A & L migration to Santander

pawnbroker_2

GustyGardenGalaxy wrote: »

Interesting, thanks. I don't see how Santander can possibly expect all of their A&L customers to contact all the people who they have direct debits with their accounts, regular payments outgoing, incoming, etc, etc, etc. As my accountant friend says, the sort code change was instigated by Santander so it SHOULD be Santander who make any necessary changes. They caused the 'problem' and it's up to them to sort it out.

Surely as this site demonstrates the expectation that Santander will do it and get it right is misplaced. Many posts refer to problems created by Santander that they are unable or unwilling to rectify.

For such an important issue regarding payments into and out of your account the best way is do it yourself. The permutations that Santander could do if they did it are almost infinite.

For example if you can't access your account how do you know DD's have been paid or do you wait and hope you don't get red demands from people who haven't been paid ?

Hopefully the 30,000 people that have read this site will be leaving Santander or not even bothering to risk it like RBS English Branch customers.

GustyGardenGalaxy

blackwid0w wrote: »

I wouldn't keep your hopes up about the Direct Debits/Standing Orders switching over seemlessly or being able to use both sort-codes!

I'm sure they'll make some mistakes, what I mean is that it's their responsibility (which they have admitted to). According to the A&L site:

"As part of the account transfer process to Santander there will be a change to your existing Alliance & Leicester sort code however you do not need to do anything and can continue to use your existing details. Your current account sort code is 6 digits long.
The first five digits are 72-50-0- and the last digit is the same as the first digit of your account number.
For example, if your account number is 123456789, your sort code would be 72-50-01."

William_Blessing

I see the Money page of the Sunday Times has featured the chaotic state of CANTSTANDERHER PLC.

blackwid0w

AnonymousForObviousReason wrote: »

Why are you still there? Join us in running away :beer:

'Cos I'm a great big nancy!
I have applied for a Halifax account and been accepted but now I'm not so sure. Their paperwork is too vague for my liking (We are pleased to tell you that we have accepted you for one of our accounts (er, which one?) and you should be eligible for an overdraft (er, am I or aren't I and how much? These things are kinda important to know before you sign your life away) and they didn't send half the forms that they refer to in their pack so I'm not so keen to jump to another that might end up just as bad.

Bosie

I logged into my A&L account well Santander account, and noticed my account was overdrawn! I have a Premier savings account with them,as it's a very good interest rate. I set it up for a dd to take it on the 28th of the month, gone ok so far, I always have the money in a day before for the debit to go through.
But they have gone in early:mad: quickly sent a payment from my main account with the Halifax to bring it out of overdraft.
Also, still no £100 incentive money in account?
Yes fed up, why are Santander so bad:eek:

pawnbroker_2

I think possibly a contributory factor to the poor service from Santander in the UK could be that it's executives are concentrating on getting Santander UK ready for a listing on the Stock Exchange. The lure of making a quick killing on shares is of more concern than mere customer service. The financial pages in the Telegraph just over a week ago hinted that Santander might be selling shares in it's UK holdings ie A& L, Abbey etc to raise the funds it needs to buy the RBS branches. Whether that means it is selling shares in or part of the business has not been spelt out. Based on it's current service I would be dubious about investing in such an offering. It might explain why it is so hard to close an account perhaps ?

No doubt such preparatory activity is also placing more demands on it's already hard pressed and questionable IT systems .

AnonymousForObviousReason

pawnbroker wrote: »

I think possibly a contributory factor to the poor service from Santander in the UK could be that it's executives are concentrating on getting Santander UK ready for a listing on the Stock Exchange.

I don't understand? If this were the case why are they also hated in Spain and other countries. I don't think the UK gets a monopoly on this bunch of bankers poor service and incompetence.

pawnbroker_2

Perhaps I should have said even worse service in the UK .

ginvzt

Ok, I had enough of A&L/Santander. I went abroad this weekend (well, long weekend, 5 days). It was not somewhere exotic, it was one of Baltic Countries.

I was expecting to receive some money from work for expenses I incurred on my 5 week work trip, and it was a considerable amount, which I needed to pay off my CC, etc. Good thing I paid of one of the cards day before I left using OH's savings!

So, imagine my surprise when Thursday evening/Friday I could not access my internet banking. Getting worried that something has gone wrong with my account, I decided to call them (yes, call from abroad, charges). I was shocked to hear that the country I am in is classed as unsafe and I will not be able to access my account online, but can manage it by phone. When I pointed them out that I used to be able to access the account online before as it was not the first time I travelled there, I was told that they are sorry, but nothing can be done. I am welcome to call them any time I want to make a payment/transfer money by phone.

I even went to cash machine to take some money out to make sure my account is not blocked. Of course, I got charged handling fee, but at least I knew I can take some money out if needed.

I have a few accounts with different banks and never had this problem wherever I travelled. I went online looking for a list of 'unsafe countries', but I couldn't find one.

I also waited for a statement copy for a month until I went to the branch to complain! (I got transaction print out on headed paper there, but still no sign of statement - at least I don't need it anymore)

fluffig

Just an update from me. Long time readers may recall that I have power of attorney for my father's accounts and it took from 24 May to 07 July for A&L to give me online access to 3 of his 4 accounts.

On 26 July I was "successfully migrated to Santander". My online access disappeared for his current account and I still couldn't access the account I hadn't been able to access anyway.

I rang several times, was told it would be fixed time after time, nothing happened.

I put in a formal complaint on 11 August. They acknowledged it 19 August. They wrote 26 August saying it had been resolved and gave me £75 compensation. Except it hadn't been resolved. Nothing had changed.

I wrote back to them 01 September. They acknowledged my unresolved complaint by letter 07 September.

Since then nothing.

One week to go now before the 8 weeks are up so I thought I'd give them a chance to save me referring to to the ombudsman. So I've just rung them up and was told there is no record of my complaint ! :mad: