Abbey current account and switching

Innys

Hi everyone

I mconiering swithing my current account to the Abbey to benefit from the high rate of interest they pay on the first £2,500 in the first year.

Has anyone else had any favourable, or unfavourable, experiences of this they would like to share?

Thanks

I

exel1966

Read :- http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=651161&highlight=abbey

or :- http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=648143&highlight=abbey

or :- http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=582676

You decide !

MrSafeGaz

I did the same back in October and closed my account yesterday. They are utterly incompetent. I have liaised with many financial establishments over the years and I can say with relative ease that Abbey are the worst that I have dealt with.

Their staff appear to have very little knowledge of their own products with a simple question about the conditions surrounding the 8.00% taking literally 5 or 6 phone calls inclusive of both conflicting information and one rep that was not even aware of the 8.00% current account. If you don't switch then you still get £1000 at 8.00% which is something that I was not made aware of at time of application. You also have to close down your existing bank account when switching which was another thing I was not made aware of.

Anyway, I did go through their switching team and the branch did not send out the switching forms which I did not find out about till 6 weeks after the application. In the meantime I was having to transfer money across manually to get the 8.00%. One month I couldn't transfer enough across because of bills and got penalised on the interest, getting 0.1% instead. Went into branch to reclaim this due it being their error and they flatly admitted to me that they didn't know what to do. Didn't exactly instill confidence in me. Anyway after a month of them not paying me the interest owed after repeatedly promising it I decided to move.

Moved to halifax to get 6.17% and everything has gone through smoothly. In my opinion the extra 2% gross for a year is simply not worth it compared with the amount of time you will inevitably have to spend doing Abbeys job for them.

This is just my experience though I ignored the horror stories I read on here too thinking they were probably one offs. Whoops.

greyster

can you cancel your account over the phone or online?

They made me go into the bank (which really bugged me) to change my address.

Barclays and HSBC don't (HSBC even let me change my address online) so why the hell should they!

neilp

I've just switched to Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct because of a competitive interest rate. It is early days, but so far I have been very impressed. In fact, they compare very favourably with Smile, which is my old bank, and is supposed to have a reputation for good customer service. Also, if you use Quidco and refer friends, A&L can actually work out as a better deal, even though its rates are lower.

Toomuchdebt

I would never recommend Abbey despite having worked for them-the whole office was totally incompetent and staff have such high sales targets to meet on credit cards and loans and mortgages that they tend to focus on those rather than current accounts.As a guide, full time staff had to get 20 sales leads a week-when you think that most people just want to go into the bank and pay in money, take out money, sort out DD's, pay bills etc-it's very difficult to get 4 people a day to even think about wanting to talk to someone about a loan or credit card.The training on current accounts was pants-I was asked loads of times about interest rates etc and I simply didn't know the answer as despite asking for information, I never got it and was told to always ask them to make an appointment to see a customer advisor(in the hopes that the customer advisor could then sell them a credit card or something).

AlistairS

neilp wrote: »

I've just switched to Alliance & Leicester Premier Direct because of a competitive interest rate. It is early days, but so far I have been very impressed. In fact, they compare very favourably with Smile, which is my old bank, and is supposed to have a reputation for good customer service. Also, if you use Quidco and refer friends, A&L can actually work out as a better deal, even though its rates are lower.

Thanks just what I've been looking for. I moved from smile to HBoS & am less than impressed. Branch level is fine but the so-called internet banking is crap - can't send recieve secure messaging like smile is my biggest gripe.

So would you say you can run your A& L account completely online eg can you pay in money/cheques via post like smile or would you have to do that at the branch?

YorkshireBoy

AlistairS wrote: »

So would you say you can run your A& L account completely online eg can you pay in money/cheques via post like smile or would you have to do that at the branch?

You wouldn't send "money" through the post would you?

Cheques can be sent by post, but you can also use the Post Office...

http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/premier-direct/index.asp?page=page8&ct=premdirectguide

If you do apply, go through either Quidco (for a £50 incentive), or their refer a friend scheme (for £25 each). If you haven't any friends(!), check out the referrer's board on here at:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=513795&page=6

AlistairS

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

You wouldn't send "money" through the post would you?

Cheques can be sent by post, but you can also use the Post Office...

http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/premier-direct/index.asp?page=page8&ct=premdirectguide

If you do apply, go through either Quidco (for a £50 incentive), or their refer a friend scheme (for £25 each). If you haven't any friends(!), check out the referrer's board on here at:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=513795&page=6

No m8 I wouldn't send cash through the post, I meant cheques. Thats cool quidco sould like a good idea. Gonna apply now. Thanks

neilp

The Premier Direct account is run very much like the Smile current account. Cheques and cash can be paid in at A&L branches, by post (for cheques) or at post offices in deposit envelopes. So far I like their internet banking site - it is one of the more comprehensive and easier to use that I've seen.

AlistairS

neilp wrote: »

The Premier Direct account is run very much like the Smile current account. Cheques and cash can be paid in at A&L branches, by post (for cheques) or at post offices in deposit envelopes. So far I like their internet banking site - it is one of the more comprehensive and easier to use that I've seen.

Well I've applied & been accepted. I said I didn't want an overdraft as I'm always in credit. Do they offer any sort of overdraft facility during the switching process?

So in some respects it seems very much like smile - excellent. I'm also in the process of remortgageing with them too - got that through London & County from MSE too