Any experience with Abbey?

Ignite

Hi,

I've done a search on the forum for Abbey and come up blank. Has anybody had any experience of them for a current account? They seem to offer a similar account to A&L but with some of the horror stories about A&L I'm looking at alternatives. Yep, I'm a soon to be ex First Direct customer.

Thanks

Andy

tom188

Sorry but they are not a patch on FD. Probably better than AL but still in the ex building society class of ineptness.

Maisie

I used to work for Abbey and hold a current account with them.
It runs smoothly but doesn't pay much interest.

Most banks/building societies give trouble at some stage or other.

GirlRacer_2

Ive just applied for a current account with A&L (what a nightmare!!!) with the option to moving all my DD's with them, however, have found them to be totally incompetent so have opened an account with Abbey. I must say, in my experience, they have been much more efficient, but as I'm still in the early stages I'll reserve judgement for a few more weeks!

bengal-stripe

I’ve been with Abbey for six years and never had any problems. They are not as aggressive in selling additional products as some other banks are (allegedly). They do not bombard me with brochures, phone calls or even ‘account reviews’, but whenever I ask for something, overdraft, credit card, I got it.

They also book credits before debits, other banks book debits first, so, if you have one day money in- and outgoing you might be overdrawn, if only for an hour.

I never had any problems with them and they probably never had any problems with me. There was never any crisis regarding the account, so I don’t know how they will handle a crisis.

Just like some old car; it might not be the smartest thing in town, but it works.

Wannabesaver_4

My husband used to have a Abbey account with nothing but trouble. Always overcharging him - one month alone he had £340 of charges on his account - taken before he got paid!!!! ludicrous!

Ignite

Except for Wannabesaver, it seems as though Abbey are OK. I would have thought that if there were any major problems with them, then there would have been more posts on this site about them. As all of the posts are about A&L I would hope that Abbey are better.

Andy

jonesMUFCforever

bengal-stripe wrote:

I’ve been with Abbey for six years and never had any problems. They are not as aggressive in selling additional products as some other banks are (allegedly). They do not bombard me with brochures, phone calls or even ‘account reviews’, but whenever I ask for something, overdraft, credit card, I got it.

They also book credits before debits, other banks book debits first, so, if you have one day money in- and outgoing you might be overdrawn, if only for an hour.

I never had any problems with them and they probably never had any problems with me. There was never any crisis regarding the account, so I don’t know how they will handle a crisis.

Just like some old car; it might not be the smartest thing in town, but it works.

I think you should be asking present members of staff (not me!) but I know of several staff who have resigned as a result of increasing presure being put on them to get referrals to sellers since the Santander take over.

Kilty_2

How about Nationwide?

Current account doesn't pay as high interest as some (4.25% for credits of £1000+ per month) but you can take their E-Savings account alongside it which pays 5.30% with instant transfers between the two.

Free cash withdrawals abroad and excellent customer service (in my experience)

Toomuchdebt

ejones999 wrote:

I think you should be asking present members of staff (not me!) but I know of several staff who have resigned as a result of increasing presure being put on them to get referrals to sellers since the Santander take over.

I would agree with this-I resigned partly because I am on long term sick leave(have just had an operation on Tuesday and come out of hospital today), partly because I was worse off working and partly because of the stress of having a set number of referrals I HAD to get each week, and having to answer to my manager if I didn't get enough or enough in each category.It seemed that they didn't care how efficient I was at my job, and that I had no problems with money handling, all they cared about was getting referrals.

bristol_pilot

I have found Abbey to be pretty useless and have closed all my accounts with them, although I did not have a current account. The main problems were queues - standing in line all Saturday morning only to be told at the end that I was in the wrong queue and have to queue all over again. If you call customer services you will be held in another sort of queue - and its not a free call. Last time I was in (in a queue) the guy in front of me was complaining because Abbey had lost all record of his savings. The staff seem stressed and harrassed. I'd give Abbey a miss.