Abbey National Postal Mini Cash ISA

muddyfox470

May i just say something?

The Abbey Postal Mini Cash ISA (Issue 1) is a great ISA, and has quite a few benefits, but surely, as this rate and their terms and conditions were about for some time before the April 6th Deadline this year, how come none of you had the sense to open it previously, i.e. earlier on in the tax year. I believe i opened mine up in July 2004 ish, and i had no problem, paperwork came swiftly and had no hassle (except the overly busy branch, and not most helpful staff). At this point in time the ISA had been in great demand, and previously it was open only to telephone and postal applications, but they allowed branches to open the accounts to help levy the strain in whereever the applications had to be opened.

Why then must loads of people find the need only to realise this within the last month or so, and in full knowledge know that there will be numerous other people wanting to open the account before the end of the tax year. Fueled by the knowledge that the Issue 2 Postal ISA will be coming out with lesser interest. If the majority had sense they would have opened them in advance and wouldn't have had any problems like me. It is unfair to blame it totally on Abbey itself, it had been the top performing ISA in many money papers / websites etc. So obviously it was going to attract alot of attention, but with the demand it did receive (which i can guess to be quite a lot) it would have been unable to cope with whatever resources they had. How could you co-ordinate so may applications coming in each day, there would surely be a delay with it.

My question goes out why didn't you avoid the hassle and open it before?

It was paying above average rates continuously, so why didnt you open one or transfer before hand, as basically the earlier you transferred your money the earlier your money would be earning more interest than previously.

I am sure there are certain circumstances whereby the delay has been undesirable, and undeserved, but with all the accounts and safety checks taking place, wouldn't you prefer for that your money were to be in safe hands and be dealt with securely, istead of rushing and making mistakes. Just think of the admin and other rocesses that would need to be done.

Abbey has done exceptionally well coping with all this, and they have been totally honest with the problems they are experiencing (and the takeover probably didn't help too much either!). They have even promised people that interest would be accrued from the date the application was received, and not when it has been processed, so basically sit back and relax your account details will surely be received some time.

Some of your comments ar eunfair, and basically take some of the blame for your won actions too!

Ian

chiny

muddyfox470 wrote:

how come none of you had the sense to open it previously, i.e. earlier on in the tax year. I believe i opened mine up in July 2004 ish,

That seems rather late in the tax year :-) I usually open mine soon after the start of the tax year (second week of April ish) to maximise the tax benefit.

Of course, this does run the risk of dealing with the unprepared. No problems in dealing with M&S Financial Services this year. Although their ISA is at a slightly lower 5.25%, the hassle-free status probably outweighs the marginal loss. M&F FS have also been taken over but this does not appear to have dented their paper/computer skills.

--
Chiny

t_i_g_e_rr

Every bank in the country experiences a rush of ISA applications just before the April deadline, and just after. Abbey then chose to create another deadline of the end of April (not the brightest thing to do). If customers should have anticipated the rush, so should Abbey! It remains poor service. However, I'm (hopefully) getting interest in two accounts due to the delay, so, if all is well, I'm quite happy.

davidcampbell

some fair comments ian but imo still ranks as fairly poor service from abbey. as a company we should have been able to anticipate the demand and deal with it.

if it proved more popular that expected there should have been contingency in place to deal with that. nobody should be waiting 2 and 3 weeks for an account to be processed imo.

the end of the tax year was not a suprise to anyone - its the same time every year and we should have been prepared.

while customers could have made earlier applications in anticipation of demand/delay its surely their prerogative (sp?) to open an account whenever they wish and expect the organisation to to deal with it efficiently

muddyfox470 wrote:

I am sure there are certain circumstances whereby the delay has been undesirable, and undeserved, but with all the accounts and safety checks taking place, wouldn't you prefer for that your money were to be in safe hands and be dealt with securely, istead of rushing and making mistakes. Just think of the admin and other rocesses that would need to be done.

Ian

thats part of the problem. the processing is not as smooth as it should be even if everything was on time.

credit to our isa team because they have worked damn hard over the past few months to deal with the backlog and it isnt their fault and they get the brunt of the hassle (and to an extent myself and colleagues in the banking dept) however the blame has to sit somewhere and if whoever made the decisions re rate/launch dates etc did not know that a market leading rate on an isa account was going to generate lots of customer interest then they shouldnt be making such decisions

just my opinion of course but i believe we have handled the whole issue extremely poorly.

DC

Dave2012_2

I understand the position of Abbey, but like DC, I think they should've handled it better. Applications from April still being processed in June is bad!

DC - maybe you can answer this for me as you're an Abbey person. I opened a halifax ISA and requested a transfer from Abbey to Halifax. I then cancelled the Halifax ISA within the 14-day period, and specifically asked them to make sure the transfer request was cancelled. Today I got a letter saying the transfer was underway (typical!), so I got on the phone to Halifax, they were no help - said there was nothing they could do to stop it. Phoned Abbey, and asked them to ignore the transfer request, to which they said OK - at this point my money was definitely still there.

So, (1) Will this definitely be enough to stop the transfer?
and (2) If the transfer gos ahead, will my money vanish into a black hole (because the Halifax account I originally opened no longer exists, and presumably the Abbey one will be closed were the transfer to go thru, so where would it bounce back to?)

