Can the wrong name be right?

whitejohn

Opened post office account (Bank of Ireland I believe) to deposit a large sum of money. It's 1.65% and instant access.

I filled in all the boxes correctly but my bank comes up as Abbey National and not Santander.

They say not to worry as it makes no difference. Is this true and why don't they just correct it on their system?

I'm worried about depositing the large amount when the bank details are incorrect.

Archi_Bald

I wouldn't worry, what counts is the sort code and the account number. Somebody just didn't bother updating tables.

I would be a lot more concerned about putting any money, let alone a large sum, into a Post Office account as there have been many reports on this forum about terrible CS and huge difficulties withdrawing money.

You can get a lot better interest than 1.65% in current accounts, anyway. You can have up to £50,000 in them.

JuicyJesus

Absolutely nothing to worry about. The bank details are, technically, not incorrect given the lineage of Santander (which is about eleventy billion different banks and building societies amalgamated into one through takeovers and mergers, including Abbey National).

whitejohn

Thanks, I will need the money out quickly when I find a house to buy. I've got the max in a Santander 123 account at 3% but could not see anything better than the 1.65% for large sums. Most of the current accounts seem to have limitations and I don't have any utilities and things just now.

SnowTiger

Yes, Santander bought Abbey National sometime ago:

In September 2003, the bank rebranded as Abbey, and in November 2004, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Spanish Santander Group, with a rebrand following in February 2005.

The Abbey name still lives on in several places. For example their Bank Identifier Code (BIC) is ABBYGB2LXXX; and their International Bank Account Number (IBAN) begins with GB24ABBY.

Archi_Bald

You don't need utilities and things for DDs. Just a couple of Tesco savings accounts will suffice as they will let you set up as many DDs as you like. But you might not even need any DDs. How much are you looking to put away?

If you do need your money fast, I'd definitely avoid the PO.

whitejohn

Archi_Bald wrote: »

You don't need utilities and things for DDs. Just a couple of Tesco savings accounts will suffice as they will let you set up as many DDs as you like. But you might not even need any DDs. How much are you looking to put away?

If you do need your money fast, I'd definitely avoid the PO.

About £120K that I was going to split in to 2 accounts.

Archi_Bald

OK, so current accounts wouldn't take it, anyway.

You can put the lot into NS&I as there is no £75K limit.

Other options are Tesco @ 1.5% and Virgin at 1.51% (PO is only 1.61% now, too). They both have decent CS. I'd expect you'd need to call them if you wanted to withdraw £60Kish in one go.

whitejohn

Archi_Bald wrote: »

OK, so current accounts wouldn't take it, anyway.

You can put the lot into NS&I as there is no £75K limit.

Other options are Tesco @ 1.5% and Virgin at 1.51% (PO is only 1.61% now, too). They both have decent CS. I'd expect you'd need to call them if you wanted to withdraw £60Kish in one go.

Just noticed that RCI are offering 1.65% instant access, are they OK?

Archi_Bald

I wouldn't touch them myself as they don't offer any FSCS protection.

They have the french €100,000 protection but if they go under, you'd be on your own with trying to recover your money.

whitejohn

Archi_Bald wrote: »

I wouldn't touch them myself as they don't offer any FSCS protection.

They have the french €100,000 protection but if they go under, you'd be on your own with trying to recover your money.

Thanks, good point, agree it could be difficult to recover.