Bradford & Bingley would have been better off staying as a building society in, well, Bradford and Bingley, to be honest.
Sorry about that bald statement but there it is. And we are equally sorry about having to lay upon you a negative iBall.
We usually like a positive message, but honestly, unless B&B finds a suitor in the shiniest possible armour… the word screwed comes to mind.
Research: BB
In the last of our trilogy of bank stories in celebration of the bank holiday, we bring you a spanking good story.
It's about two British banking giants who have been quite naughty when it comes to lending, but now they want to make amends.
Actually they want us to give them more money so they can leverage themselves out of trouble, but hey, what's a billion or 12 between friends.
Don’t let the News of the World see this, they might accuse you of being “grotesque sexual deviants”…!
Ahh. Northern Spain. Perhaps Europe's most fabulous food. Wonderful weather and stunning countryside.
Last place in the world really you would have thought to find one of the most successful banks in Europe.
But then, if you want to find a buy story on banks these days, you do have to be prepared to travel.
Research: BNC.L
Abbey are one of the worst banks I have had the pleasure to deal with. They have taken over a month to close my isa and have mis addressed my cheque so has to be cancelled. Their call centre is dire, they do not respond to emails - all in all a really cr*p bank!
Barclays are no better. They have yet to reply to my complaint of 25 April regarding their failure to take steps to clarify any information still required to open and take payment for my Cash Isa for the 2007/2008 tax year. I was told I had to raise a complaint. There was no other mechanism they had to deal with the situation (such as sorting out the problem there and then). We think they have opened my wife’s ISA for THIS tax year in error, but don’t know as we are WAITING for them to respond to that too.
However, having said that, Abbey are now part of ABSOLUTELY THE WORST ORGANISATION OF ANY SORT AT ANY TIME IN HISTORY, ANYWHERE. Grupo Santander. Avoid them like the plague (as a customer). We have a Spanish Mortgage with UCI, a member of Grupo Santander. BIG MISTAKE. ALthough we already had a Spanish bank account we had to open another, with Santander, miles away, at a location not of our choice, just to pay in the monthly mortgage payments. Within 2 months they had returned a monthly payment funding payment to the source bank, for no reason they have yet been able to give, causing us to be charged a penalty and interest, by that other part of GRUPO SANTANDER, UCI, for Santander Bank having failed to pay the mortgage payment. That was February 2005. WE ARE STILL WAITING FOR A MANAGER OF SANTANDER BANK TO REPLY to our numberous enquiries regarding this failure of theirs. And to reimburse us for our losses.
There is a “Bait the Customer” culture in Grupo Santander so strong that we will never knowing have anything to do with this group again. That includes Abbey, with whom we have previously, for about 38 years, had a non-unamicable relationship.
AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE. Especially in Spain.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. YOU SAW IT HERE.
I had an incorrect charge of 127.52 pds applied to my account for ‘Interest and Charges’ on May 09, 2008, making me overdrawn since I keep my current account at minimal funds level. I contacted their un-Help Desk and was told that the charges ‘would be refunded to my account within 5 days’ as there was ‘a problem with their computer system’. On May 16, 2008, the charges were still there and, at today’s date, May 27, 2008, they still remain, giving Abbey an interest-free loan of 127.52 of MY money. I have been with Abbey for over 30 years but am now setting up my online payments, DDs, SOs, etc with another bank in advance of switching to them in June 2008. I’ll be taking the funds from my 5 years of ISAs and my e-Saver account with me.
Great video but you’re being too kind to Santander. Spanish retail banks are all heavily exposed to Spain’s property bubble. It hasnt affected the City’s love affair with Santander yet, but all it needs is one piece of bad news on rising delinquencies for the whole sector to come tumbling down. Once again, great video — only iball can make a bank seem sexy — although the flamenco dancing metaphor is wide of the mark. They dont do flamenco in northern Spain so its like using highland dancing to illustrate a piece on Barclays!
i have worked for this company in their computer department. if you saw what went on you would not use this bank. the marketing manager copied all customers details onto a cd for use on his pc. not very secure and i think this violates the data protection laws. electronic transfer of customer details without any security like encryption was common. do not give any personal detail to this company almost everyone had access to it. it was common for accounts to be emptied of all monies - all blamed on computer error of course.
avoid like the plague.
