Abbey National Business Banking Review

Abbey National Business Banking

I was in a hurry to open a business account and I ended up going to my nearest bank. What a mistake!

It took 10 days before I had an account number, I had a cheque for £4000 to deposit in the account but this didn't make any difference.

There is no support from any abbey national branch, you have to use the phone to contact them.

I was unable to type my card number into the automated phone service, on several occasions it just said that the number was invalid!

As an internet company, online banking could have made this business account the one for me, but i've sent off 2 application forms for the online business banking system and I still haven't been able to log in!

When I called to set up a standing order to pay £500 of my business credit card every month they failed to set up the standing order, which resulted in penalty charges from the credit card company.

I'm still with them because I just haven't had time to change! But for my next online business I opened an account with HSBC Business banking and its been a completely different story, internet banking worked first time and they have been very helpful cashing cheques that are drawn in US Dollars, they've also provided me with a merchant account - excellent!

Your Comments/Opinions

You do know that all the stuff you are complaining about is told to you before you make the account. The account is free to use which is why there is no branch service and s/o and dd can not be done on the phone for security and as for the forms they can take up to 7days. I can never understand why people dont read into the account their getting before they sign for it.

truth

I chose an Abbey business account for my new PR company because I had never experienced any problems with the organisation re my personal banking - but what a different story. Yes, they were pleased to open an account for me but after that it was all downhill. The first thing I found was that I could not pay money or cheques into the account over the counter. I had to go to the machine, put the mopney into an envelope, complete the details on the envelope, put it into the box and hope the elctronic bits and pieces did their work correctly. Then I tried to set up a standing order by telephone and was told that there was no way I could do that over the telephone - I had to go into a branch, where they could see me sign the form. At the branch they gave me the standing order form to complete, which I did and then handed it to the customer services clerk who promised to take care of it. So much care, as it happens, that the form got lost. The first I knew of it was when the irate recipient contacted me. Full of apologies I promised to sort out the matter and immediately contacted the call centre, where I was told a new form would be sent to me "urgently". Five days later and I am still waiting. Does urgent today mean something different to what I was taught at school? Not according to my dictionary. I have complained by email in the past, only to receive the bog standard reply that someone, somewhere, will look at the email and contact me in due course. Months later I am still waiting for that contact. If I had been setting up a standing order from my personal account I could have done that over the telephone - so why not from my business acount? Very bad show, Abbey. Not to be recommended

Alan Plews, X-PressM

I am glad to hear I am not the only person having problems with Abbey Business Banking. I set up my account with them in November 06. It is now Feb 07 and I am still not able to access my account online. I have sent in my security details three times and each time, they claim they have not arrived (despite being faxed from an Abbey Branch, as well as posted). When I tried to complain about this, I was told to phone Royal Mail as it was obviously their fault. Abbey have failed to respond to any of my requests and I was told by customer services that if you send a complaint, they will read it and then decide whether it is worthy of response!! Clearly, my complaint is not worthy as they have ignored it (or perhaps that is "lost in the post" too). If you are reading this because you are thinking of banking with Abbey business, I would thoroughly recommend you NOT to. I don't know which business banks are better, but I will switch as soon as I have found that out.

Ed Moreton

I came across this site, because I was doing a Google Search. I would like to say on behalf of Abbey Business Banking that they have always provided me with an excellent service. I have been using them for some 5 years, and I have been very pleased with them. I am going to withhold my full name, as I get enough spam and phishing mail already

M S******s

Abbey business banking is just a nightmare.If you are think about opening an account avoid them by all means!

tom

I have just been trying to open an Abbey Business account up - the service is rubbish - it was easier to set up a copany than to actually get any sort of help from either branch staff or the abysmal telephone helpline. Just avoid these morons - they are heading for a fall - in the end I have given up - they just lost 0.5mill turnover and i am about to shift my mortgge too!

