Alliance & Leicester (Santander) = abysmal!

tellmeitsfriday

leenukes wrote: »

Sorry, not direct debit charges, totally didn't turn my brain on. Overdraft charges is what I meant. Referring to their new charges (cannot add links as I'm a new user, but search Google with "lloydstsb Changes to our current accounts") which seems to punish those who don't often get charges for going over as it only benefits those. So I'll be paying £5 just for having an arranged overdraft, AND I'll still pay interest.

It's a maximum of £5 a month (i.e. 50p a day) in lieu of arranged od fees.

Unauthorised ODs are still charged at some enormous earth shattering APR.

Don't do it!

jen245

Since the switchover, my balances are always wrong, money appears then disappears, very annoying when trying to budget. Ive emptied my account, and will be closing it soon, and Im now using my new Natwest account with no problems, and up to date balances!

Party_Animal

This is by far the worst company I've had to deal with. I followed the link from here and got the free £100. Big mistake. The site won't work for me. They don't reply to my e mails. I've had to make other arrangements to pay credit cards etc. I sent 2 complaints. Two weeks ago I received a letter saying someone was investigating my complaint. I've heard nothing since and still can't arrange any payments online. Was it 12 months we signed up for under the £100 deal? Don't know if I can stick it that long.
Keep well away.

Kobvet

I too got caught up in the total shambles over the migration to Santander. What was particularly galling was the fact that five out the six operators I spoke to on their premium rate phone line during the 3 weeks my account was locked pretended that they didn't know about the migration problem, until eventually pressed to do so.

My complaint to the CEO produced an apologetic letter and a £25 credit - which is still to appear in my account!!

I'm off to First Direct and good riddance to Santander.

callum9999

neilio wrote: »

Halifax (my previous bank) processed faster payments of around £500 a month successfully, but the bane of my life with A&L is that I have always had to transfer my rent in 2 smaller instalments every month to get around the fact that A&L do not process faster payments larger than £250 – why the hell not?

I wasn't aware they did faster payments at all? All the transfers I've done from A&L to Nationwide and HSBC, who do do faster payments, have taken a couple of days to process. Unless its a recent thing?

I have other accounts and thought I might as well close it but the Santander branch said they had problems with A&L accounts and couldn't close it then and I'd have to go back. I think I might just keep it open but leave it empty so I can use it when I'm in Spain (I assume the free Santander withdrawals in Spain also applies to us?).

leenukes

tellmeitsfriday wrote: »

It's a maximum of £5 a month (i.e. 50p a day) in lieu of arranged od fees.

Unauthorised ODs are still charged at some enormous earth shattering APR.

Don't do it!

Don't do what? I've already got an arranged overdraft with Lloyds TSB. Are you saying Don't move and pay Lloyds £5 a month?

artha

Kobvet wrote: »

I too got caught up in the total shambles over the migration to Santander. What was particularly galling was the fact that five out the six operators I spoke to on their premium rate phone line during the 3 weeks my account was locked pretended that they didn't know about the migration problem, until eventually pressed to do so.

My complaint to the CEO produced an apologetic letter and a £25 credit - which is still to appear in my account!!

I'm off to First Direct and good riddance to Santander.

How did you complain to the CEO? I've had a couple of days of getting nowhere with clarifying the conditions that apply to my A&L current account and transferring money. I've spoken to several people tonight on the A&L number who contradict the Santander info. Both my oh and me have been "fined" for underfunding our premier direct accounts this month when the conditions (for legacy A&L accounts) still state that £500 is the amount required. From next month I'm told they will be changing the terms and conditions of A&L accounts to require £1000 funding and a minimum of two direct debits associated with the account. Hence they are getting ahead of the planned changes and making the fines now before the terms and conditions change

[Deleted User]

Both my savings accounts still list the balance as unavailable and unable to do anything with both the accounts. Been told it will be fixed "next Monday" when I phoned this morning.

I'll hold them to it.

neilio

Party_Animal wrote: »

This is by far the worst company I've had to deal with. I followed the link from here and got the free £100. Big mistake. The site won't work for me. They don't reply to my e mails. I've had to make other arrangements to pay credit cards etc. I sent 2 complaints. Two weeks ago I received a letter saying someone was investigating my complaint. I've heard nothing since and still can't arrange any payments online. Was it 12 months we signed up for under the £100 deal? Don't know if I can stick it that long.
Keep well away.

and

Kobvet wrote: »

I too got caught up in the total shambles over the migration to Santander. What was particularly galling was the fact that five out the six operators I spoke to on their premium rate phone line during the 3 weeks my account was locked pretended that they didn't know about the migration problem, until eventually pressed to do so.

My complaint to the CEO produced an apologetic letter and a £25 credit - which is still to appear in my account!!

I'm off to First Direct and good riddance to Santander.

Yes, these are both very similar stories to mine, and I've now just opened a First Direct account. I believe that First Direct will carry out the switchover smoothly, but I've lost all confidence on Santander/A&L being able to do anything right that I don't even trust them to transfer everything over to First Direct when the time comes to close the account. So, in order to get around this, I withdrew X amount of cash from my A&L account (leaving it practically empty) and then deposited into FD myself.

I can't wait to be done with A&L/Santander. Absolutely appalling.

kathy48

I'd like to leave and came into this site to look for a better deal! Banked for 30 years with A&L and Girobank before it with no problems at all. Then a fortnight ago I logged on to my internet account and found I'd been locked out.
I'll spare everyone the boring details; too incredible to take in but after 2 weeks and an hour listening to the worst hold music on the planet I was told I had to go to a branch to get my account unlocked as I'd given one or more pieces of incorrect information out of date of birth, security code and expiry date from by debit card in my hand ....... I got my partner to check just in case Greensleeves for an hour had caused temporary brain failure.

The charmless young man I spoke to under a huge sign that said "Welcome" got very close to calling me liar and fiddled for hours on his computer while I had a good browse of the rather confidential document he'd been working on when I arrived. (Don't leave any paper documents at your local branch!!!).

He then told me I'd get a new PIN in 7-10 DAYS and I could use it to log on. I can't use telephone banking either meanwhile. You must have to work really hard to mess things up this spectacularly.