Advice please on Santander taking over A&L

PC_Gabriel_Kent

Only certain 'advisors' are able to access ANL holdings, for example cashiers do not have access to it. Despite being awful their structured do win best products according to Money Facts so judge for yourself on that one,

lioness27

she understood that certain people know about her money, but she didnt want friends/family to know..odd maybe , but its what she wants.

if they are awful how do they manage to win best product?

PC_Gabriel_Kent

I think on here they mean compared, potentially what an IFA can offer. Some of here have a rabid hatred of Santander and actually do not know the ins and outs of the product. All banks will of course offer their own products as that is their business. A lot of people will go for them as the deal is not as bad as is made out. Ultimatley make your own choice and dont just go off here. Perhaps compare with other banks and see how it stacks up.

dunstonh

if they are awful how do they manage to win best product?

They either paid for advertising or the person making the comparisons was stupid or the panel they selected from was limited. Sometimes they are voted on by the readership and that means you have a mostly clueless bunch of people voting for the product they hold. The Virgin stakeholder pension is award winning but its one of the worst stakeholder pensions you can get. So, its not uncommon to see poor products win awards.

I suspect the Santander ones were compared against the other retail bank versions and not the whole of market. Bank products generally tend to be poor quality, expensive and/or poor performing. However, Santander may be the better of them although not a patch on the whole of market.

A lot of people will go for them as the deal is not as bad as is made out.

The reality is that the a lot of people go for them as they know no better and they get sucked in by the sales side of things focusing on words like "no charges" and "guaranteed". Two words that inexperienced investors tend to like. (ignoring the fact that there are implicit charges and the guarantee is not cast iron). However, you cant blame the banks as they are reacting to the market place. This site though is about getting better value for money though.