Best Bank Account article discussion

nitr02007

Annybananny wrote: »

Hi, I opened a Premier Direct Current Acct with A&L back at the beginning of June as I'm claiming my charges back from Sh(Abbey). A&L were supposed to do the switching of DD's from my old acct to the new one and youd've thought that since that was on 11/06/07, five or so weeks would be plenty of time to do it in. Today I get a letter form Sh(Abbey) telling me that my car ins. wasn't paid and I would be charged £35!!!:mad: :mad: On further investigation, I find out that none of my DD payees have received any new instructions. I phoned A&L to be told the new instructions weren't sent out to anyone till yesterday!!!! I went mental. :mad: :mad: That left me potentially expecting more charges from Sh(Abbey) as it appeared all my DD's would come from the old acct with no money in it!!!:mad: :mad:
Have rapidly closed A&L acct,removed funds, returned them to Sh(Abbey) and (I'll take my chances on them closing my acct later) been in to Sh(Abbey) and negotiated £85 refund on recent charges.:T :T Returned home to phone all my DD payees again to make sure they are taking from old acct and wrote very angry letter to A&L demanding a refund of my £35 and generally ranting about how bad they've been. I also quoted their welcome pack booklet which says it guarantees you won't be charged overdraft fees in the switching process and also says "We take the hassle out of switching your current account".....I THINK NOT!!!


Ann

Two months ago I moved my current account from First Direct to A&L Premier Direct and now wish I hadnt bothered. It looked like a no-brainer, getting a bit of free cash from the interest on my money. How wrong I was! If you keep the balance the £2500 all month the maximum amount of interest possible is about £10 a month (thats probably gross so would be £8 after tax). In return for this the service fees for things like CHAPS transfers and Banker's drafts are much more expensive than FD, and I've have to put up with very poor customer service via the phone, delays and excuses. When I complained about a 4 hour delay on a recent CHAPS transfer, I was told "That is how we work, Sir". Crazy!

I'm moving back to First Direct as I had no complaints with them for 10 years previously. I've always thought them to give a very personal and prompt service.:T

amidon7

I just switched my main current account from the NatWest to Halifax in order to take advantage of the £100 incentive. Applied for the account online and took advantage of their "account switching service", which involved them contacting NatWest and organising for my direct debits to be transferred. The whole process ended up taking 4 months! I was told that the £100 would be paid into my account when my third salary payment went in. It didn't happen. Contacted the Halifax to be told that since I also have an Easycash account (basic bank account) with them as a joint account with my partner, I wasn't eligible for the payment. The young man on the phone was very helpful though, and said he wasn't able to exercise discretion and give me the £100, but that he would register my complaint. Received a letter in the post 3 days later, saying that Halifax had looked into my situation and decided that I was indeed eligible for the £100 incentive. The payment came through overnight. So, if you are denied the incentive, be nice to the the customer service person you speak to and see if you can get them to register a complaint.
Good luck

johar_2

nitr02007 wrote: »

Two months ago I moved my current account from First Direct to A&L Premier Direct and now wish I hadnt bothered. It looked like a no-brainer, getting a bit of free cash from the interest on my money. How wrong I was! If you keep the balance the £2500 all month the maximum amount of interest possible is about £10 a month (thats probably gross so would be £8 after tax). In return for this the service fees for things like CHAPS transfers and Banker's drafts are much more expensive than FD, and I've have to put up with very poor customer service via the phone, delays and excuses. When I complained about a 4 hour delay on a recent CHAPS transfer, I was told "That is how we work, Sir". Crazy!

I'm moving back to First Direct as I had no complaints with them for 10 years previously. I've always thought them to give a very personal and prompt service.:T

