Alliance & Leicester - Losing Applications

Sgt_Oddball

Hi,

wonder if anyone else has had this happen?

On 20 Jan I applied for the A & L premier account and the Santander Zero credit card. I received an acknowlegdment email immediately and was told they would be in touch within 24 hours.

Ten days later, with no follow up email, I phoned customer services. They said there was no record of the application - despite the acknowledgment email and tracking through Quidco.

I am quite happy to apply again but is it likely my application is still in the system? I've heard their applications admin is a nightmare.

Anyone else had a long delay or lost application?

Cheers,

Oddball

bigstevex

Snap with the credit card, no details of application!

Total joke!

LucyTheDwarf

It took them 3 minutes (after receiving the initial email to say they'd be back within 24 hours) to reply saying my current account application has been approved, but I've heard nothing about the credit card. But I don't know if I was expecting to hear anything from them re the credit card.

I only applied last Tuesday, maybe I'm expecting too much :P

ajharris

Sgt_Oddball wrote: »

Hi,

wonder if anyone else has had this happen?

On 20 Jan I applied for the A & L premier account and the Santander Zero credit card. I received an acknowlegdment email immediately and was told they would be in touch within 24 hours.

Ten days later, with no follow up email, I phoned customer services. They said there was no record of the application - despite the acknowledgment email and tracking through Quidco.

I am quite happy to apply again but is it likely my application is still in the system? I've heard their applications admin is a nightmare.

Anyone else had a long delay or lost application?

Cheers,

Oddball

If you read this forum enough you will realise hat your experience with these banks are par for the course. Santander is not a bank it is a problem. My advice to you would be to go with a real bank. A+L/Santander are just a bunch of clowns who do not even know which day of the week it is.

These wannabe mickey mouse banks get very bad reports on this forum. Admittedly no bank can please everyone but Santander seem to excel in letting people down. If I was telling you what to do then I would say HSBC/First Direct all day long. All the best

BMan

I applied for a Santander Zero card before christmas, after receiving an application form and a letter stating that I was automatically eligible as an A&L customer. I completed the form and posted it back. Midway through January I phoned Santander to find out what was happening with my application, they said it had been approved and the credit agreement sent in the post for me to sign on 29th December. After telling them it hadn't arrived they gave me a phone number to call to ask for it to be resent. When I called this number, they gave me another number to call. I also found out that my application had been entered onto the system as including payment protection insurance, I would NEVER take out PPI on a credit card and so either they entered that wrong on the system or the application form wasn't clear enough but I was told that when my card came through I would have to call to opt out of the PPI. I finally got through to someone who could arrange for the credit agreement to be sent out again but low and behold, it never arrived, so I called back. I was asked to confirm my address a couple of times which is when they realised that my address had been copied down incorrectly from the application form onto the system so lord knows who has 2 of my credit agreements now! I was told that the only way I could amend this was to go into a branch and ask them to change my adress on their system...WHY?? And when i'm an A&L customer too, they have my address in their system ok. Needless to say, I don't need a credit card that badly and promptly cancelled my application - like i'd want to deal with an organisation that can't even get basic data entry right! Funnily enough there is a letter from Santander sitting in the communal post area of our flats that hasn't been claimed as it does not belong to anyone in our block - I did check but it's definitely not mine!! So Beware, if you bank with Santander your post could end up anywhere!

Dannyb2009

I'm curious, as I just went through the same process in order to try and get the £100 (+£50 quidco, plus potential £25 friend recommendation) also to make use of the free euro travel insurance...although to be honest I am never going to leave HSBC outright...I've been with them for 15 years infact opened my first account with them..and have been excellent

My question is (and this may be suited to a new thread or even have already been answered)...

Is there anything in particular stopping you bouncing around these cashback offers for new accounts.

Ie 6 months at Alliance and Leicester get the money, transfer to First Direct for 6 months get money there, transfer to any other cashback back etc etc

I read it has to be 3 months since your last activity/account, that implies you could just round in circles? is their a credit rating issue doing this?

thanks in advance

Baldur

Dannyb2009 wrote: »

Is there anything in particular stopping you bouncing around these cashback offers for new accounts.

I certainly switched from A&L, virtually immediately after the various incentives had been received, to HSBC (in order to retain my sanity after experiencing just how bad A&L were) and received another £50 from HSBC for doing so.

LucyTheDwarf

I wouldn't trust my main banking with anyone other than HSBC really... Barclays don't seem too bad, except for the dippy cow on the counter of my local branch who doesn't understand a thing... but yeah, HSBC all the way.

I only want to take advantage of the 6% interest on the current account and the Quidco cash back. Oh, and the no foreign exchange load on the credit card because I spend in Europe a fair bit.

ajharris

LucyTheDwarf wrote: »

I wouldn't trust my main banking with anyone other than HSBC really... Barclays don't seem too bad, except for the dippy cow on the counter of my local branch who doesn't understand a thing... but yeah, HSBC all the way.

I only want to take advantage of the 6% interest on the current account and the Quidco cash back. Oh, and the no foreign exchange load on the credit card because I spend in Europe a fair bit.

I always say that the big four are best for service. I too think HSBC are the best by a country mile.

DeeDeeinDooDoo

Yep, just been totally messed about by Alliance and Leicester - incompetent. They have taken ages to switch over and havent done it completely and now tell me that I am too late in putting money in so no £100.

I will now go through the process of moving it all back and letting as many people as possible what a joke they are.

ajharris

DeeDeeinDooDoo wrote: »

Yep, just been totally messed about by Alliance and Leicester - incompetent. They have taken ages to switch over and havent done it completely and now tell me that I am too late in putting money in so no £100.

I will now go through the process of moving it all back and letting as many people as possible what a joke they are.

The circus goes on, mistake after mistake, the A+L/Santander roadshow is in a town near you. In general too many people do not look beyond the incentives. Is a £100 or £50 bonus worth years of bad service. I have said repeatedly that if you venture outside the big four then the service is unlikely to be as good.


Hopefully those who read your story will not be silly enough to ignore it.