Top Cash ISAs Discussion Area

Doodsie

Thanks so much. I'll have a look and see what suits me!

VfM4meplse

innovate wrote: »

This is all poppycock. Don't just blindly follow the MSE Santander-bashing brigade.

Far from it - unfortunately those close to me have suffered at the hands of Santander (accessing finds from internet accounts) and don't intend to go back there on that basis. I also think that Halifax and Barclays counter services are poor - can't abide any kind of inefficiency in the name of "customer service" which is why internet banking suits me much better. First Direct sets the bar for remote banking, always has done.

innovate

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Far from it - unfortunately those close to me have suffered at the hands of Santander (accessing finds from internet accounts) and don't intend to go back there on that basis.

You appear to be mixing up two entirely unrelated subjects - i.e. what happened during the A&L to Santander migration, and current Santander ISAs.

The former was not pretty, and the resulting issues for customers were unacceptable.

On the latter, I challenge you to provide evidence that Santander ISAs come with "poor customer service".

Consumerist

Although I wouldn't trust them again, at the moment, with a current account I have found Santander to be as good as, or better than, most other banks when it comes to ISAs. The only involvement I've had with customer services for ISAs is the transfer process and I've had no problems, personally, on that score.

VfM4meplse

innovate wrote: »

You appear to be mixing up two entirely unrelated subjects - i.e. what happened during the A&L to Santander migration, and current Santander ISAs.

The former was not pretty, and the resulting issues for customers were unacceptable.

On the latter, I challenge you to provide evidence that Santander ISAs come with "poor customer service".

Actually was nothing to do with the surge in demand - the incidents of poor customer service occurred well after the merger and publicised debacle, it continued until fairly recently until they decided they'd had enough and shut the a/c down. On that basis I just wouldn't want to do anything with Santander, tax-free or otherwise, that - shock, horror - might actually involve taking funds out. You seem very forgiving, do you work for Santander by any chance?

Back to the Cheshire BS, I did eventually catch up with them. 3 points to note when completing the online application:

- the form asks you to declare whether you already have an a/c with Cheshire BS - when it comes to looking at the final version, this magically expands to Cheshire and Nationwide (same group)...can cause confusion as this wasn't what you had ticked. Stick with your original decision and don't try to revise it to acknowledge a Nationwide a/c. It's a known glitch.

- as expected, you can invest in the transfer ISA w/o opening one that uses up this year's allowance, the wording is acknowledged to be confusing, so go ahead and sign the declaration.

- you are asked to print off and sign 2 docs. Once printed you realise they look identical and wonder why you need 2 copies - again just ignore it and do as you are told, sign and submit both.

Customer services are well aware of these points of confusion as many have contacted them about it. The process is otherwise surprisingly simple - complete a couple of screens, tick your declaration, print out and post. The clarity of the online instructions may not appear to be that straightforward, but you get to speak to a helpful person on the end of the line, and that's what matters to me. HTH someone.

innovate

VfM4meplse wrote: »

You seem very forgiving, do you work for Santander by any chance?

I can assure you I don't, never did, and never will, work for Santander or any other company in the financial sector. I am also no friend of the banks (I harbour a deep disgust with bankers like Fred The Shred). Instead, I am trying to be part of the MSE Forumites who help others to make the best out of their money in various savings and investments.

I just find the monotonous MSE-Forum Santander-bashing quite counter-productive, when they have been offering really great ISA rates, and - with the 123 - have been offering one of the best current accounts for almost 12 months now.

Every time I ask people to provide evidence for issues with the Santander ISA or 123 current account, they either ignore that question, or they resort to the conclusion that I must be working for Santander. Fact is that I don't (etc), and that it is a great deal easier finding happy customers of the ISAs/123 (that would include myself), and very few critical ones. Santander had c*cked it up before on other matters, they have improved a lot since and there are no recent nightmare stories (which isn't something you cna say about some other banks).

If you read my other posts, you will know I also have accounts with all sorts of other outfits - Nationwide, FD, HSBC, NatWest, Lloyds, Halifax to mention but a few. I therefore believe I can claim to have a balanced view. You will find that I said several times that I am of the view that there is six in one and half a dozen in the other in terms of how many issues they have, the overall severity of the issues, and how they handle issues (there, I just said it once more, lol).

There is a big difference, though, in terms of value you can get out of a bank/BS. To me, value is a combination of reliability and money in my own pocket. E.g. if I pay all my DDs through NatWest, I get zero issues with payment on time (provided I have the right funds at the right time) and zero cashback. If I pay the same DDs through Santander, I get again zero issues with payment (provided...blah blah...) but I do get about £140 cashback a year (after the £24 my 123 costs me a year).

Don't cut your nose to spite your face - - - if you can get - as an example - cashback for your utility, council tax and phone DDs at Santander, but not anywhere else, just get your DDs done at Santander. If you can keep £3K or more in your current account(s), why not exploit the Santander 123? And/or, as you will see from my other posts, Lloyds/BoS.

innovate

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Back to the Cheshire BS, I did eventually catch up with them......

Glad you got your application underway and didn't let yourself put off by some badly worded question on their website :cool:

VfM4meplse

innovate wrote: »

Glad you got your application underway and didn't let yourself put off by some badly worded question on their website :cool:

Can't afford not to, not when my nest is dwindling in real terms .

In response to your other comments about banks, I can't abide poor customer service full stop. To me it's a sign of inefficiency and bad management and I choose not to expose myself to the unnecessary frustration of dealing with people that can't, won't or aren't allowed to think for themselves. Life is stressful enough.

innovate

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Can't afford not to, not when my nest is dwindling in real terms .

In response to your other comments about banks, I can't abide poor customer service full stop. To me it's a sign of inefficiency and bad management and I choose not to expose myself to the unnecessary frustration of dealing with people that can't, won't or aren't allowed to think for themselves. Life is stressful enough.

OK, let's agree to disagree then and move on.

I'll just keep bagging my cashback and interest (min £200 a year, prob lots more) from an outfit that I am convinced, based on 12 months experience, is not perfect (which one is?) but also no worse than any of the others we can pick. My desperate peddling to keep up with inflation does have a bit of hope.....


You, on the other hand, bag a total of zero [for comparable DDs etc] but you are satisfied that you will not expose yourself to the risks you perceive (but don't have evidence for) Santander 123 and ISAs pose. Good luck with your efforts to keep up with inflation.

Both of us are happy, if for different reasons :cool:

funnyguy

My wife already has a Santander 123 account that pays 3% gross interest on £3000 plus..I am wondering whether it will be worth her withdrawing all her £15000 ISA[thats coming to end of 3.5% interest] and putting it in that instead as the rates seem so low this year.