ABBEY REGULAR SAVER ISSUE 5 Matured EARLY

Careful_ly

RayWolfe

re your point 1, my money reached them on 2.8 (yes I know that broke their terms as already pointed out by MarkyMarkD) and they tell me that it was returned on 10.8, but it has yet to reach the sending bank (I checked this morning)
Am awaiting callback. If its not earning 8% now I want my cash asap:mad:

Speculator

Good luck. I was on hold for over 40mins this morning and eventually gave up, must be very busy at the call centre.

I will request another call back this afternoon.

RayWolfe

They returned my August payment on 10th so I should get it tomorrow. That's 8 days in transit!!!
Had a barney in the branch this morning. Staff and manager denied any knowledge of problems but discovered the return of my money, insisted that the account was still earning 8% but could not get any joy from HO.
I closed the account, took it in cash and popped it across the road to my bank to put it in an on-line saver. The interest to today was at 8% so I've lost the better rate for half a month but I don't trust them to get any of this right so I'm happy to have cut out from this. The Manager seemed really concerned and promised to get to the bottom of the problem and let me know. They also failed to understand why the August money was returned as it should have gone into the follow-up account if the FRMS had metamorphosed int a Flexible Saver; the account number would NOT have changed.
Meanwhile, Abbey Complaints Department should clear the deck and await my letter! ;-)

Milarky

The problems Abbey are having with this acconut are partly their own doing. They have a 'regular saver' but (unlike Halifax) this is

- passbook/branch-based
- not serviceable online
- offers no 'repeat' option by default (you'd have to apply for a completely new account)

Also Abbey wants you (I, everbody) to use their branch network to transact on this account. Fine if you live near to one, or favour the 'face to face' approach - but quite unnecessary in this day an age. In fact many of the building societies with passbook accounts are much more approachable and straightforward to deal with on account of being able to answer the phone and being willing to take your instructions etc there and then. Moreover they are moving online quickly now. Larger organisations simply can't offer this - so why force (or oblige) customers to use a single channel in effect when they could so easily (and willingly) use alternatives like the phone or internet? This account should be no different from any of Abbey's 'online' accounts - indeed all 'traditional' accounts should double up as online anyway?

Speculator

Just spoke to the Abbey Savings helpdesk. She said only 12 payments are required despite the T&C stating 13 payments. She had a copy of the the T&C in front of her but could not explain why it states 13 payments required.

Special_Saver2

Regarding payments being returned, my building society has returned my August payment stating that the account details are not correct, so I presume that the transmogrification into a Flexible Saver has changed the account number. My payment was received well after the first of the month so it is not the day of the month that the payment was received that has caused a problem.

I agree with the comments above regarding Abbey's regular savers being difficult to run (including being time consuming to open in branch, even for existing customers). I have also had problems with closing down the accounts as some staff try and make you see a financial adviser before you close the account (which I have refused to do).

Special_Saver2

RayWolfe wrote: »

They also failed to understand why the August money was returned as it should have gone into the follow-up account if the FRMS had metamorphosed int a Flexible Saver; the account number would NOT have changed.

I agree. I imagine the account number would stay the same (it is in their best interests to keep it the same so that people keep paying money into this account without realising that the interest rate has dropped to a Flexible Saver rate). So I too fail to understand why our August payments have failed but the letter from my building society did definitely say that the payment was returned because the account details (that have been used successfully up until now) are incorrect.

MarkyMarkD

I thought the account number would change because many building societies/ex-building societies use the account prefix to denote which type of account it is.

I apologise if that isn't the case with Abbey.

@Milarky's point - the reason they do loss-making regular savers is precisely to get you into the branch. Offering loss-making accounts online or by phone or post is stupid as they aren't going to get any cross-sales.

It's cross-sales which justify loss-making accounts, not anything else.

RayWolfe

The Abbey manager said the account number does not change when it goes to a Flexible Saver but I guess none of us would know if that were true because keeping the account after the rate drops would not be the practice of we committed rate tarts! ;-)
I can't help thinking this is a major computer glitch and they don't want to pay to correct it.

Sillychuckie

I'm still pondering whether it is worth complaining about the fact that the T's+C's promised me 13 months, but I only got 12.
They are breaking a contract... and if it went to court, It would be an open and shut case within a few minutes. Any judge could see they are in the wrong.

If I get some spare time tomorrow, I'll put a letter together.
I have withdrawn all the money bar £1 to keep it open, for now...