A & L migration to Santander

LittleVoice

mbrown wrote: »

On checking with my branch this fee is applied because I failed to deposit a minimum of £500 in the last month, therefore breaching the terms of my account.

For the time being, before you find another current account elsewhere, ensure you meet the £500 minimum by withdrawing cash and paying it back in as much as is necessary to achieve the £500 in a calendar month. (sure that the final payment is not done on the final day in a calendar month as it may not be counted until the next month.)

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Achaemenides wrote: »

My problem with Santander is that I now have great problems trying to work out who has paid money into my account. With the Alliance and Leicester account, each standing order payment into my account made it clear where it came from. Now alongside the standing order payment is merely a number, so I have no idea who made it. I have phoned them and was told that there was no way of my finding out who paid me which amount, apart from me phoning the possible source and asking them! I wrote to customer service 10 days ago to explain how impossible this is. I have not received a reply yet. There must be thousands of people out there who have no idea who has paid them what into their accounts. A crazy situation.

This has been a problem with Santander accounts for quite a while - particularly on my business account.
I now receive such payments into a Co-op business account as I got sick of bashing my head against the metaphorical brick wall that masquerades as Santander customer service.
Even crazier is that they used to show this info until a couple of years ago then suddenly stopped.
I've come to the conclusion that whoever is in charge of IT at Santander should be sacked for being an incompetent, half brained f***wit.

DJBut

I have operated my A & L Premier 50 account online for about 2 years but recently decided to move the funds (also within linked savings accounts) to my main current account with SMILE. I thought it would be easy . . . but not so. I was told over the phone (after a very long wait) that I had to go into a branch. On the first visit I did not have sufficient identity evidence. I went again and endured a 30 minute wait at the counter whilst the clerk vainly tried to master the computer system which apparently gives system messages in Spanish. She moved the savings a/c funds to the Premier 50 a/c but from then on the computer threw a benny and refused to play. During the whole of this time the staff did not apologise to the five waiting customers. I will now have to go back to the branch and hope that I can have my cheque. I had originally expected a seamless electronic transfer to the SMILE a/c but it seems I must receive a cheque. If this is the new age of Santander then forget it!

The_Last_Chance

To be honest I can see where everyone is coming from their complaints and I would just like to say MOVE YOUR ACCOUNT, If you haven't already then really you should.

Just finished my shift in the Call Centre (Bootle GIRO building) and to be honest we are busy most times dealing with these complaints and we aren't given an update on how to deal with some of the issues you have all pointed out so please be patient. I can understand though that some of the other members of the call centre can be rude or unhelpful (also the £25.00 is something that is used to just fob people off and avoid dealing with the complaint) see my other 2 posts about charges from earlier in the year. It's Disgraceful, the way customers are spoken to at times by some members of staff.

And for those of you who have been with Alliance And Leicester since we were the Giro Bank, honestly your loyalty is not valued by the bank. Santander, as we were told when they took over the company, basically look to flood the market and draw as many customers in as possible with headline rates (hence our Online saver 3.15%, 3.00%, 2.75% , 2.5% depending on what issue you opened it was usually a leading rate at the time. Or even the 6% or 5% current account interest rates which earn you approx £12.00 a month GROSS for £2500.00 which is actually less on interest I think than the Halifax with £5.00 a month just for paying in £1000.00. Product rates expiring after 12 months aswell is another one. Customer Service is not a priority - the focus is drawing customers in.

I sort of get the feeling that we are a part of that old nationwide advert of Brand New Customer's Only with the interest rates on offer. :rotfl:

Also, one of the main changes with Santander which staff are struggling with is the fact that accounts are being migrated to the ABBEY systems which are part of Santander - which is causing problems in part due to the nature of our 5 digit sortcode 8 digit account number system for A&L customers.



In All honesty though - Now that i have escaped the clutches of this call centre - Change accounts. SERIOUSLY.

The premier 50 account which was on offer with 6% interest (now 5%) yet a £10.00 account fee can easily be beaten if you have the balance available with other banks. There are soooo many packaged accounts out there with better offers available than the new rates with Santander aswell. (remember also it's now NO INTEREST on the balance over £2500.00 though the 0.1% was also pretty pitiful originally)

There are some great accounts out there and to be honest you can take your pick from a range of banks. I hear great things about HSBC, First Direct, Lloyds TSB*, Halifax, Co-operative bank and so many more

*** for personal preference I have always opted to bank with Lloyds TSB though I was forced to have an A&L account due to working for them.

