Abbey Loans

I have banked with Abbey for a number of years, in fact I indirectly became an Abbey customer after their merger with N & P in the early 1990s. Over this time I have had numerous personal loans with the organisation and found the application process, staff and payments to be first class. I have said 'found them to be helpful and first class' instead of 'always found' because recently I have been trying to obtain a personal loan to purchase a new ...
...of incompetance currently flowing through Abbey following the takeover by Spainish banking giant Santander.

My story started on 2nd August 2008, I visited www.abbey.com in the same way I always had done in the past when making online applications and commenced the process. The online application form is really easy and is done in steps starting with personal details, purpose of loan, loan amount and the period you want to borrow the ... more

I have banked with Abbey for a number of years, in fact I indirectly became an Abbey customer after their merger with N & P in the early 1990s. Over this time I have had numerous personal loans with the organisation and found the application process, staff and payments to be first class. I have said 'found them to be helpful and first class' instead of 'always found' because recently I have been trying to obtain a personal loan to purchase a new car and it has proved frustrating and has exposed the level of incompetance currently flowing through Abbey following the takeover by Spainish banking giant Santander.

My story started on 2nd August 2008, I visited www.abbey.com in the same way I always had done in the past when making online applications and commenced the process. The online application form is really easy and is done in steps starting with personal details, purpose of loan, loan amount and the period you want to borrow the money over. The second stage relates to your ability to pay so details are taken of income, current bank accounts, credit cards, and general outgoings and finally details are requested of your employer. The application took no longer than 10 minutes to complete and I submitted it, receiving an OLA reference number and an email advising that I would hear from them within 5 days. Sorted, or so I thought......

At this point I will again outline the fact that I used Abbey because of their first rate service in the past and because their online rate is currently on 7.9% making it very competitive. The clincher when making the application though was past experience.

5 days passed and then 10 and I had heard nothing so I called Abbey to see what was happening. After being kept on hold for 20 minutes the advisor returned to tell me that I didn't have a valid reference number and no application had been received. According to their records, I had not submitted an application and my suggestion that I forward the e-mail confirmation I had reveived was met with the suggestion "why don't you try to submit another online application". Miffed but understanding that sometimes things go wrong when submitting things on the Internet I spent another 15 minutes going through the same application process checking and double checking that everything was completed properly. The form was submitted and again I received an OLA reference number. The subsequent confirmation said I should again hear something in 5 days. Guess what? 5 days passed and not a dickie bird from Abbey! To be fair I left it 7 days before calling and was again kept on hold to be told that yes the application is on the system but it is showing as 'abandoned'. When querying what this meant the line went dead for a minute before the adviser said "erm, I don't know it just looks like it has been cancelled". I was put on hold for 15 minutes until a supervisor came on the line. The application had been abandoned because their system held 3 addresses for me and it was confusing the computer. 3 addresses? Ah, yes, 2 old addresses. I pointed out that I have all my Abbey accounts, Abbey credit card and current Abbey loan to my current address and that the others were old but alas, they were unable to update the 'new' system and I'd have to be transferred to another department.

The 'other' department did seem to want to sort the problem and the adviser confiormed that all of the previous addresses had been deleted from my records. All I had to do now was submit ANOTHER online application. At this point by blood was boiling but I was assured that if I did this in 3 days the system would be updated and 5 days after that I would hear from them with a decision. I waited 3 days, spent 15 minutes making an application and then waited a further 5 days. No prizes for guessing, I heard nothing which prompted a further, rather more heated phone call. The adviser I spoke to must just have been wheeled off the special bus as I went through my sorry he said nothing until after 10 minutes of me calmly talking he said that the application couldn't be processed due to previous addresses causing problems. I snapped. I explained that these addresses had been deleted 8 days ago, but no that couldn't have happened as the addresses can only be deleted by visiting a branch in person. I assumed I had been spun a line and decided to take the afternoon off work to go into my local branch. After queuing for 30 minutes to speak to an adviser she calmly told me that no, they don't do anything to do with loans in branches, I needed to call the people I had spoken to earlier in the day, and no, I couldn't use their phone to call them there and then as they had other customers to see.

After making a telephone application rather than online this week I have been advised that the matter is now with the underwriters although throughout the process the adviser taking my details kept mentioning previous addresses so I'm not holding my breath.

My experience pre August 2008 was of a first class service that was so straightforward even a trained chimp could make an application but it seems that now Abbey have turned the table and employed untrained chimps. All of my problems with Abbey have surfaced since the Santander takeover and their implementation of 'new' systems. If asked I would always have recommended Abbey for personal loans without hesitation but my mosy recent experience have scarred me for life and my mantra is now 'AVOID ABBEY LIKE THE PLAGUE' because they are unhelpful, give contradictory advice and don't give two hoots about levels of customer service. 

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