Abbey Shares - info needed

jsay · 18 May 2005 at 11:15AM

I'm new to this and hope I'm posting in the right area.
I have some shares in Abbey National which has recently been taken over by Banco Santander (Spain). I wanted to ask what opinions people have on whether these are a good investment or whether I should consider selling. I notice on my recent dividend that I am paying Spanish tax, how do I reclaim it? Their own site is very confusing and I think they are deliberately conning people like me.
Any information would be very much appreciated.
Look forward to hearing from you.

Fatboy_NSS · 18 May 2005 at 2:25PM

You can't claim back the tax on the dividends (same as you can't claim back the tax paid on dividends on UK shares either). However as you've paid Spanish tax already you don't have to pay British tax on the dividend, so you're no worse off than if you were paying British tax.

I wouldn't want to advise on whether you should sell, you need to decide that yourself, but if you are selling you need to phone the shareholder helpline on 0870 532 9430 and they'll send you the forms you need to sell them for free.

jsay · 18 May 2005 at 4:14PM

many thanks for the advice on the Spanish Tax situation. Wonder if there is anyone else out there who would like to 'share' their experiences with Abbey/Santander shares? Thanks for the phone number too.
Kind regards.

derrick · 18 May 2005 at 5:42PM

Re the 0870 number, here is a geographical number 0121 4157188
Mon-Fri 0800-1700

davidcampbell · 18 May 2005 at 10:18PM

not quite what you asked i know but there is also the option of the santander shareholder acount which is used to automatically reinvest dividends.

quarterly dividends paid to account (obviously doesnt allow any toher deposits) and purchases shares for you.

cant remember how often repurchasing takes place. (fatboy might know? ) but ill check tomorrow and repost

DC

Fatboy_NSS · 19 May 2005 at 6:10PM

I'm not sure it's been decided yet how often the shares are going to be repurchased. I'm not convinced on whether the shareholders account is really worthwhile (upside of 10% interest vs downside of not being able to chose when the repurchasing takes place). However I don't think anyone who qualifies for the account would ever have enough money in it for it to make a major difference either way.

jsay · 19 May 2005 at 7:10PM

Many thanks for the input. I've checked the shareholders account and they have yet to make a final commitment on whether they will allow reinvestment via dividends. So, for now, I think that's a closed door. There seem to be some dodgy things in the press about Santander and I wondered if anyone knew anything about them. Seem to remember that one of their bigwigs is being investigated for fraud (allegedly). Thanks again for the reply.

davidcampbell · 19 May 2005 at 7:39PM

Fatboy_NSS wrote:

I'm not sure it's been decided yet how often the shares are going to be repurchased. I'm not convinced on whether the shareholders account is really worthwhile (upside of 10% interest vs downside of not being able to chose when the repurchasing takes place). However I don't think anyone who qualifies for the account would ever have enough money in it for it to make a major difference either way.

yeah i think you are right ... couldnt find anything today about it.

There seem to be some dodgy things in the press about Santander and I wondered if anyone knew anything about them. Seem to remember that one of their bigwigs is being investigated for fraud (allegedly). Thanks again for the reply.

yeah theyre was something going down with emilio botin (i think thats his name) who was/is? chief exec at santander. tbh though i largely ignored it as all the press reports seemed to be mere spuclation and conjecture with very little, if any, fact.

however if i recall correctly he and 2 other execs were accused of mismanagement and misappropriation.

nothing was proven though and he was cleared of all charges.

DC

davidcampbell · 23 May 2005 at 8:13PM

first reinvestment will take place in august 2005

after that account holder can choose either yearly (may) or quarterly (feb/may/aug/nov) reinvestment

DC

Abbey Shares - info needed

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free