A & L migration to Santander

jay1976

I had a problem today paying for items in a shop with my card, after waiting for ten minutes to get through to customer services i was told the whole card system was down between 2:30 to 3:30 pm.

Jancee_3

At long last, after more than 8 weeks without on-line access, I can see my account. All looks okay but I am going to check my address after reading one of the other threads. When I have the time, I hope to move my account to a bank that is efficient!!!!:T

carnotcycle

An update to my post last week. It is now 4 weeks since I lost access to the Premier Direct and Plus Saver accounts. I have made further calls and sent messages asking for status information, although, much to my annoyance, the messages have been deleted (apart from one saying that I had been transferred successfully on the 5th August.... :mad: ).

I have just spoken to someone helpful in A&L complaints. Basically he said that the scale of the problem - the number of accounts still to be migrated - is so massive that they cannot give a timescale for resolution. I asked if it would be days, weeks or months and was told that it would be weeks but hopefully not months.

This is worse than annoying, as I have to go to a cashpoint to get mini statements and ring up (which costs money when waiting on hold..... ) to make transfers. I was told that there will be an opportunity to claim recompense for costs incurred and for inconveience when this problem is finally resolved.

I am starting to look at alternatives now.

Gav8

I too have a problem where I cannot view my accounts online and instead see them as 'Unavailable'. It's been like this from the beggining of July and so was at least 7 weeks ago when I first told them there was a problem.

I've so far rang up 7 times, the first 6 of which I was told the problem would be corrected within days. On the second call I was awarded £5 for having to ring up a second time although sadly that didn't continue on the other calls. On the 7th call I was told they were aware of the problem and they's essentially sort it out soon, giving no timescale.

I did ask to be compensated again on my last call and was quite politely told that I'd have to write to customer services with my complaint, so I'm doing that now.

I do plan to move to another bank but I'm slightly worried that any transfer of direct debits will just go completely wrong, so until the account is sorted out I feel somewhat stuck where I am.

huw01

Gav8 wrote: »

I do plan to move to another bank but I'm slightly worried that any transfer of direct debits will just go completely wrong, so until the account is sorted out I feel somewhat stuck where I am.

You can ignore my comments if you wish but if I was in this situation I would take charge of it myself. Open a current account in another bank and contact all of my utility suppliers etc that I've got direct debits setup for. Contact them one by one to inform them I'm changing bank account, fill all of the forms in. It really doesn't take that long, you only need a notebook. Often you doing it yourself is quicker than the bank doing it for you.

Once they're all transferred and I'm confident no more payments to go in or out of my old account I'd write a cheque to myself for the outstanding balance in the old account and pay it into my new account. Rip up the cards, cheque books for the old account. Write them a letter to close it.

It sounds a lot of work but it's not - at least you would know where you stood

sarahangel

Hi all

Browsing around Daily Mail website and come across this article

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1304968/JEFF-PRESTRIDGE-Wake-Santander-siesta-service.html

Interesting reading but only what we already know.

RumPunch_2

I feel better (slightly) now I have finally finished reading all 20 pages of this thread to discover that my frustration with Alliance & Leicester and Santander is not unique! We have a joint current and savings accounts with Alliance & Leicester.

2nd Aug: PlusSaver Account unavailable. Call Centre at Bootle promised to investigate.

5th Aug: Secure message from Santander:
“We're delighted to inform you that your personal Alliance & Leicester savings and current accounts have successfully been transferred onto the Santander system. Please be assured that you do not need to take any specific action as a result of the transfer. You can continue to use your account details, manage your accounts and contact us in the same way as before.

-You can view statements and make payments from your Alliance & Leicester and Santander accounts via a single internet banking service. You'll just have to log in once to manage all of your accounts.

What do I do next?
There's nothing for you to do. You can continue using your internet banking service in the normal way and if there is a change to a process, we'll provide guidance along the way via information buttons and on screen instructions.

Santander's strength and stability is built on the relationship we have with our customers and we hope that you will enjoy the benefits that this relationship will bring.


6th Aug: PlusSaver Account still unavailable. Local Alliance & Leicester branch closed, visited Santander they couldn’t help, needed to go to Alliance & Leicester! Not really sure why my local Santander branch were unable to help, the welcome letter we received from them clearly stated:
“You can now use any of Santander’s 1,300 branches throughout the UK. This means that you can use more than four times as many branches as before, making face-to-face banking easier and more convenient.”

Telephoned Call Centre again, thought the problem was that a duplicate account had been set up, pending payments from Premier Direct Account to PlusSaver no longer showing or going through.

7th Aug: PlusSaver Account still unavailable. Telephoned Call Centre again, this time advised that a duplicate account had been set up because the change to married name (Feb 2008) had not transferred to the Santander system for the PlusSaver Account (but it had for the Premier Direct Account). Also advised we had a new PlusSaver Account number (1 digit less). Promised the mistake would be resolved and we would be able to access our account within 48 hours.

