Delivered...but with complications! (abbeynational.co.uk)

Member Name: happybunny75

Product:	abbeynational.co.uk
Date:	01/10/01 (1110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Makes life easier!

Disadvantages: Not a professional website, Slow, Poor navigation

Mmm. Exciting business, online banking.

For moi?

Well, when I’m in credit of course and I actually have some money in my ISA account! To take an instant look at my money building up and feel a surge of excitement as I plan how I will spend it when I’ve had enough looking at it’s mounting value on my PC monitor (but I must confess, I want to throw the monitor out of the window when I’m in overdraft – so maybe not that great then).

Online banking – let’s begin!

Abbeynational.co.uk – let’s begin!

I took advantage of Abbey National’s online banking facility as soon as I’d heard they had one. No more waiting in telephone queues and talking to a Scottish lass (although, I do admittedly miss that sometimes – lovely accent); no more waiting in queues at one of the high street branches; having access to my account anytime I wanted; being able to juggle my money around without feeling embarrassed by my list of requests when phoning up the aforesaid Scottish lass. Oh bliss!

So, immediately you can see the advantages to online banking in general. Aren’t I kind?

Ok, abbeynational.co.uk.

There’s a little matter of having to request access to use this facility before you can actually do the biz on the site. You can either telephone Customer Services, request in a branch or go to the website (funnily enough, this one makes more sense – start as you mean to go on!).

When you’ve requested internet access to your Abbey National accounts, the kind staff will then send you a registration number and password – both of which can be changed when you first enter the site and log on, to something that you’re more likely to remember.


THE SITE

Err…well…I would say not particularly professional looking and would probably need changing in the near-future (I have seen other o
nline banking websites which look, on first appearances, rather more professional).

Basically a white screen with red writing – very unimaginative. There are no graphics as such or pictures/photos, so you’d expect the site to run quite quickly. Err, well, nope. Despite your immediate reaction that the lack of page detail will result in faster loading pages, they don’t – very disappointing.

The home page gives you several broad choices:

 Accounts and Services gives an overview of what Abbey National has to offer in the form of various current/savings accounts, insurance, mortgages etc.

 E-Banking is obviously where you go to login to your account and ‘play’ with your money.

 E-mortgage is apparently a facility for those who have flexible mortgages and they too can ‘play’ with their money.

 PC/TV/Phone deals is really just a partnership thingy “to make life less complicated” where there are deals with Dell and BT Anytime (although, you have to contact the 3rd Part involved to get details, they isn’t much information as to what is being exclusively offered)

 Sharedealing is quite simply a ‘buy and sell’ facility for stocks and shares.

 New E-Channels baffles me. All it really says is that you can access your accounts using WAP, PC and Internet TV. Would this not be better on the home page as a promotional selling point?


Ok, that’s the basics done, now the nitty-gritty.


MANAGING YOUR BANKING ACCOUNTS ONLINE

This is what I really wanted from the site.

Once registered you go into E-banking. A second menu appears at the side of the main menu with options that include finding out about e-banking and software requirements. Originally enough, you click on ‘E-banking’ to get to the login stage.

The lovely thin
g is that a separate window appears. That’s good, I can do that whilst browsing around the rest of the site? Well, no. The original window just turns all red and says ‘E-banking’ in white: there isn’t a menu anymore on the original window. What’s the point in that?

Ok, so separate window open, displaying three types of Abbey National banking cards, a space to type in your card number, password and registration number (which on your first visit you can change from the one that has been posted to you). Another bizarre waste of space: you can click on one of the cards (depending which one you have) and will automatically show the first 6 numbers of your card number (as the first 6 digits are the same for everyone on each card). Well, thanks for saving me 1 second of my time, but it really isn’t necessary, you know.

Ok, signed in. I now get my ‘Welcome Back’ Screen and details of my last login. As I have used Abbey National’s web site before I now know where the menus are, but would have guessed that at the bottom of the window there are several small coloured boxes that represent sub-categories? It’s only when you hover the cursor over them that you know what they are. How bizarre! A whole window of space and they’re at the bottom disguised as pretty coloured boxes!

Well, once you discover this wonderful idea of navigation you know that the first 2 boxes are the most important. The green one is for managing your bank accounts and the next (red I think) is for updating your personal details.

And you’re away.

After browsing through you will discover that you can do all sort of wonderful things.

I have two accounts on my internet account. One is my current account and the other a Cash-ISA account. I’ve discovered that I can quite easily move the money around in each account very easily. By selecting ‘Statement Summary’ I can also
check what has gone in and out of my accounts even before I receive a statement, and I seem to have access to 2 months worth of statements that I can scroll through.

I now also have set up standing orders and transfers through this service. You do realise how much you can make things easier on yourself, when you know what services are available in general and that you can suss out for yourself how you want your money to be handled.

I have to admit that this is probably the most user-friendly part of the site. Once you’ve beaten the illusive coloured blocks and have used the site a few times you will benefit from internet banking.

But, abbeynational.co.uk?

The concept itself, is good and the amount of services that can be accessed online are varied. I believe you can apply for accounts, loans and mortgages onsite and also request hard copies of product information or for one of their ‘representatives’ to call you to discuss their products and services.

Personally, I can do everything I would want to do online to manage my accounts, which is a positive.

But, the site…..

Uninspiring, unimaginative, slow and difficult to navigate.

Make my internet life less complicated please!

Summary: