Moving away from Abbey/Santander

TheDadOfBob

Hi
Just before Xmas I had some cash stolen which meant we had to push our overdraft a little bit harder than normal.
It turned out that we accidentally went over our agreed limit by a few quid over three transactions, so Abbey saw fit to charge us the best part of £100 for the pleasure.
Because of this it actually knocked us over the limit the following month too. After several phone calls and a letter they have decided that the total of about £170 was justified and that a mortgage, ISA's, credit card and three current accounts between us (one of which is 30 years old) counts for nothing.

So we're voting with our feet - unfortunately all the best offers with overdrafts seem to be with Santander.

Our two current accounts and our joint account generally slip into the overdraft more often than not, so any ideas welcome.

I've also looked at The One Account... on the face of it, it actually looks like a good idea, but are there any pitfalls?

Many ta's in advance.

SKJ28

Don't go with Halifax. They charge £1 per day for using an arranged overdraft up to £2500 and £2 per day for over £2500.

Alliance and Leicester and First Direct are currently offering £100 for each account you switch using their switching service.

daveyjp

There is an account with no charges if you go overdrawn above your limit, unfortunately it's an Abbey Zero account - you need a mortgage with them and they will look at how your account is managed.

But why move from Abbey? Any bank will penalise heavily any bad money management.

karatedragon

I am with the Coventry Building Society. Coventry First Account. It has a Debit Card. The first £250 overdraft is Interest Free. You can extend this limit to £1000 but anything £251 to £1000 overdrawn is charged a flat fee of £5 per month.

I like the Building Society. Staff are UK based and very helpful. They have a normal landline number for the call centre in addition to the standard 0845 one. I have never had to sit in a queue more than say 30 seconds to speak to anyone on the rare occasion I have had to ring up.

I have heard bad things about Santander. There are a lot of videos of disgruntled customers on YouTube. Santander are only good for claiming the £100 joining insentive and then closing the account and trying the scam again six months later. Lets face it any bank that has to pay customers £100 to join and give cheap as chips overdrafts away must be a bit dodgy!

heloid

Depends on how much your overdraft is. If you don't go over £250 as above or the First Direct account. You can get higher obviously but pay interest on it (If you are £500 overdrawn on a First Direct account for the whole month it will only £4, fewer days you're talking pence.)
Other option is A&L but you'll probably get treated the same even if they are separate

karatedragon

I think the days of cheap borrowing on overdrafts and otherwise have gone. Years ago you could not get an overdraft unless you were interviewed by your bank manager and had been with your bank a number of years. Personally I think we were better for those methods as back then the country did not have the personal debt problems it has now.

Another way round it is to try and not become overdrawn so much? Then your choice of new accounts would be broader.

TheDadOfBob

Thanks.
First Choice was the option I'd found on this site, but the Coventry BS sounds reasonable.

karatedragon wrote: »

Another way round it is to try and not become overdrawn so much? Then your choice of new accounts would be broader.

Errr, you should speak to my wife.
She's not as frugal as I am.

Fairzo

I'm moving from Santander to First Direct just to be rid of their customer "service".

TheDadOfBob

Fairzo wrote: »

I'm moving from Santander to First Direct just to be rid of their customer "service".

I hear that.
Call #1 in the overdraft debacle I was cut off while they checked my records.
Call #2 was to a VERY Indian sounding chap, who could do nothing about the situation (apparently based in Scotland)
Call #3 (10 minutes later) to a nice Brummie lady who said she could reverse as many of the charges as the computer would let her.

scott_lithgows

TheDadOfBob wrote: »

Call #2 was to a VERY Indian sounding chap, who could do nothing about the situation (apparently based in Scotland)

Doubt he,s from round here,he would have a Scots accent.

pmduk

If he said he had an English name he was almost certainly in India