RRS

what a bloody palava is abbey business banking.. i ran out of cheques 3 years ago an guess what i am still waiting for my new 1 to come, yes i did arrange for 1 to come but alas it hasn't but then thank god we have the chip an pin... ummmh the chip an pin thats great as long as u get a card with correct details on, guess what i have had 4 cards this year an what mistakes they have been 1st 1 that came was ater i made a call to say i need my new card an it hadnt been replaced as yet.. it came.. but the valid from an valid too dates were the wrong way round so was no use from the off, then i got the nxt card only to have the wrong account number on soooooo i rang them again an told them this i got the next card and it was correct number but... it had the wrong name.. well i was about at the end of my tether as all this time i was unable to use my card, an i couldnt even be served over the counter at our local branch i had to wait my turn at the phone desk and ring the business banking people, i organised yet another card to come, i finally got it this morning after waitingyet another week..... and are you ready for this... ITS COME IN THE RIGHT NAME YESSSSSSS BUT WAIT... I AM A MRS AND IT SAYS MR....... WHAT IS THIS BANK ALL ABOUT... PERHAPS WITH ALL THESE COMMENTS IT DEFFO IS TIME TO CHANGE BANKS... ITS A MONDAY MORNING AN THATS WHERE IM HEADING, IM OFF TO TOWN TO FIND ANOTHER BANK... GOODBYE ABBEY BUSINESS BANKING...

MRS K.A. B

I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND ABBEY BUSINESS BANKING Abbey’s customer care on business banking is a disaster. I sent them a letter in January this year to date 23.04.07 no one has sent a reply. I tried to contact their customer service on Friday I was left waiting for nearly half an hour before I gave up. Their automated message was the only sound I heard telling me that they were busy and I was moving up the queue. If they are busy put more staff on its not rocket science! It’s customer care.

John Kennedy

"I'm sorry but we're all busy helping other customers at the moment. Please hold on and I will put you through as soon as I can." This is the annoying announcement in my left ear at present. Lodged a visa dispute about 3 months ago, still trying to get our money back. The Abbey Card Centre are even better... they're constantly engaged between 9am and 16:30. After that you get a recorded announcement telling you that their opening hours are 9 'til 5. You get what you pay for I suppose.

Scott

I wish I'd seen all this before I opened a business bank account! They are driving me crazy! Can't get onto online banking. Waited over an hour for the call centre, then the person who answered didn't have access to my account! Am now waiting for a call back. Am not hopeful. Lady on the phone said they were short staffed, and she didn't blame me for regretting moving account there!!

Ellie

I've been with Abbey Business Banking for 3.5 years, ever since I set up my limited company. I have to say that their service to me has been immaculate. I've called their service number a few times - the longest wait I've had, on a local rate number remember, is 6 minutes. Not bad for a free banking service that pays interest on both savings and current accounts. Sure, if you want a manned 24 hour helpline that anwers in five rings, go elsewhere. You pays (or gets!) your money and takes your choice.

Patrick

I have been banking with Abbey business for 4 and and half years and they have gone from bad to worse. The only reasnon I have not switched is that I am getting around to it! I have been trying to change the name of the account user for a year. I have written to them 4 times. Contacted them through the branch twice and rang them numerous time and yet they have no record of any of our correspondence. I am definitely switching as I don't think I can take any more. This is the worst company I have ever dealt with. Free they may be but at what cost!

Sarah

Abbey have taken £500 worth of our cheques, paid them into a non existent account and after numerous calls from us and complaints, have still not given us our money back - it has now been 2 months! We are closing our account as soon as we get the money. This is fraud and we are trying to take it further but are struggling to find someone to report it to.

Anon

I was about to open a business account however reading this post, and some poor blokes ongoing problems at http:///www.switchtoabbey.co.uk I have changed my mind. Natwest maybe.

Stevo

I can only assume the people praising the service are abbey employees sent here to provide "balance" (and a little too much advertising info, Patrick. The telephone line is always busy for at least 30 minutes, and the online banking has been offline in part or whole for days now. Cheque books and paying in books arrived with the business name spelled wrong. I just cannot believe this from a modern bank - I wished I'd looked into it beforehand. This is a nightmare. I need to transfer money into my current account and I can't.

Steve

What a rubbish service the Foreign Department of Abbey Business offer. After faxing in an instruction for an important foreign payment, they failed to carry out my instructions despite being given a contact number if there were any problems. They then failed to inform me that they had destroyed my instruction. I only found out from checking my bank account 14 days later after having been told by the intended recipient that they had not received payment! They said they tried to telephone me but that was a complete untruth as I had my mobile with me at all times and there is an answer machine. I then had to refax the instruction which I did immediately and asked that the payment be confirmed by telephone which was normal procedure. I heard absolutely nothing. When I wrote a letter of complaint it took them six weeks to investigate and when they replied all they did was to give me their statement of events which was totally incorrect and the customer complaints advisor did not address any of my points. The worst service my business has ever had from a bank.

11

My experience with Abbey business banking has been similarly dreadful. They opened an account for my Limited company and yet organized for income tax to be charged on the interest - not quite standard banking practice! Gave them the benefit of the doubt but three months and six 'promise to get it corrected' lies later and I really wish that I had gone with a different bank.

