Abbey current account , 6% interest with conditions

WoodU62

I don't know if I'm alone in my distressing experience of Abbey Bank. For the past 6 weeks, once I realised Abbey wasn't honouring it's higher interest promise on its current account (providing so much paid in each month), I've endeavoured to ascertain why - and now have so many conflicting reasons offered, mostly to do with the paying in dates in any month - eg. payment to be made between the 2nd of one month & the 2nd of next month, or 1st and 1st, or 9th & 9th, or 3rd and 3rd, and so on, and that it's the same as the statement dates - but these vary month by month & often don't arrive at all!
All of which contradicts what I was told when I opened the account some months ago.
The complaints dept now it's finally got back to me has been mind bogglingly unhelpul and seems blind to Abbey's errors, to say the least.
I know I must now go along the road of approaching the financial ombudsman, but it's all so time consuming and really not the right way to treat people.
I surely can't be the only customer who has been misled and ill advised in this way by Abbey.
Is there anyone else out there? Are they allowed to con people like this?
WoodU62

johnmoney05

Yes. I got caught once by paying one day outside of the statement date. As a result the whole month of interest was paid very little. I have 5 accounts with them at the moment. So I just pay in £1000 soon after the interest paid in. So I never miss out the condition again.

ses6jwg

Is the interest on this account paid monthly?

premierfella

Yes, interest paid monthly.
Yes, minimum required monthly credit for the higher interest is by the monthly statement date rather than calendar month or any other alternative.
Yes, I have also been caught by this!
I don't feel that I have been conned, but then I did not receive any misinformation.

ses6jwg

what is the montly statement date

johnmoney05

ses6jwg wrote: »

what is the montly statement date

Do you have nothing to do? Ask quesions like these....

The answer is that it depends on when your account was open. But does it matter??

juicyjude

Dont want to go into too much detail but we think Abbey are most inefficient and we have and are still spending so much time chasing them up as they say they are dealing with us then weeks go by and we have to contact them again and again. Every time we eventually manage to speak to a real person they say that the person we spoke to before hasnt actioned anything and we have to go through the whole rig marole again. Totally pathetic!

WoodU62

Thank you for all these reponses. Hope this reply arrives ok, it's my first go at a forum (driven by fury & extreme frustration). My unfortunate saga with Abbey continues. I've just been given yet a different version by the complaints dept, who say the monthly 6% interest is based on the "STATEMENT INTEREST CALCULATION PERIOD", giving yet a different date for this. It's not the statement date (as I've been told for some of the last 6 weeks, though with many different dates stated), nor is it the date of the account opening.
Soo the "statement interest calculation period" story may be true, but it is the umpteenth version of things I've been given.
I have been misled, right from the account opening, and the needed information not given to me. No amount of organisation and keeping track of dates are of any use if you've not been given the correct information to do it accurately. I still got it wrong even after I contacted them the first time because I was again advised incorrectly. Etc. Trying not to rant -
but people need to be aware that all is not what it seems with Abbey.
I have now spoken to the financial ombudsman, & will be pursuing this if necessary.

oldfella

ask them where in their T&Cs do they define the monthly paying in period

anamenottaken

Experience:

I had one of these accounts (ie high interest current account) years ago and the payment of the high interest for the required time is probably the only thing that went really well with my dealings with Abbey.

The correct interest was paid at the beginning of every month (despite a customer adviser telling me it would be at the end of the year!).

I worked on the basis of using the calendar month as the paying-in period and no doubt my payments varied.

steveksullivan

Do NOT as suggested by previous post work on calendar month. As an earlier poster suggested both the Abbey and A&L (i.e. now Santander) work on the anniversary of the account opening. So you need to do your £1000 shuffle the day after interest is paid or later, but before interest is paid again.

Previous poster may just have been lucky with his anniversary date, but I was caught out through being away for most of December and assuming I'd be OK depositing right at the end of the month .... WRONG.

My anniversary date was 24th December .........

..... and to answer oldfellas question about t's and c's I tried that one - and was told that the details were in the welcome pack received when account was opened