I would like to question about the recommendation I see online on MSE.com's page titled "Best Bank Accounts" where I am interested in opening an account while staying in-credit all the time (No overdrafts) and for me it appears that A & L's Prem. Direct seems best. I have just started Advantage Gold by Natwest in which I need to monthly pay @ £12, supposedly for "So many" privelidges like travel, mobile insurances, mortgage, death benefit etc. all for this monthly payment. The exact comparison, incidently, is given at the bottom of the article titled "The Size of the Saving". Although its quite convincing but it does not mention anywhere what benefits (compared to Adv. Gold) are offered by A & L's Premium Direct for their 'no cost' account. Incidently, 'nitr02007' is not happy with his switch to A & L and this is making me think again where should I go. Should I switch to A & L within the next 3 months as I can get the £12/month reimbursed to a Natwest Current Plus from my Adv. Gold account which does not ask for any fee (and so no special perks too, obviously). Any suggestions..I am earning just above £16,000 pa but I am not planning for a long term benefit as I will be moving abroad after September 2008 which gives me roughly just a year to optimize my savings. Any suggestion would be highly appreciated as I am a new writer to forums but I have been watching and benefiting from ML's site for quite a few months now. Amazing job with loads of work :T ..Best wishes to all moneysavers.

pigeonpie

As people seem to be having probs with A&L and Halifax, what's the latest word on Nationwide? Customer service and efficiency is very NB to me. I can pay in £1000 pcm but if I'm going to spend hours chasing them and pay phone charges and late payment charges and they are a nightmare, I'd rather move to Smile - or stay with my current better-the-devil-you-know lot.
I would need a chequebook as although would be leaving current current a/c open, it won't have much in it and I write more cheques than I'd initially thought I would. Have not yet been back in the UK for 2 years if that matters to any of the above. Any suggestions much appreciated. Thank you.

KDS_2

Morning insomniacs. This is my first posting. Have read with interest some of the Halifax £100 incentive payment messages. I applied online over one month ago and took advantage of the "Account Switching Service". I have since paid in the required £100 to activate the account and have duly received a cheque book and debit card (with PIN) but have heard nothing for some weeks. When I phoned the online Customer Services a few days ago I was transferred through four different advisers before I was finally informed that I needed to complete two documents to enable Halifax to approach Barclays (my current Bank) for the transfer of all my DD details. This could take a few more weeks yet. These had apparently been overlooked from the online application, even though I could see no mention of these documents on their website, nor more to the point the £100. I am hoping that once my application has been finalised, and all the DD's transferred and the two consecutive £1,000 payments have been made by me, that it would have been worth it. I hope this effort is not all in vain and that I will still qualify. Does anybody have any idea as to whether there is a cut-off date?

noh

Yes the cut off date for them to receive your switching form was 25th August .

Nigel

KDS_2

Thanks for that Nigel. I am assuming that as I completed the online application to "switch" on 23rd July, but they have not yet sent me the appropriate forms to complete, that this is their error.I think I will have to visit my local branch office on Monday to find out.

daphne67

hi there,

I have been with abbey for 15 years and more recently they have been a pain! i wanted to increase my overdraft by £100. it is currently £1450, however the computer said no!!:mad: Any how i have opened another account today with the alliance and leister, with the aim of moving bank accounts and all my direct debits etc to A&L and then setting up a monthly dd from A&L to abbey for say £50 to gradually pay off Abbeys overdraft. Is this do'able do you think? i want to pay off overdraft from abbey and can't pay it off in one go. i am so unhappy with their service that a clean slate is what i need elsewhere. Can anyone advise?

daphne x

K9ine

I'm disappointed that the article doesn't indicate which are the best accounts after the introductory offers finish nor do they indicate the rate of any possible linked savings accounts.

I'm always in credit and banked with smile for about 6 years and was very happy and may return to them eventually although the rates are not the best.

I decided to try A&L because of the one year 10% regular savings account. The current account rate drops after a year and it's savings account is no longer the best rate. A&L will also charge if you stop depositing £500 a month and I am currently transferring then closing the account. I have been unhappy with customer service on 3 out of 3 occasions although 1 event was partially my fault and I could have checked a feature on the web site that I wasn't familiar with to avoid my only ever bank charge (except credit cards).

I am in the process of transferring to Halifax for a while although I notice they are no longer mentioned in the article even though their rate is not for one year only.

I was considering moving to Nationwide because their savings account was higher than the other banks with good rate current accounts and I could move money to a reasonable savings account quickly and easily.


K9ine

avgav

I have heard that there is a bank account available which keeps all of the 'change'from Switch transactions (i.e. the money left over to the nearest £1) and puts it all in a seperate place to add up like money in a change jar. Does anybody know if this is true and if so which bank offers it?