I also had a very bad experience with Abbey/Santander, probably my worst ever. They managed some of my funds within a life insurance bond. I wanted to switch from one set of funds to another. This type of switch was allowed within their Terms & Conditions. They did not make the switch as I had specified. After several phone calls and a very critical letter, the correction was never made. I also felt there was a “Bait the Customer” culture (please see above comment from Christopher Johns), which incredibly was reflected in the typos in their Switch Form. I cannot recall the precise names of the funds that were mistyped but lets say one of them should have been called “The Wealth Creation Fund”, it was referred to as the “The Wealth Cremated Fund”. Needless to say I cashed in all the funds forgoing the tax advantages in the process. I too will never deal with them again.
This an investment site not a complaints box. I have an account with Santander and another with Abbey, but I´ll spare you my complaints as that’s got precious little to do with the bank as an investment opportunity. Suggest that others do the same.
Geoff, all companies depend on their customers, if they only have unhappy customers do you think the company will flourish?
Abbey are indeed an utter shambles.If you are lucky enough to deal with what would have been one of the old Abbey (National) team ( a dying breed,though) then that is different but the incompetence both at branch and helpline level is truly breathtaking.Galling enough when a customer service rep from the other side of the world cant even pronounce your name but what often then happens is truly astounding.I experienced a suspected case of online fraud just before Christmas 2007.I contated Abbey immedaitely and spent a tortuous 3 hours skipping back and forth between the UK and India before finally being told the best procedure would be to close my account.This happened and 17 direct debits went with it,causing monumental problems.2 weeks later,a new multi function card arrives - a duplicate rather than a different one! I was offered £25 compensation,warned it could take “up to 10 days” and 3 WEEKS later it arrived.the Fawlty Towers of the banking system.
Incidentally,as for “Geoff” and his comments….customer service is fundamental and integral to any company.Period.
I second that Geoff this isnt a complaints blog. We all know Abbey have appalling customer service but moan to ur wifes about it not on here!Also Abbey have recognised that there customer service is very bad and are enforcing a new customer service policy on their staff. They are also planning on abolishing their Indian call centres. Furthermore the primary reason behind the abysmal customer service offered in the last couple of years is due to the implementation of a new I.T system to improve the efficiency and security of the service offered-when this is complete it is expected to offer a far greater service than any of its competitiors. This company is rapidly increasing its customer base and cutting internal costs and (with respect to banks) is a sound investment.
The Spaniards simply don’t respect the British,and we were an ‘easy - meat’ take-over.Sub standard c.s,and inconsiderate security policies.My account was frozen I was skint in a 3rd world country, slept on the beach Sat-Sun (c.s.closed)all because I used a transaction over there. No regard for the customer,shower of c*nts
With customer service you get what you pay for. You want friendly personal service? Well open a private banking account — you’ll need £300,000 and theyll charge you £200 a year just to run it. You want a free/cheap bank account? well go to Santander or any other of the mainstream banks, but they are all pretty similar. They all have cut branch staff, outsourced call centres to India and standardised operations using new IT systems. Its called “operational efficiency” and its the way that banks reduce costs — and boost their appeal to investors. You don’t like Santander? You can always leave. Unless you have sizable assets with them, they are not going to try to persuade you to stay — its just not worth their time to do so. I was with the Midland, which later became HSBC, for almost 30 years. Their customer service went from bad to worse and the call centre operators were unintelligible. I threatened to leave, they said OK. And I did. So ended a “customer relationship” spanning almost three decades. Dont make such a big deal of it folks, they are banks, and Irish, Spanish, Scottish or English, they all work the same way.
Am I the only customer who is completely satisfied with the Abbey? I have used the Abbey for my cash and credit Isas for the past 5 years and they have acted with 100% accuracy on all my instructions. I am not financially sophisticated but the interest I get from all my investments seem to be on a par with the best. Good luck and thank you to the Abbey! John Parker.
My investment decisions are based on a full assessment of the company and that includes their customer service. The appalling service that ALL Spanish banks give is common knowledge and has been widely reported on. The ‘cheap is nasty’ attitude from Geoff shows someone that is naive and shortsighted so I won’t be taking any tips from him.
