Abbey Direct ISA Problems.

MO2

Is anyone having problem opening Abbey Direct ISA?
Since last Friday I have been trying to open my ISA account for this year and to transfer previous years funds. One branch told me that they cannot open my account because they having a system problem regarding Direct ISA. Next I went to another Abbey branch and they were surprised when I told them about their system problem. They thought only one branch having difficulties in opening the account or lack of staff experiences. When they tried to open the account, the Direct ISA option was not listed among other ISA accounts. They had to contact a third branch to confirm it for me. They kept my application form and details hoping to open it for me tomorrow. What a mess?

jem16

I wouldn't bother opening it if I were you.

My son and I applied to transfer our ISAs from Halifax to Abbey on 10th April. By the 24th June they still hadn't managed to do it.

They lost my son's application form to begin with. Eventually they got it opened and sent him TWO cashcards each with a different number. With mine the transfer request was never received by Halifax so they tried again - 2 weeks later Halifax still hadn't got it.

At that point we both got fed up and wrote to the Abbey telling them to forget it and cancel the transfer. I also wrote to the complaints department. Two weeks later I have received only an acknowledgement of my complaint and have still to hear from the ISA centre.

When my son phoned the Halifax to tell them not to transfer he was told that they had received the request but that there was something wrong with the form.

Absolutely hopeless!

MO2

I have taken your advice Jem 16. The next day I went back and withdrew my application because they still have no clue as when their system is going to wake up.

Words of advice to the users and visitors of this site to be aware of this problem. I am surprised no one before has mentioned this or experienced this problem.

jem16

There's been quite a few reported problems with Abbey and the transferring of ISAs.

Do a search for "Abbey Direct ISA" and i'm sure you'll find some.

michaels

My branch was the same - sat there for nearly 45 minutes while they failed to get it to work - one guy thought he knew of a workaround but couldn't get it to work on a Saturday - however they managed to take the details and open the account the following Monday. I assume my transfer request from A&L has gone through, not sure how to check the account?

jem16

You can log on to ypur account provided you asked for an Abbey card and e-banking. Something they should have told you but I bet they didn't!