DS

I have been a business account holder since Feb 07, I have nothing good to add to this comments board. I am still waiting for my internet banking passwords, I can never get through to anyone on the phone number, and when you try to speak to anyone in a branch they just say "we don't deal with business account customers here". I am currently trying to set up a visa transaction machine with a company called Streamline, who abbey referred us to - and this company is even worse..... we sent our application forms in 3 weeks ago, only now to be told that they have LOST the forms and are sending some new ones out in the post to be completed again !!!! It gets worse and worse, and I will be transferring my accounts as soon as I find out which bank as a much better system than this one.

Jo (Mr.Mechanic Ltd)

Wish I'd read this too before going to the Shabby Abbey. Unable to access my account on-line and no one at Abbey is capable of taking any ownership of the problem. Have written a complaint letter and they are supposed to be ringing me this afternoon (23/7/7). I'll post an update of it works!!!

Tony C

Keep it very simple and it's OK. I just use my account to transfer card payments into and it's fine for that. Nat West I'd recommend if you want a 'Proper' business account - with all the attendant charges! Lawrence ANTIQUE CHURCH FURNISHINGS

LAWRENCE

I really thought I was just plain unlucky! I applied for a business account at the beginning of January 2007 and it was not opened until April. It was hell on earth. Every time I spoke to the call centre I was told different things - all lies - none of them have a clue about your account. I was being told that my account would be opened in one week, three days, on Friday, next Monday - you name it, any day they chose to think of. I was contacting them almost daily at one point, and I have never been so frustrated in all my life. They then said they were short staffed and were recruiting people to work over the weekend. This was also a lie. With no account to pay cheques into, my credit rating took a dive to "poor" as I couldn't pay my bills. As I didn't have a photo driving licence I had to use Abbey as I have a personal account there and I wanted an account quickly. My first cheques were deposited and they immediately lost them in the system! I had to go back to my clients to ask them to cancel those cheques and re-send. What a great start to business! The Abbey then refused to acknowledge they had been lost in their system and I would have to wait six months before contacting them concerning this. The saga just goes on and on. The stress has been horrific and all this while I am trying to run a business. So anyone thinking of going to Abbey National - PLEASE DO NOT DO IT! They are totally impossible to deal with. Do not believe anything they have to say. I really did become desperate and they didn't care - the phone was put down on me. Find an alternative, everyone, boycott the Abbey National. They don't deserve our hard earned money.

Jenny

I suppose you get what you pay for and depending on how much balance you have. Say if you have a £50k balance on average, and some transactions, banking with HSBC would cost you: Abbey 1 month Fixed Deposit : around 5.5%, HSBC best rates (except their minimum 3 months fixed rate bonds at 5.5%) around 3%. Lost = 2.5% x 50k = £1250 Monthly charges: £3/month + transactions, maybe like £10 per month. Total Cost around = £1400 There are many complains against Abbey in the newspapers money section, but they would get sorted out once the press get involved. If you time is worth more than £1400, then perhaps HSBC is a decent choice. Otherwise, Abbey Business is not that bad...

steven

I've been with Abbey since 05 and have seven accounts with them in total. All in all they are not that bad. The secret is not to talk to the Call Center as they do not know to much. Call your business Manager and they will generally know a little more and be a bit more receptive to your needs. I was with Lloyd's TSB beforehand and they were charging me around £250 every month in "Business Relationship Fees" with Abbey its free and means that it saves my business on average £3000 a year, so a slightly inferior service instead of forking out £3000 from my profits? I know which one I would choose.

Anon

My personal banking is at First Direct and I think I have just got used to good service. Trying to phone Abbey National to transfer money is very difficult due to the long waits before anyone answers, the same music that keeps playing over and over again while you wait a gaurenteed 10 mins (though generally around 15 mins) before someone answers. What I find very annoying given this consistant bad service is their usual announcement during the wait that tells you " Due to un-expected high call volumes...." I only need to use my account once a month but I have had enough and will be transfering to another bank (hence this google search). Now I am doing the research to try to find the right bank (and not worry about which one is the cheapest!).

Richard Jones

I've been banking with Abbey for a little over two years with very few problems at all. For a free service I am very happy - and no, I am not on their payroll!

