Raisin UK - Be Aware, Terrible Customer Service!

eskbanker

bail-in wrote: »

For the launch bonus of £50 or £80 to claim it, what were the instructions re the email to claim the bonus?
Were they same as the new bonus claim instructions after 2nd August as follows:
To claim one of these bonuses, all you need to do is send an email from the email address you registered with, containing your full name, the amount that you are eligible to claim and "Bonus" in the subject line to bonus@raisin.co.uk, within 30 days of you funding your new fixed term deposit.

It looks like the claim procedure was much the same at launch, based on this 11 June post in the original Raisin thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=74394130&postcount=24

I'd have thought that your previously-demonstrated enthusiasm for extensive research would have led you to this relatively easily....

MarkCarter

After much time studying Raisin I got very cold feet, finding way too many problems playing the same songs over and over and over, from Day 1 to present May 2020, they still have zero customer service, whether its messaging via account, email or phone calls, they still ignore you and send an automated response, i.e we'll get back to you in 3 days or longer, but they never do. I'm not looking forward to spending forever trying to close the Raisin account.

I opened the Raisin account easily, then applied for a Zenith bond easily, but note even though it said application for a Zenith bond, you should know that this application is really only for Raisin (or Raisin and Starling?) to TRY to open the bond for for you. I use the word TRY because this really is the way they work, they TRY and more often than not FAIL.
This leaves your money and interest wasting away in no-mans land and with the terrible lack of customer service, now the problems really begin and will carry on and on and on.

I had 67K sitting in my nominated account ready to transfer and then thought hang on, instinct told me to spend a lot more time checking this company out properly and after what i found i soon got the feeling of dont go there, cowboy company.
I dont trust Trustpilot anymore, they are pay-to-play, having found Raisin are paying them the premium subscription to cherry pick and remove any legit valid negative reviews that will affect them, so be careful there.

My view on the first time bonus is that it may cover the interest losses from their delay tactics, maybe plus some pocket money, it depends how much money you are using, but any other accounts after that with the Raisin platform and you will be the loser.

I've found that this company thrives on delay and stalling, this is where they really make their money and NO it is not from introducing your application to a provider, the so-called partner banks do not pay Raisin anything. 
Get yourself the same deal from the same provider if you go direct to them. I didnt find one product at Raisin that wasnt already available at the providers site with the same rate, so Raisin are not special and there are no special deals. This is what you should always do, go direct to the provider, its safer and your stress levels wont go through the roof.

Test for the failure of trust - If you apply for a bond via Raisin and the bond application I.D verification is ONLY for a valid in-date passport, then fill out the application and enter your expired passport dates ( mine expired 10 years ago) then apply and seconds later Raisin will be asking you to transfer your money to them when they know full well that the application is a failure and any attempt to apply this application to the provider will be a failure. If you go direct to the provider's site and attempt this application, then rightly so, the application would be aborted.

From my experience - Raisin CANNOT be trusted with handling money, they are not trained to be dealing with these amounts of money, they are inexperienced and dangerous around money.

What were the FCA thinking, have they lost their minds.

imported_jac

Hi Mark. I have just tried to open a one year fixed rate bond with Raisin/Starling.  They gave me an account number and said I could put the money into the account which I did. They then said that they were waiting for Zenith to approve my application and I then got an email saying that Zenith had declined my application. They said they don't tell people why their application has failed so I'm left wondering what was wrong. After reading your post I think I'll withdraw my money and try someone else. Thank you.

MarkCarter

imported_jac.  The only explanation is that Raisin messed up your info when they wrote it to a Zenith application. Anyway, in my view they done you a favour. If you go to the Zenith site you would have no problem opening the bond there. Check this out first though, i opened a bond (online) yesterday 5/5/20 - (HBZ) Habib Bank Zurich 1year @1.55% FSCS protected of course, and they answer the phone!

When you open a bond and they send you the account information, the first thing i always do before transferring any money to it is to check the sort code online, look carefully at the account name, then do your own security check by phoning one of their branches and verify the details with them. I've found all banks i've dealt with are happy to do this.

I've tryed to close my Raisin account and they put me on hold for 10 minutes, then hang up on me. This happened several times. They dont answer my emails and they dont answer my messaging via the account either, yet they are still sending me messages telling me to transfer my money into the Zenith bond that i have abandoned. They will always have the time to take down legit reviews, open new accounts and take peoples money, but ignore everything else.

The Raisin site may be a useful tool for comparing accounts to other sites, so i will bookmark and use it just for reference in the future.
I wish you luck and hope you get your money back quickly.

  

Busylizzie

Same thing happened to me, sent money to Raisin applied for Zenith 1 year fixed and application declined.
Have requested withdrawal of funds from Raisin as no other account matches my needs.
Anyone know how long a withdrawal takes?