This Abbey Habit will break.......... (Abbey National)

Name: Trixi

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Product:	Abbey National
Date:	27/01/01 (118 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Not sure at the moment!

Disadvantages: The list would go on & on....

I started saving with the Abbey National at the tender age of 7. One day a week the customer service advisors would spend a morning at the school and year by year we would get out of classes and loyally take our money along to the hall with our card and the kind man or lady would take our money....

It's a nice picture isn't it? A friendly, personal service which is done in an accessible way to the clients.....

(Does that kind of personal service still exist....I would be most surprised if it did!)

I have now been a client of theirs for 23 years (giving my age away). I have had other bank accounts but I decided that the other bank I was with was using too many charges so I then transfered everything to the one account.

A few years ago, I was offered an authorised overdraft, just incase.
I thought... okay... just incase...
I have hardly ever used it because I have learnt how to budget and get by.

That was when I was working..... I gave up work and decided to go back to Uni. I contemplated a student account but I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of changing banks, (Abbey National didn't do Student Accounts)..... Besides everything was fine....

This year Abbey National introduced a Student Account and I hummed & hawed over it but I thought I would stick with the one I had. Over the summer break I had used the overdraft facility but was well within the limit agreed but things seemed fine.

Then I got a letter saying that due to the fact that no money had been put in to my account for 3 months, my overdraft was being withdrawn (Despite the fact that I was well within my limit!) Annoyed at this I phoned the helpline, told them my next Student loan was in 3 days time and they seemed happy.

I wasn't though. I knew that they would not have written that letter if it was a student account, so I decided I would think about changing it.

I didn't want the hassle o
f changing my account number, so I phoned their financial services department and asked if it was possible to keep the same account number but swap the type of account.

"Yes, not a problem, just go into your local branch with i.d. that proves you are a student." .... GREAT (Or so I thought)

So off I went and took all my details to the local branch. I explained what I wanted to do and I said I want the same account number...

"You can't do that." I was told.
"Yes I can"
"No it's impossible."
"Yes I can, I have checked with your financial services. Provided that you clearly state that on the application form, I can."
"Oh alright then."

Application sent off, I thought that was the end of the matter.....

A few days later I got a letter from the Student Applications Section who asked me to send ID.... Why I thought, I have provided it already. There was a phone number...so I rang it.

"Why do you need ID, I have provided it?"
"Have you?"
"Yes"
"Oh yes, but a member of staff has to see it."
"They did. How do you think you got a photocopy with the appication form from my branch?"
"Ah, but they forgot to sign it."
"Is that my fault? Why don't you fax them and they can sort it out?"

"Because I don't know if they saw it. Can you please go back to you branch and resubmit your student ID and tell them to sign the photocopy and take your passport to prove who you are."

"My passport? But I am just swapping over from an existing account."

"Doesn't matter we still need to see that."

My branch is 3 miles away and I don't drive. (yet)

You can imagine how annoyed I was at having to make a special trip into town to tell my local branch how to do their job......Why shou
ld I? I had half a mind just to take all my money out and walk, but I didn't.

First of all I had to insist they could do what I wanted (But that was because I had checked out my facts first.) Then I had to provide ID for a second time because a staff member had failed to sign a document saying that they had seen the original. Not only that I had to explain what was required of them.
Hopefully now it is sorted but I am not impressed. Any more nonsense and I will walk...

Update
This year I wanted to open up a new account to collect money from my class for the Grad ball....

I thought I would stick with the abbey, since they allow deposits to be done on their atm's
( a very cool facility - Why don't all banks do that?)

I wanted an account that needed two signatories since I was taking other peoples money. I explained to the assistant that I wanted a kind of trust account for small groups (being a youth worker I know that Bank of scotland have that kind of account) The assistant said yes sure here are the forms....

I live in a village with no high street bank just atm's, and I have to go 4 -5 miles to get to the Abbey National. So you will understand my annoyance when I got home and discovered the assistant had given me for so that I could ammend signatories on existing accounts - rather than a form to apply for an account.

So I had to make yet another trip to get the right forms.... I filled in my form and sent it away to the person who was co signatory, she filled it in, sent me her ID and I went back to open the account.

I sat down with yet another assistant and was most surprised to hear
-What kind of account are you opening?

- a bank account

- you do know you need to open it with £100 and make sure £250 goes into it every month

- Errrr no

I explained what I needed 2 signatories and a cheque book.....

emmm we don't do an
account like that for small amounts or groups..........

WHAT!

I was not amused. But it had taken me so long to get the right info and forms filled in I needed an account

I ended up with an joint saving account with no cheque book with atm cards for each person (Not a secure way to do it - but I trusted the other person so I was happy to do it.)

What a mess, it turned out okay in the end but I was not impressed with the service....or rather the lack of it!!!
GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER -OR THIS ABBEY HABIT WILL BREAK!

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