Deb

If you think the other stories are bad, just wait till you hear what happened to me! I had to write to them recently about no fewer than 10 separate mistakes. The classic was closing my business account in error after I'd told them to close an entirely different one, but instead of re-opening it they insisted on setting up a new account, with loads more mistakes, meaning they had to set up yet another one. You can imagine the disruption it caused to my business with direct debits being cancelled and customer receipts rejected because they'd been paid electronically to the old account. In fact, one receipt wasn't even rejected as it came from another Abbey customer but disappeared into the ether, presumably sitting in some Abbey suspense account. Apparently they told this customer it would take 5-6 weeks to sort out. I've been with Abbey for 5 years now and never had any trouble before, but it seems that once you ask them to do something out of the ordinary, like a simple change of address, customer service just flies out of the window. They made so many errors with my new address the postman couldn't even deliver it. Their other main problem is failing to reply to customer correspondence. Most of the problems I encountered stemmed from a simple failure to carry out the requests in my letters. It seems that there is a culture of bad service which is so ingrained now in their staff it will take years to eradicate. 0ne thing that might help though is to demand compensation. I've had one thousand pounds out of them so far and they have to pay up or you can go straight to the Banking Ombudsman. If everyone else did the same they would soon change their ways. So there's the moral folks - don't get mad, get even!

Chris F

Make sure you dont lose your Abbey business debit card at the weekend. The office to report lost cards to isnt open! If you call the number on the ANBusiness.com website you will be sent to the normal Abbey call centre. They will ask you for your account number and then realise it is a business account and transfer you to the business office that is closed. After going through this procedure 4 times I explained the problem to the woman at abbey personal banking and she filled in a form that was sent to abbey business. Who knows if my card has been cancelled or not!

MattB1972

I actually managed to obtain the mobile number of Mr. Osario the CEO, spoke to him and and still having massive problems. If anyone wants the number just email me. Its about time he took responsibilty for the woeful service offered by his staff!! Carl

Carl

I moved my business account from BOS to Abbey a month ago. They opened the accounts within a few weeks. I had a few problems since I was opening 4 accounts with them at the same time but it was nothing I did not expect because of different departments being involved. All in all, I have full access to all my accounts over the internet. I like the fact that they call you back which means I do not mind waiting a few minutes longer since I am not paying for the call - even on a mobile. Having read through some of these complaints, I think it may have put me off had I read them prior to opening. But, I'm glad I didn't. And I do not work for Abbey! Only thing I would say is their off-shore team requires more training, sometimes they have no idea what to do if the issue is outside of their usual job criteria.

TM

As you all know BEFORE you open an account, there is NO COUNTER SERVICE... that is why you get free business banking for life! So why do people complain about not being able to use the branch... If you want a counter service... then use someone like Barclays and PAY for your banking!!!

Abbey employee

Ive had no problems with them at all, I knew it was basically a postal/online account and free i photocopy everything i send and make sure i write sort code / a/c no. on reverse of all cheque bankings and enclose paying in slip .. and have had no problems at all

alan

I find it OK for me It does what it says on the box you pays your money and takes your choice in this case you pay no money

mik

Well I just wanna thank everyone on this site! it is obvious from the reports that abbey are useless and i have decide to stay with my local RBS who have been brilliant direct calls from my business manager to keep me updated on things. Just tired of the charges. cant beleive they charge you for withdrawing your own cash! but hey its got to be better than the comments about abbey. Thanks once again. and the abbey staff are wasting their time putting down good remarks it is obvious they are staff comments.

Terry

God - I thought I was the only one! Abbey's business banking is just terrible. I am currently on hold to them AGAIN - phone entry system doesn't work, no-one in branch will help. Nightmare. Come on Abbey, get in touch with your customers and pull your socks up - this is terrible service. As for everyone else - keep blogging like this and posting all over the internet - I have a feelign this could spread big time and they will have to take notice sometime soon at this rate.

RMB

I signed up with abbey 4 months ago and i've never felt better, after dicovering Abbey Business Banking i can now liase with a noisey box that eats my cheques, i've found it to be more user-friendly than the arrogant sack of lard the sits behind his spit sheild in my local branch. To further add to my jubelation when i pressed stationary, it came, 2weeks later, free. So i can honestly say that if i had paid for a bank account i don't think it would have been any better than this, it might just come with some junk mail trying to justify where my money had gone to, something to read maybe whilse i wait for the online to work.