Based on my recent form, (2) will probably happen

Cheers!

davidcampbell

i dont know dave is the honest answer. sorry

my guess would be that if (2) and the transfer request is cancelled your abbey isa doesnt actually get closed in the end? (or gets reopened at least)

either that or the money would bounce back to your abbey isa and if it is closed you will be contacted to arrange transfer of the funds to elsewhere or sent a cheque.


purely a guess though (i dont actually work in isas)


im sure somewhere more "isa-savvy" will be along shortly to advise.

DC

SammyD_2

muddyfox470 wrote:

May i just say something?

The Abbey Postal Mini Cash ISA (Issue 1) is a great ISA, and has quite a few benefits, but surely, as this rate and their terms and conditions were about for some time before the April 6th Deadline this year, how come none of you had the sense to open it previously, i.e. earlier on in the tax year. I believe i opened mine up in July 2004 ish, and i had no problem, paperwork came swiftly and had no hassle (except the overly busy branch, and not most helpful staff). At this point in time the ISA had been in great demand, and previously it was open only to telephone and postal applications, but they allowed branches to open the accounts to help levy the strain in whereever the applications had to be opened.

Why then must loads of people find the need only to realise this within the last month or so, and in full knowledge know that there will be numerous other people wanting to open the account before the end of the tax year. Fueled by the knowledge that the Issue 2 Postal ISA will be coming out with lesser interest. If the majority had sense they would have opened them in advance and wouldn't have had any problems like me. It is unfair to blame it totally on Abbey itself, it had been the top performing ISA in many money papers / websites etc. So obviously it was going to attract alot of attention, but with the demand it did receive (which i can guess to be quite a lot) it would have been unable to cope with whatever resources they had. How could you co-ordinate so may applications coming in each day, there would surely be a delay with it.

My question goes out why didn't you avoid the hassle and open it before?

It was paying above average rates continuously, so why didnt you open one or transfer before hand, as basically the earlier you transferred your money the earlier your money would be earning more interest than previously.

I am sure there are certain circumstances whereby the delay has been undesirable, and undeserved, but with all the accounts and safety checks taking place, wouldn't you prefer for that your money were to be in safe hands and be dealt with securely, istead of rushing and making mistakes. Just think of the admin and other rocesses that would need to be done.

Abbey has done exceptionally well coping with all this, and they have been totally honest with the problems they are experiencing (and the takeover probably didn't help too much either!). They have even promised people that interest would be accrued from the date the application was received, and not when it has been processed, so basically sit back and relax your account details will surely be received some time.

Some of your comments ar eunfair, and basically take some of the blame for your won actions too!

Ian

The precise point of having a deadline is that if you have your application in before the deadline, it should be ok. I rang Abbey back in February asking for their postal application form, as did my husband - guess what - nothing turned up. So in late March we both applied for the internet ISA with Abbey - and guess what again - our applications disappeared into cyberspace - odd, because no other on-line application I have ever done has had this problem. Since we missed the deadline for 2004-5, we have rung and got new applications, each has taken more than six weeks for Abbey to process. When you complain on their web form, they say they will reply in four weeks. A written complaint brings a standard "we will get back to you" response.

Not everyone has money to put in an ISA at the start of the tax year - we had just had a small windfall which enabled us to make the investment prior to the April 6 deadline. If Abbey can't meet its customer demand then it should be upfront, close the product off, and I would have gone else where. I have just had a whole mortgage application approved and processed by Britannia in under a week - Abbey is clearly just cutting costs at the expense of its customers.

davidcampbell

I rang Abbey back in February asking for their postal application form, as did my husband - guess what - nothing turned up. So in late March we both applied for the internet ISA with Abbey - and guess what again - our applications disappeared into cyberspace - odd, because no other on-line application I have ever done has had this problem

exactly my point. if things were going smooth people might be ok (ish) with the delays but nothing is smooth

delays AND problems is unacceptable IMo

DC

brm_2

delays AND problems is unacceptable IMo

DC[/QUOTE]

In my experience, overseas companies who take over UK companies with always a view to do things better and make more money from their existing and possibly new customers, invariably end up with a 'bloody nose', at the cost of the UK employee's.

This now appears to be happening with Abbey, who seem to have adopted this attitude to their customer base.

My experience recently is that they are becoming slower, more inefficient, more inexperienced, ruder and basically trying to take the p---.

I changed my home insurance from Abbey two years ago.
I have recently changed my personal insurance from Abbey, and am now in the process of changing my small mortgage from Abbey.

My postal ISA1 is next on the list.

I think the above may let you know how I feel, and possibly many others if they vote with their feet.

If I was a director of Abbey sitting round the boardroom table, I would be asking a lot of questions.

Starsky_4

I guess this is really for DC.... - my wife and I opened the Issue 1 ISAs at our local branch on April 2nd and at the same time completed the forms to transfer our exisiting Nationwide and Safeway ISAs. I got all the welcome packs with in a few weeks however have heard nothing about the transfers (either from Abbey or the current providers)

10 weeks seems to be a little on the excessive side - don't you think ?? Any comments.

Do you happen to know if they backdate interest to the opening date on transfers across. Is seems unfair I am penalised for Abbey's tardiness.

Ian.