A&L Online Saver 5 - Faster Payments down again?

juicyjude

Indeed dali21, was beginning to worry as someone from A & L rang last Monday asking me to confirm dob and address! Well you dont think do you, you just tell them, but I was beginning to worry that it was someone trying to gain access to my account ie not a kosher call from A & L. I was going to go through the tedious fiasco of trying to ring them this morning but it wont be necessary now. Just got one more account to close then its bye bye Santander.

mycroftmill

mycroftmill wrote: »

On 2/8/10 my wife and I closed our Online saver 5 as the % rate had dropped and reinvested it in an esaver.

After 2 days the capital was reinvested but not the interest.

Today A&L say my wifes cheque won't be with us until 17th August; my interest has not, as yet, been calculated.

Previously capital and interest were reinvested electronically.

Based on what they've said A&L/Santander will have had an interest free loan for 3wks until this cheque clears. Multiply this by it's customer base and you can see how they became such a rich bank.

A&L Customer Services unable/unwilling to help and offering conflicting advice.

We are now looking for an alternative Bank fo our current and savings accounts

Still awaiting cheque, but have now received a letter from the Head of Santander Complaints thanking me for my communication to The Daily Mail who have contacted him. If anyone else would like to receive a similar letter from Santander I suggest you too write to [EMAIL="m.stone@dailymail.co.uk"]m.stone@dailymail.co.uk[/EMAIL]

gunmaker

12 days ago I reported I had finally sorted out closing my O/L Saver Issue 5 account by phone with a promise the balance had been moved to the Santander e-saver and the interest would be credited to my A&L Premier Current Account in 10-14 days. The balance was indeed transferred straight away and today I have received a cheque for the interest through the post. I have now got to go to the Post Office to deposit the cheque into my current account and then transfer it into the e-saver account once it's cleared.

Why do these banks make a simple process complicated? They have all these computer facilities that can move money at the click of a button and they continue to send stuff through the post.

In the accompanying letter they say:-

"I'm sorry to hear that you don't need this savings account any more etc" Why they should be surprised people are moving money that now earns next to nothing in interest I don't know. They go on to say:-

"We've now closed your account and we've done as you asked with the money you had left there" There follows two boxes to tick; We've sent you a cheque(ticked); We've paid the money into the Santander account you specified(unticked). So they did the opposite to what I requested.

I opened my current account in 1969 when it was with the Post Office National Girobank. It then sold out to A&L and now Santander. It was more efficient 31 years ago. The present service is woeful!

juicyjude

I had the same worded letter just that I had all the balance in the form of a cheque. Also said sorry to hear etc....................... took 2 weeks to close my account. Disgusted with them nice little earner Santander with all customers closing their account on the 2nd! Sitting pretty in your holding account.

Smash_Vader

Hi all,
Has this account definitely finished paying the bonus, as my opening letter states that the bonus was for 12 months and I didn't open my account until September?

gwapenut

Smash_Vader wrote: »

Hi all,
Has this account definitely finished paying the bonus, as my opening letter states that the bonus was for 12 months and I didn't open my account until September?

I think there are two types of account. Ealier ones all finished paying bonus on August 2nd, later ones have a one year bonus?

Smash_Vader

Thanks.

FWIW, I was a bit concerned to think my interest might have dropped to a miserly 0.1% after reading this thread, so I phoned A&L and they said my interest remains at 3.15% until the anniversary of the opening date, so I've got a couple of weeks to sort out an alternative.

Perhaps, all the August 2nd folks got in when the account first started, or when Martin first highlighted it.......