Santander / Alliance & Leicester Bank Account

[cmooki]

Does anyone know is the "back end" the same for original / new Santander bank accounts as those who were original A&L customers?

I've had pretty poor experience with A&L....now Santander have taken over & it's still awful.

The backend is poor (it always was!), no response from customer service emails in reasonable time (48hours now & still no reply)....random messages about cancelling cheques which have never even been issued (was supposed to go to a different customer!)....now I've been a month without a bank card because they didn't send me one & had to "resend" one (still not here!).

Really fed up with it & thinking of moving....though generally people seem to have good reviews of Santander.

I'm wondering are non-A&L customers on a different system?

I've attached a screen-shot of my banking backend....is it similar to Santander original?



Thanks!

 

[DiscoverCRM]

Yep the back end looks the same aas it was for my alliance and leciceter, I have to admit i eft Abbey because of the level of service when they became santander and joined A&L only to find they too were going to become Santander I laster 12 months and have left to join barclays.

I vastly prefer the lever of service from barclays on business and personal banking.

 

[pops]

I too have had very bad experiences with Santander

I had a number of accounts with A&L which was going smoothly until the take over. Santander mixed all my account numbers up with the incorrect business names on each statement.

Granted there was a light overdrawing on one of the accounts but never the less the other accounts were two different entities which I requested to be closed to start getting things straight. They refused to close nil balanced accounts until the account that was slight over drawn was paid in full.

Further to this they even blocked all cards and bank transfers on accounts that were in credit which screwed me for a week or so until I had another account else where with money going in.

Glad to say I am well rid now and currently with the Co-Op under the FSB

 

[deniser]

no response from customer service emails in reasonable time (48hours now & still no reply)



Thanks!

Have you actually logged into the message section of your account? It did baffle me the first time when I sat waiting for an email which never came only to find the reply online in a message box several weeks later.

 

[paulears]

I've got the same account and to be honest, have had no issues whatsoever, and found them very responsive. I hate to be the one to actually praise a bank - but compared with Nationwide and Barclays, A&L (Santander) have been so much better. I've not noticed any difference since the Santander rebrand happens apart from the nice website now looking a bit naff.

 

[cmooki]

yeah, the message system is so bad

There have been other issues too

I use smile for my personal banking (co operative) & LOVE their system...

Well...several days later, still no response. I guess it's time to move on

 

[Team Leith Training]

Santander drive me up the wall.

I needed to change addresses on my personal account, had to go into the branch to do it!
Every other bank does it over the phone.

Locked myself out of the e-banking facility, result,
having to WAIT a week for the details to be posted out again. Otherwise i can do this online answering a few security questions.

Result, i would leave Santander now if i could nip across to Barclays.
My advice, dont open up with Santander unless you have no choice.

Not only this but the former takes 3 days or more to BACS money, with Barclays (and even my personal account with Halifax) its instant!

 

[Faevilangel]

I was with A&l and use a different system, I login via the santander website and not the A&l. The system is totally different and is much easier to use than the A&l.

 

[tom1457]

We have been with Abbey/Santaner for 3 years and i must say any problems have been sorted quickly over the telephone.

My only real complaint is that we arrended a craft show in Dublin last year, when it came to paying Euro into a Spanish Owned back we found that they will only accept British Currency - how daft. Finished up had to get Barclays to exchange the Euro through our personnel account, we did not get anything like business rate and lost around £1000 as we only got tourist rates.

 

[gavcooper]

Faevilangel, how did you get to a different system by visiting the Santander site. If I visit the Santander site and click the corporate tab, then 'MyBusiness Bank Log In' I get taken to the same A&L login. I find the A&L online area functional but poorly designed and I still can't believe I can't make fast payments over £250.

Tom1457, I've been looking at the bank currency transfer rates recently and they are high. Have a look at either I these services http://www.smartcurrencybusiness.com http://www.axiafx.co.uk/corporate_clients/ they might be useful if you attend the Dublin craft show again.

 

[tom1457]

Think this may be the log in your looking for https://retail.santander.co.uk/LOGSUK_NS_ENS/BtoChannelDriver.ssobto?dse_operationName=LOGON

 

[gavcooper]

Think this may be the log in your looking for https://retail.santander.co.uk/LOGSUK_NS_ENS/BtoChannelDriver.ssobto?dse_operationName=LOGON

Thanks, but I had tried that login and it did not accept my A&L details. It asks for different information.