD would have to do something really bad for me to leave them.

molerat

Been with them for 15 years now with one minor problem that was sorted in 5 mins on the phone

Amanita_2

I was tempted to leave Lloyds for A&L for the current account interest. Worst thing I ever did. I was silly enough to use the dd switching service. A&L assured me that everything had been changed over - next thing my mobile phone is cut off because the mandate wasn't set up. They also missed a few others.

Trying to speak to anyone involves a long hold ( on a premium number) and the branch staff won't help with online accounts.

Now safely back with a real bank ( Lloyds again) and the 8 months of A&L is now just a very bad dream.

jambosans

Your personal vendetta against A&L is quite ridiculous.

Whenever you see a post titled "A&L", doesn't mean you should copy and paste your poorly worded, vague, one-sided horror story. Of course you should share your experiences, hence starting this original thread, but hijacking other threads with the same re-hashed story is not constructive.

My advice: start a website like switchtoabbey.co.uk (incidentally this website is the top hit on Google when you type in "Abbey customers service") or actually contribute to the post.

If I read the sentence beginning: "A&L have given us two years of hell..." I think I will go mad.

grainne41

i agreed wholeheartedly with the OP. A&L made a mistake with my OH's account and it has taken months to fix, not to mention sleepless nights, a huge list of costs incurred and a bad credit report... and we were the ones that had to do all the chasing, heaven forbid they would clean up after their mistakes. The annoying thing is that they made him open the account in the first place because he was an employee and he wasn't allowed to have his salary paid into another account.

All I can say is don't be swayed by a few quid for free and cheapo travel insurance to bank with them, they are probably the worst bank in the UK and as a former employee myself, I am astounded that some of their policies haven't been exposed yet. For example, in their mortgage sector, all middle eastern nationals with a salary of £50k or more are flagged up as fraud. And their new motto is Treating Customers Fairly- contradict yourselves much?

jambosans

grainne41 wrote: »

For example, in their mortgage sector, all middle eastern nationals with a salary of £50k or more are flagged up as fraud. And their new motto is Treating Customers Fairly- contradict yourselves much?

What, do you think they are being racist?

There will be a reason for this, and you certainly won't know what that is - unless you used to work as senior fraud or risk.

Also spouting what I imagine A&L considers confidential information on a public forum in a defamatory manner does not paint them in an ill light. It merely makes you look like a disgruntled ex-employee with an axe to grind.