Moving away from Abbey/Santander

karatedragon

I thought Santander was in Bootle Merseyside?

And TheDadOfBob the Cov BS is really good. I am dead fussy about service and that so would not be with them if they were below par.

There is no cheque book with the account though but you can ring up or send off for a printed bankers draft type cheque free of charge.

Leew1231

SNAP - I am moving from Abbey to First Direct too due to shocking customer 'service'. Not had a response from FD yet though, although I only did it online on Saturday.

Chris2000

karatedragon wrote: »

And TheDadOfBob the Cov BS is really good. I am dead fussy about service and that so would not be with them if they were below par.

I agree their telephone service is very good but there are a couple of things I don't like
1. No outbound Faster Payments.
2. Online payments can only be made to existing payees. New standing orders or new payees have to be set up by phone the first time i.e. can't do it on a Sunday evening when the call centre is closed!

partlydave

Leew1231 wrote: »

SNAP - I am moving from Abbey to First Direct too due to shocking customer 'service'. Not had a response from FD yet though, although I only did it online on Saturday.

Ive just had a nightmare with Abbey which is over now. Just applied to FD for an ISA and got a call from customer service which was very friendly and efficient. Lets hope it continues.

karatedragon

Chris2000 wrote: »

I agree their telephone service is very good but there are a couple of things I don't like
1. No outbound Faster Payments.
2. Online payments can only be made to existing payees. New standing orders or new payees have to be set up by phone the first time i.e. can't do it on a Sunday evening when the call centre is closed!

They have told me they will be getting faster payments. But I would rather have slower payments and good service!

I can set up payments online no problem???

TheDadOfBob

As an addendum to this, Abbey complaints have given me contact details of their complaints department, if I want to complain about my initial complaint not being upheld by their complaints department!

It's the same email and postal address that I sent it to originally.

It could be worth a try!

Chris2000

karatedragon wrote: »

They have told me they will be getting faster payments. But I would rather have slower payments and good service!

I can set up payments online no problem???

Thanks. When I opened my account in 2008 this wasn't possible, I remember having to phone up and they insisted on making a payment of at least £1 to make the payee active. I hadn't noticed that there is now the option of doing it online!

karatedragon

Chris2000 wrote: »

Thanks. When I opened my account in 2008 this wasn't possible, I remember having to phone up and they insisted on making a payment of at least £1 to make the payee active. I hadn't noticed that there is now the option of doing it online!

I opened the account in 2006 when it was first introduced and the credit interest rate was decent. You could set up payments back then. I have always been able to.

You can also extend the overdraft to £1000 and any usage over the £250 is charged a flat fee of £5 a month.

Like I say faster payments will come in but because they are not a clearing bank it is taking longer to introduce. They do accept faster payments though now.

I would never leave them because of not having faster payments. The answer to this is to pay a place a few days earlier or tell a payee to have some patience.:D

Chris2000

No idea why I couldn't get it to work before but glad to see it does. I also have my mortgage with the Coventry and their call centre has always been great. I've never even seen a Coventry branch.

I am not so bothered about faster payments for bills etc. but moving money between my own accounts is a different matter. Yes I should be more patient but it's the principle of someone else earning interest on my money while I wait for it to arrive.

dickydonkin

TheDadOfBob wrote: »

As an addendum to this, Abbey complaints have given me contact details of their complaints department, if I want to complain about my initial complaint not being upheld by their complaints department!

It's the same email and postal address that I sent it to originally.

It could be worth a try!

Well I would definately complain!

Joking aside, all of the Santander group's customer services are downright abysmal - with Nationwide coming a very close second!