However, Customer service is not the only reason not to invest in them. They are overly exposed to the property market in Spain that relies heavily on UK ex pats and other foreign investment - that is now drying up and going into reverse and this investment has kept Spain’s economy growing for a good number of years. So the affects are going to be double. Second additional reason is that the banks have deep infrastrural problems of which the poor customer service is a symptom. In short their internal regulation is at odds with international regulation and they are going to fall foul of this at some point. They have had access to EU funds to expand (e.g., Santander) and develop their insfrastructure but they are still massively behind the times with their security and operational systems. To sum up again they operate as a law unto themselves shuffling funds around without any recourse to secure procedures.
I have personal experience of this and currently have a case at the Bank of Spain. It has taken years (partly because there are so many of these cases) and has been unaided by the police, judiciary or the bank itself. It has involved actions that are clearly fraudulent and in the Uk would be resolved with a short visit to your local police station.
But the central bank is legally obliged to enforce certain standards (due to Basel, IFRS, etc) of customer service and will take them on. At the end of all this for investors is a crash, so don’t invest in Spanish banks.
Are you seriously going to invest ina company when their computer personnel share logins and passwords? I am talking about spanish computer personnell who are not directly employed having access to Abbey clients personal details and accounts. Of course most are honest but you only need one who is not. Any management that allows this in a bank should not be allowed to work in a financial institution.
I have read all comments with interest as I currently have a serious situation with Santander in Portugal. Without going into detail, they are stripping my account with undeclared charges related to a mortgage. They refuse to issue any documents in English and will not give answers. To some people (such as Geoff) the amounts may not be large, but to us simple folk who have to take care of every penny, thousands of Euros can make the difference between survival or demise.
Surely, with so many people being unhappy with Santander, there must be some way of having complaints looked at and taken seriously?
Ajac mentions taking action - any chance of giving me some information on who to contact to take this matter further.
Does anyone mind if I use their comments in a story to National papers regarding the situation with this bank that is now becoming so powerful in the UK as well as the rest of Europe?
Like ‘allart’, I worked in Abbey’s computer department. The new Spanish systems are very badly designed, they’re worse than the systems they’re replacing, and complaints have rocketed since they were introduced, because transactions ‘go missing’. I can also confirm that contractors will share passwords, as described above, and in direct contravention to audit requirements. I used to recommend the bank to people, but not any more - now I actively discourage people from using them. Avoid like the plague. And for the investors, these chickens will come home to roost eventually - I’d look elsewhere.
We've decided, for no better reason than to celebrate the last of the Spring bank holidays, to have a Bank Week.
Banks have been in the news a lot recently. In fact, in the last few weeks there's been little news that isn't banks.
So we thought we ought to get an expert to introduce it. Here’s analyst Joe Everitt from ODL Securities.
[…] Everitt of ODL Securities doesn’t think banks have bottomed: Historically banks have always been seen as an income portion of a portfolio… They’re […]
Eeeeek! Credit crunch. US recession. Tanking markets, collapsing bank, carnage, chaos and mayhem everywhere.
There’s got to be somewhere left respectable to put your money even if some French trick motorcyclist hasn’t flushed it all away.
Well, there is. Solid, dependable and it’s all in the name….
Research: HSBA.L
Good and straight forward conclusion over the now somewhat under valued banking sector. Actually HSBC is not that cheap and in my opinion would not be my first choice, better values had else where. Certainly Barclays is even less desirable with a greedy bonus grabbing director behind it’s engine, I would stay well clear of this bank. No wonder dividend payments miss the mark and are lower then others.
Peter
[…] TSB (LLOY) 339 (11) Irish Life & Permanent (IPM) 345 (11) Barclays (BARC) 494 (15) HSBC (HSBA) (iBall) 566 (17) Anglo Irish Bank (ANGL) 784 (27) Standard Chartered […]
Heavens! A crunch has become chaos and carnage and the market only seems to go one way –meltdown. Perhaps, it is not the best time in the world to be cheerfully giving investment ideas, given it’s so difficult to pick anything out of all of this mess. Just look at our portfolio.
At times like this there’s only one thing left to do when times are so hard. Have a laugh, dammit, that’s what.
So look no further for some brand new shows and some brand new laughs.
Brought to you by:- | Meet the team |
