I've had enough of Alliance & Leicester / Santander

Von Smallhausen said:
I have been with the Nat West for 16 years and never had a problem with them.

Santander I wouldn't touch with a bargepole.
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Natwest are part of the RBS group which are having to sell their high street branches to Santander. In 18 months, RBS/Natwest customers will feel this pain
 
I've been thinking about moving from A+L for a while, only opened an account there because as an employee for a short time I was forced to, however they have never really struck me as a particularly good place to bank. I have been thinking about First Direct but I'm dubious as I dont want to switch bank accounts too often, went from Natwest (where I had loads of issues) to Halifax whom I left when I started working for HSBC, and then to A+L when I started working there all in the space of 5 years.
 
I applied for a First Direct account this morning and I found that the representatives were very helpful. I'll probably be looking to keep the account for 6 months and then transfer to Halifax or back to Lloyds TSB.
 
Simon said:
A+L are a joke. I'm closing my account and moving back to HSBC

They seem to takes ages to clear money, Internet banking is terrible and customer services is awful IMO. No wonder they give you £100 to sign you up and trap you in by forcing direct debits over
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cheque clearance was 5 working days under A + L

nowhere in the transfer process did they mention this has now gone up to 7 working days with Santander !!!

Must have been buried in some updated T&Cs we got somewhere, but they've certainly been shifty about it, not clear at all.
 
Older people work on nothing but.

Dont think i've written a single cheque from my current book. But i was banking one from an older family member that was a wedding present.

Lord knows why the older generation are so scared by debit cards.
 
Never had a problem with them but the only time I ever really use cheques with them is when I'm paying with them, not recieving payments.

Doesn't say on that PDF anything about paying in method for cheques which you are refering too, they mention two paragraphs before it about paying cash in at a counter, so I'd have to assume they mean the same with the cheques in that same section. Looks like 5 working days over the counter, which you didn't do.

One to notch up to experience or move bank, no point bitching about it when you are relying on an archaic form of money transfer, might as well be getting payment in shells and shiny pebbles. Actually I'm pretty sure the RBS accept those :)
 
no they said any cheque takes 7 working days on the phone.

This was on top of the 2 working days when my cheque was "lost" by the machine.

completely contradicts what it says in there about being able to withdraw from your account after 4 working days.
 
My girlfriends parents are with A & L and have had nothing but trouble since ther merger. However after being unable to draw money out and the card being blocked he wrote to them and recieved £100 compensation. He's dont this on 2 occasions now, the second time he got £50.

Ive been with Natwest for years and never had a problem. I opened a joint account with A&L recently because of the £100 cashback they were offering so I'm kinda dreading these problems.
 
I'm with LloydsTSB but I've recently received a letter that they're going to charge £5 every time I use my agreed overdraft, whilst they're going to reduce the charge for using an unplanned overdraft.

So, let me get this straight. They're going to make it more costly for people to use their agreed overdraft whilst making it less costly for those that don't have an agreed overdraft?

Have banks not learned their lesson? How is this exactly ethical? Why am I paying more to use an overdraft that I've been approved to have whilst others are getting an easier ride?
 
Trying to get a decent % rate on a current is pants !
I have found Lloyds TSB do 4% Gross on 5-7K balance. My Santander is 1% Gross and they can not offer me any thing else.
I think there is less competition now with so many banks merged together !
 
helpimcrap said:
crap... are santander that bad? just got a mortgage through them... bugger....
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mortgage shouldnt be too bad as there are no cheques to go missing, balances to worry about etc..

You just pay them every month.

We have our mortgage with halifax who are the scum of the earth for customer service, but have no problem with our mortgage so havent moved it due to the rate we get.
 
My mums been having problems with A&L for months. Currently their internet banking has been "undergoing maintenance" for nearly two months, and three times now they have cancelled all her direct debits causing her to get warning letters. First time it happened she complained they apologised, recreated fresh Direct Debits only for them to then reactivate the cancelled Direct Debits and be billed for some things twice putting her overdrawn!

I've told her to move to somewhere else but she's got enough to do at the moment without moving banks as well.
 
Opened an ISA with A&L, ttranfered balance from First Direct.

3 Months later its still not in my account, found out yesterday they have cashed it but they don't know into whos account.

Im currently missing £3000 and interest !
 
I used to bank with Abbey National who then merged/bought out by Santander,i will never ever bank with these cowboys ever again.

What used to make my blood boil is ringing up Santander countless times to unblock a debit card after trying to spend £100 ish online and to find out there anti fraud has blocked it even though ive passed and entered the correct verified Visa details/password

The worse bank ive been with and they simply couldn't care less about their customers,their whole customer service is a joke,havent got a good word to say about them.:)

Its also pretty sad to think these cowboys have a massive majority in the UK for banking

Rant Over

The Bank im with now i cant praise enough compared to the Santander cowboys
 
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