Dr Sausage

i wish i had come across this site 6 weeks ago.i would'nt have applied for my business account with them.6 weeks since i applied for account, still no joy.i sent the information they needed, twice by the post through abbey branch. twice by the fax. and all they say is they have'nt recived it. and the other thing when u ring them you have to hang on the phone for atleast 30 minutes to hear some annoying recorded message. and finaly i have given up and going to some other bank tomorrow.

kully

I had a good experience with Abbey for a few years. Then all hell broke loose. Internet fraud, account frozen and I was not told, £1900 lost by the bank etc etc. I have been trying to sort this out for three months. My experience is that the Business Management is totally non existent, the anonymous voices you talk to are by and large inefficient and not concerned. After weeks of struggle and several letters to the Chairman's office, I still have nor recovered my money. Abbey National Business Banking is to be avoided at all costs.

Sylvaine

as an employee of abbey i guess you all expect me to defend the bank by showering you all with policys and terms and conditions jargon. bollocks will i. although this supposed 'care free' accusation is entirely not true (in my case anyway) i am sick to death of being shouted at by customers who are understandably cheesed off. unfortunatly the power i have within the company is minimal and whatever the 'powers that be' decide is final, i do agree with what is being said here. why should you wait god knows how long just to recieve a piece of plastic with a few numbers on it and your name? why should you receve stupid charges for going a few pence overdrawn? as a result i hate my job and am in the process of having interviews elsewhere because abbey national is run more like a communist nation than a bank, an it stresses me out far too much to recieve calls from customers who have a go at us for the lack of competance shown by the company. i feel as though i must stress now though, dont blame the people in the call centres or people in the branches, as stated earlier, its what the powers that be want, and we are trained to pass there message on, taking the brunt of it all. for example, anyone who was informed the centre where the cards were made flooded we were all told to tell you that, for reasons i still am not clear on. overall, if you do need action on your account with abbey, dial 08459724724 option3. if the adviser says they cannot deal with business bank acounts then ask to be put through to card services because they CAN and they are 24/7 wih roughly 20 seconds of waiting time. dont know if this little insight helps anyone but i hope it does, you dont deserve it and we dont deserve to be sworn at etc because of a lack of competance of my 'seniors' as a result i am leaving abbey as staff and account holder and advise you all do the same

jamescomments

We have been with abbey business banking for 10 years and for 9 years they were great. Now they are appalling!! We did not get our new debit cards in June and despite loads of angry phone calls they did not arrive until October. When you ring the call centre they tell you so many lies- office was flooded, no staff etc etc. We have now been waiting for a new cheque book for a month despite spending a fortune on phone calls and all we get are lies and excuses but no cheque book. We also have had no statements for two months. We tried to change to Alliance and Leicester banking two months ago but Abbey would not respond to them so in fear of losing all our money we had to stay put!! They are dreadful do not open any accounts with them!!!!

Christine

I have to say that I also wish I had seen this site a few months ago. The problems I have had with the first ever (and only) cheque I have paid in would fill pages in complaints. I have spent around four hours on the phone at various times only to be told different reasons for the money not ending up in my account. In the end they said they had set up an account by mistake and cancelled it straight away. in the meantime, the cogs had rolled and a paying in book was supplied so you know ehere my money went - no where. I was told that it was my customer who had to sort this out as it would be paid back to their account - wrong. It went to a holding account. Again I had to ask my customer to request photocopies from their bank. I have supplied these to Abbey and have still not got my money from my one and only customer. I agree with Christine also about the lies - I was given a false name and a fax number to ccall it back on on one occasion! Crap bank, stay well clear.

John D

Abbey business banking sucks big style... I wanted a form/template that my customers can use to set up standing orders to pay for product in installments. Abbey sent me the incorrect standing order form after 4 weeks of waiting...

Harvi Heer

I work (as operational risk controller) at a completely different bank in a completely different country (Hungary), but I thank you all for providing examples of the problems to watch out for and learn from. Our clients are generally satisfied, no major problems even after upgrading the core system, but Abbey did not have major problems for a long time... the devil never sleeps.

Martijn

Had an Abbey Business Account for a short time but we kept using our main business account with another bank. We had a small authorised overdraft with Abbey, which we used up to approx £50.00. As the account was not used very often they asked us to clear the overdraft which we did. Then the next month the account showed two pence interest and it made us two pence overdrawn with an unauthorised overdraft fee of £15.00. I rang the telephone helpline and was assured that the fee would be reimbursed - which it was. Then the next month the same thing happened again. Two pence overdrawn, £15.00 fee, telephone call, fee reimbursed. Each month someone at Abbey has apologised and said that the matter has been resolved. Then every month I get the same statement charging £15.00 for being two pence overdrawn. I think Abbey has a terrible reputation for customer service and it lives up to the reputation!