Traincrash customer services (Abbey National)

Member Name: Nichelette

Product:	Abbey National
Date:	29/01/09 (177 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I have their 0% overdraft in my ISA making me money

Disadvantages: All of the above

Today, The Times has published a Which? survey. Data received from 15,000 of their members detailing their opinions of the level of customer service in banks was collated. Unsurprisingly (I think) Abbey came out worst, so I've decided to share my experiences (and some of my family) with them.

I'll start with my experience.

Back in the summer of 2005 I opened a student account with Abbey. The conditions of a student account stipulate that any loans, grants, and so forth, should be paid into the account. This is all fine and well, and I did do this, but the number of letters I've had telling me that this is part of the conditions of the account is ridiculous.

Seemingly, the day you reach 14 weeks without depositing (student loans are received approx every 14 weeks), they get on your back straight away. This is even more ridiculous when money reaches the account the next day, and they send out a letter which may well have been drafted the day before money hits the account, but is sent out after it has been deposited. I'm sure they're slowly killing the planet with all their pointless letters. I seem to have got these almost religiously.

Even better, is the way that different parts of the company seemingly do not liase with each other in the slightest. Every year Abbey automatically increase the overdraft on student accounts. They send you a letter to tell you what they have done, and then I skip to the bank and put the money in my ISA. As you can imagine, I wasn't particularly happy when I got a letter dated later than the letter telling me about my overdraft increase, letting me know that I've exceeded my overdraft. Erm, no, I haven't, I've got written proof that you extended it before sending me this letter, are you idiots? Apparently so.

I seem to receive a steady flow of these completely redundant letters, and honestly can't wait to close the account.

Although I could continue about my experiences with the bank I won't, I'll share some of the Abbey initiated fun my family have had instead.

Last summer my sister also attempted to open a student account. Abbey are notoriously bad at closing accounts, but surely they should want to make opening one easy? Apparently not. After three months and multiple enquiries my sister was still waiting for a bank card and cheque book. That doesn't really qualify for good customer service in my opinion.

This was topped off for her when she was charged for being overdrawn (she didn't have an overdraft facility) days after she has paid cash in at a counter. Whilst after complaining she didn't have to pay this, what were they thinking charging here for being in credit in the first instance? After other bad experiences with the bank, needless to say this was the last straw. I believe she has asked to close the account, though I'm not sure whether they have actually done this without an argument yet.

Speaking of closing accounts, I'll move onto my mother.

In the summer my mum decided to switch her current account to another bank. Having filled out the forms at her new branch requesting her direct debits to be moved to her new account, after multiple tries she was repeatedly basically told that they wouldn't. Allegedly, the details provided by her new bank did not match the ones which Abbey held for her, or so the letter told her. She checked the details and resubmitted the form, only to have the same response.

By this point she was getting a bit frustrated, and decided to go into a branch. After waiting half and hour and basically being ignored, she was told that the bank would not consult people with queries after x o'clock. Needless to say my mother isn't the kind of person to let something like that go, and demanded to be seen. After another wait she showed them some ID and requested that they checked which details they held for her. As expected, the forms she has submitted were correct, and the details matched.

Having been fairly irritated by this point, she asked if she could have a contact number for the people who deal with this. No, of course she couldn't. In fact, she was told that the branch didn't even have the facility to get in touch with these people. At this point she was wondering what planted they seemed to be existing on.

After a very strongly worded letter I believe her direct debits were finally moved over. I'm not sure if she has succeeded in closing the account down yet, but I'm more than aware that she isn't the the only one to have had problems closing an Abbey account.

All in all I think this bank is awful and I have wanted to close my account for years. I decided not to on the grounds that my rent was paid from it, along with a direct debit, and to be honest I didn't really want faff about with changing them knowing what the bank are like with things like that.

Now the direct debit has ended, I've decided to spend the full three years paying off the 0% overdraft which I'm keeping in my ISA (I'm considering the interest to be compensation for their awful service), then I'll move my main account to Natwest who I've always been very happy with. I'm not opening any new direct debits with them so I won't have the same problems closing as my mother had.

Summary: Don't touch them with a barge pole, it really isn't worth the effort.