Mystery Shopping Thread 21 *PLEASE READ THE OP FIRST**PLEASE NO CLIENT NAMES OR FEES*

misssarahleigh

Boredupnorth wrote: »

I threatened to move my account from lloyds and they gave me £150 of m&s vouchers. Even if you move it to another bank just keep your current one open and treat it as a ms only account or something then you don't need to change everything.

I moved bank and keep some ms money going into my old one and use it as a ms float.

I also opened a santander account (basic) and get £33 on topcashback. worth looking into for a few pennies.

dazza.mk

marvellousaunt wrote: »

Question - I've seen some of the attractive offers for switching your current account. I've had the same one since I was a teenager and generally satisfied with it, I suppose, but might want to take advantage of some of the offers in the New Year.

Has anyone done this after being all set up with the MS companies - do you think the faff at changing your bank details with 8+ companies wouldn't be worth the incentive to swtich?

Generally no faff, but I wouldn't rely on the banks switching system to change Direct Debits for credit cards/mortgage (or any other credit accounts that might add a late payment marker on your credit history)

marvellousaunt

Ah - that's a good idea. I've got rent (inclusive of bills), a phone bill and two credit cards that wouldn't be a problem to switch manually, then keep the MS in my existing account.

I will need to apply for another credit card in the summer to get another 0% interest period, so probably only want to open one new account in the New Year, I can't face being with Santander after the awful customer service I've heard. I tried to open an ISA with them and they took 2 weeks to even acknowledge the application so I cancelled it and went with Halifax, that one dealing was enough to put me off!

Lil_Me_2

I opened a specific account with Alliance and Leicester for my MSing purposes. I attempted a "switch and get £50" deal, but they insist on you changing your employer details and also I had to use their service for switching direct debits, so you might find that it's taken out of your control.

In the end I managed to apply for the wrong type of account (online vs branch) and therefore didn't get the stupid £50 anyway. Now A&L are Santander too and I'll be honest that I'm not impressed with them overall.

marvellousaunt

I'd be happy to let them sort all my direct debits. I have a few payments to charity and my salary that they're welcome to switch over. Although I don't know if they do switch salary or if I have to do that with HR... the best ones I'm looking at require you to have a certain pay-in per month (eg Halifax or First Choice) so I'd need my salary in there, then could switch MS one by one

Also would like the interest free overdraft from First Choice... I don't mean First Choice do I? That's a travel agents? Anyway, whatever it is! With HSBC and never use my overdraft, but I miss the olden days of glorious interest free student overdraft

dazza.mk

Lil_Me wrote: »

I opened a specific account with Alliance and Leicester for my MSing purposes. I attempted a "switch and get £50" deal, but they insist on you changing your employer details and also I had to use their service for switching direct debits, so you might find that it's taken out of your control.

In the end I managed to apply for the wrong type of account (online vs branch) and therefore didn't get the stupid £50 anyway. Now A&L are Santander too and I'll be honest that I'm not impressed with them overall.

I've made my main account Nationwide (twice) for a bonus, am currently switching to Coop for their (brief) bonus , and have also had two A&L/Santander accounts in the past for the bonuses. In that time the only issue I had was with the first switch where Lloyds did not action a DD transfer so I ended up with a late payment marker on my account.

ms_night_ryder

i switched to santander via quidco deal earlier this year, it was a bit of a shambles, some of my DD's werent paid on time, then i got charges from S because the direct debits bounced, i called them and they did take it off, then when it came time for payout, the first 2 times i called them about they gave me different times when the cash would be in my ac, then when thse dates had gone i called again, only to be told you have the wrong account for cashback! i was livid as i checked everytime i called, so i told them to put me through to where i could cancel because everybody had been lieing and i was furious, in the end they checked and told me it was the right account and that the operators had been lieing??? so instead of me getting £50 back from s, she gave me £200 plus £10 from a previous operator for the expense of phone calls as a sorry your not getting cashback, plus the original £50 from quidco which was paid.

Didnt fair tp badly in the end.

marvellousaunt

ms_night_ryder wrote: »

i switched to santander via quidco deal earlier this year, it was a bit of a shambles, some of my DD's werent paid on time, then i got charges from S because the direct debits bounced, i called them and they did take it off, then when it came time for payout, the first 2 times i called them about they gave me different times when the cash would be in my ac, then when thse dates had gone i called again, only to be told you have the wrong account for cashback! i was livid as i checked everytime i called, so i told them to put me through to where i could cancel because everybody had been lieing and i was furious, in the end they checked and told me it was the right account and that the operators had been lieing??? so instead of me getting £50 back from s, she gave me £200 plus £10 from a previous operator for the expense of phone calls as a sorry your not getting cashback, plus the original £50 from quidco which was paid.

Didnt fair tp badly in the end.

Glad you got compensated in the end. This kind of appalling customer service is exactly why I wouldn't go anywhere near them. Friends and family have the same reports. I don't care about the ££ or the overdraft, too much stress and I don't need that!

sparklysaver

I've got a Scottish Natwest account (because that's where I lived when I opened it, although I now live in England) and am, at some point, going to be transferred to Santander against my will because of OFT rules meaning Natwest/RBS having to sell off some branches. I would switch my main account manually to prevent this but I have no full-time job and a permanent overdraft so no-one else will have me. Got a basic Co-op account for MS money to go into though, so that it doesn't disappear into the overdraft. I should do what I see some others have done and put the debt total on my signature, to help inspire me to pay it off faster. Think I'll wait until Christmas is over.

Which leads me to the next question; I'm signing up for some more companies this week, including Helion (:wave: to their rep on here ), and wondered if there's any problem with getting payments in Euros into certain banks? Which ones don't charge? I'll open a new basic account somewhere else if needs be.

misssarahleigh

marvellousaunt wrote: »

Glad you got compensated in the end. This kind of appalling customer service is exactly why I wouldn't go anywhere near them. Friends and family have the same reports. I don't care about the ££ or the overdraft, too much stress and I don't need that!

I did try switching to them but they changed the conditions of their savings accounts (chanegd to one per customer) which meant I only had the option of the poor savings rates (I need my money in different pots) which was the reason I was moving from Barclays in the first place (went to lloyds in the end)

Although for £33 cashback I don't mind opening an account and popping a cheque in