11th Aug: PlusSaver Account still unavailable. Concerned that we were unable to check and transfer balances ready for our holiday. Emailed [EMAIL="letsworkitout@alliance-leicester.co.uk"]letsworkitout@alliance-leicester.co.uk[/EMAIL] stating all concerns and reminding them that:
“Your complaints information states that You will aim to sort out Our concern immediately. If You cannot, You will aim to sort it out by the end of the next Working Day.”

22nd Aug: PlusSaver Account still unavailable. Following letter dated 17 Aug received from John Gazal, Head of Complaint Management:

“Thank you for contacting us to let us know about your concerns. One of my team (name?) will be responsible for investigating your complaint and once this has been completed we will write to you again (timescale?)

“High quality service is of great importance to us at ALLIANCE & LEICESTER and we will do everything we can to resolve your complaint in a timely and satisfactory manner…..”

23rd Aug: PlusSaver Account still unavailable.

After considerable time reading posts on this thread I decided to move the money out of our PlusSaver Account to a different bank account. At least that way we would be able to view our balance and make payments (we’d been phoning the call centre each time to request a balance and transfer money). We had already decided we would be closing our Alliance & Leicester account but were deciding which bank we wanted to “experience the delights of banking with” (I love this First Direct quote).

Telephoned Bootle Call Centre (again) and requested the balance on our PlusSaver Account, once received asked the operator to transfer the balance to our Premier Direct Account. She seemed surprised that I might want to transfer the whole balance and obviously thought it was strange. Whereas, I think it is strange not being able to check a balance or transfer payments for myself for 21 days! I then promptly paid the amount into my hsbc account (having read some posts about some customer’s money actually getting lost.)

While I was using the internet banking I noticed that the transfer showed my christian name was now spelt wrong, my surname had reverted to my maiden name and my husband’s middle name was spelt wrong. I checked the address (a previous poster recently moved to a pizza shop), all fine…. but I do now have a new home telephone number. All news to us! I queried this with the stressed operator who informed me I would need to go into the branch and as my husband’s name was also wrong he could “pop in with me”. I explained we probably wouldn’t bother to change the details because we would be closing the account, her answer was that “you’ll need to go into the branch”. I’m surprised she didn’t tell me I would “need a tray” (sorry, private joke).

We originally chose Alliance & Leicester because of the good interest rate and because there was a branch that we could call into where we live if we needed to. Fortunately, we both still have separate personal accounts with different banks, hsbc & Lloyds/TSB, both of whom we have been extremely pleased with. We wanted a different provider for our joint account so we could keep our accounts separate and so “all our eggs weren’t in the same basket”!

Having done some research today and read the positive customer service feedback, it looks like we will soon be experiencing the delights of banking with First Direct, however, we will be pursuing compensation with Santander. Does anybody know what today’s compensation rate is?

blackwid0w

Had a quiet morning at work so thought I'd call Santander again for devilment...

Chap still couldn't update my address, said it would have to be done manually and that he'd put me through to someone who could do that for me and that once it was done he would resend all bank statements from the end of June.

I then asked about the new charge for weekly statements, told basically it was tough I could pay up or go back to monthly. After much arguing about it and complaining that they were changing my terms and conditions he went off to his manager (or put me on hold and went for a wee) I was told that the original T&C stated there would be a fee so that even if I had had the service free of charge for many years as a goodwill gesture, they hadn't changed my T&C by now charging for it.

At the same time (if he wasn't really in the loo) he said he'd spoken to his manager and they'd told him that they use a company called Experian to get my address and that they are unable to update it on their system. I need to contact Experian myself and tell them that my address exists! What rubbish! I've had many different credit cards and accounts over the years and never had a problem with my address before. So I guess I won't be getting any statements until well, forever presumably 'cos I'm pretty sure the address issue has nothing to do with Experian.

Disappointed that I haven't heard back from Halifax yet, my mortgage is with them so I was hoping it would be easy and straightforward - at least they know where I live!

lyric_grace

:mad::mad: I actually hate A&L at the moment!
I'm so glad I found this thread though, I'm not going to go into details as I'm fed up of telling the call centre staff but I'm having many of the problems that lots of people on here are at the moment too! Ive already started the switch to first direct after being with A&L over 10 years now, and before all this stander stuff happened I was quite happy with them. Thanks everyone though for making me feel part of the shunted stander customers!
Hopefully I will be able to leave them very very soon. See you stupid santander! :mad:

misterfish

Well - I'm now into the eighth week with no access to my mother's accounts (under enduring power of attorney). Following the original complaint and 'general' type reply I have now followed it up with a further letter of complaint but heard nothing back.

I also complained using the online secure message system about payments into my account with no details of origin apart from a long number. I had a reply to the message saying it had been passed on to the relevant part of the bank.

Misterfish