With Lloyds I know there is and has always been a branch available on nearly every high street and also in remote locations - Also the availability of branch staff (through an 0845 number like the call centre - but they handle my account directly) Uk Call centres and also the range on the packaged accounts. The RAC breakdown cover - covers whatever car your in even if it's not yours or your not driving .... you just have to be present!!!) And Vantage at 4% on £4000.00 - £7000.00 is a nice interest rate

I also hear great things about HSBC from family members about their branch staff - which i think is because of their use of foreign call centres meaning at times people rely on the branch more - But the staff are meant to be really helpful and courteous and the new branch schemes always look quite bright and cheerful with approachable and friendly staff that seem relatively knowledgable.


And of course the Co-operative as many of you are aware of are simply faultless on customer service - Following the death of my dad with soooo many bad debts to his name the co-operative were quite quick to simply write off the debt as the understood the words insolvent death.

Natwest I hear good things about the branch as they say you will never have to wait more than 4 minutes in line - (though friends have said at busy times this is not the case but that is understandable)

But personally I would advise just move away from this bank if you are looking for Good service (which with interest rates the way they are I think most of us are haha) :T


Ah well, notice is handed in and I hope some of you can heed the advice I give to move banks. Everyone will have their own preference - from personal experience I prefer Lloyds TSB - however I hear great things about other banks.

Oh, and yes I have quit before I was pushed haha because I won't push accounts with "have you taken advantage of your free financial review" OR pushing account upgrades on people who cannot afford them. OR fobbing people off to the internet or branch to keep the call time down because we are only given 210 seconds to conduct the call - which is difficult with the amount of complaints from customers and lack of communication from management.


:A

Bosie

I received a letter to say my account has been transferred over to Santander. Also received a cheque book which is also Santander.

I wonder what Santander is like for customer service in Spain?

coolsociety

It's not just A&L customers who suffered during the switchover. After an ATM swallowed up my wife's Santander card it took countless phone calls, several Saturday morning visits to the nearest town centre branch (the only way she can get to the bank outside her own working hours) and a total of OVER THREE MONTHS simply to get a replacement card. We sent them a bill for around ten bus journeys to and from the town centre, around £48, and haven't had a reply to that letter nor any sort of explanation (or apology) why it took so long to produce a new ATM card. Absolutely appaling, not just the shocking service but the complete lack of humility regarding their incompetence.

babavincent

I am just going round in circles with Santander. One reply leads you to another dead end. Alliance and Leicester was bad enough but Santander appears to be useless.

wee_steve

I finally got a response to my complaint. Essentially they acknowledged the problems with online and with getting through to the call centre and apologised for them but didn't offer up any information about what they were doing about any of it.

They're crediting my account with £25 so i'd say it's worth writing to them, for anyone who hasn't already.

I'm going to write back with some suggestions on how they can improve their communications. I know it will just go in the bin but it'll make me feel better!

acmh-2007

I out in a request through 'quick transfer' on A&L online banking on the 2nd August for £150 to be moved from my Barclays account into my ISA. It has never appeared, despite having left my Barclays account, and I have been told this morning that A&L have put a block on my ISA and I need to go into the branch and find out why! I was also told by A&L that Barclays could put a trace on the money and by Barclays that they can't as it's a DD!

In the meantime this £150 is floating in the ether and neither A&L or Barclays seem able to put a trace on where it is. It was a Direct Debit so assuming I can get it back through the guarentee but not sure how this would work as it is a payment from me to me...?

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

MrsBoat

I have 1 Current account, 2 saving accounts and 1 ISA with A&L. I use my internet bank regularly to move the money between the accounts and make payments. After the switch to Santander I lost access to the ISA and one savings account.

Firstly I called and they appologiesed blaming the switch over and was going to fix it. Nothing happened and I kept calling once a week with no luck. After three weeks I couldnt even get through after half an hour on the phone waiting in line they hung up.

So I went to a Santander Branch, but they have no record of the other two accounts. I was starting to panick that they had swindeled my money away, since I was sure I had 5000 pounds in there. But they reasurred me that all I had to do was find a Santander Branch that use to be an A&L branch.

No branch at my work so at the weekend I went to my local A&L but no luck they could not find it either. No account came up searching for my name and postcode. Now real panic. I am getting married this saturday and needed that money. But she reasurred me that as long as I can find the actual account numbers on the welcome letters she will find my money.

Luckily the accounts are less than 2 years so I still had the paperwork. Went back and finally she could see my money. Asked her to transfer everything to my current account so I can take it out.

If this would have happened while I was abroad for my wedding it would have been impossible to sort out and I would not have been able to pay any wedding suppliers. This was a month of hell for me and I will definitly be switching bank as soon as I get back from my honeymoon since I am loosing interest while my money is sitting in my current account.

While I was at the branch another woman came in with the same problem of no access. How can you not give access to your cusomters bank account and how can a bank loose bank accounts? It outrageous and will not bank with them again.