No Mr Darcy here !!

Advantages: A charming and humerous book with some entertaining characters.
Disadvantages: Second half of the bok is not as good as the first

... NORTHANGER ABBEY JANE AUSTEN Think of Jane Austin and thoughts like 'women's book' and 'A level book' spring to mind. Recent period dramas on TV and films have made the stories of Jane Austin a lot more popular - but for me Northanger Abbey has always been my favourite. The book was written when Jane Austen was in her late teens or early 20s, It was finished in 1803 but wasn't published for another 13 years - by which time the author was dead. I first read Northanger Abbey when I was at school after I had studied Pride and Prejudice - Pride and Prejudice was read and studied as part of my school work while Northanger Abbey was read for pleasure. The novel tells the story of Catherine Morland, the very ideal of a 'nice' girl; but this naïve heroine is also in possession of an overactive imagination...

oldchem 05.07.2009 · Read review
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Review of Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

Abbey National

Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Robbers, none existing customer care, bad attitude and bad service.

...Abbey National is the most difficult bank to deal with. Their customer care is very poor and they are even rated as one of the worst banks. When we decided to open another bank account we found Abbey to be the most conveniently placed. So my husband and I went to open a bank account with them. They seemed very nice and glad to have us as customers. The bank was very neat and tidy. I never realised that what would come later would put me off this bank for the rest of my life. The problems started when I found only £30 in my account yet there should have been more money in my account. Abbey had not informed me that we had gone over the overdraft or that indeed they were going to take any money out of my bank. So later that evening I phoned the bank to see if I could sort something out, it took about half an hour to get in...

Mickie26 25.05.2008 (01.07.2008) · Read review
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Review of Abbey

abbey fantstic

Advantages: great service provider
Disadvantages: none

...Abbey are a fantastic bank that offer a lot of products under one roof. Abbey offer a wide range of bank accounts, they have a current account which i have with them where i have a visa debit card, a cheque book and an overdraft on the account of £1000 although i have never used the overdraft and havent used a cheque for ages, you can pay in most stores through chip and pin with your debit card and use it all over the world at cash machines so this for me is a great account. Abbey offers a specialised account for people aged 11 to 15 years which has a cash card for with drawals and has an interest payment of 6%pa but you do have to make a payment into the account once a month but there is no fixed amount you have to pay in so you could pay as little as £1, i think this is a great way of giving a teenager the chance to be...

danniell 08.06.2008 · Read review
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A Fine Romance in its time?

Advantages: A light entertaining read with gentle humour
Disadvantages: Preoccupations peculiar to the period in which it was written

...and comprehension. So while I confess I still experienced some tedium when I viewed ?Sense and Sensibility? some time ago, I actually found that I enjoyed a recent dramatisation of ?Mansfield Park?, so much so that I decided I would seek out and read the remaining Jane Austen novels. ?Northanger Abbey?, the subject of this review, was my first candidate. On the surface, ?Northanger Abbey? is a very straightforward romantic tale, seen from the perspective of the heroine, Catherine Morland, a girl approaching marriageable age who has the opportunity to leave the comfort and security of her modest childhood home in the country for a few weeks to be spent in the relatively exciting environment of the town of Bath. There she does her best to make friends while conforming to the strict expectations of social etiquette of the time. It is not easy as...

Discerna 23.03.2004 · Read review
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Review of Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

ABBEY - You stink

Advantages: Not One
Disadvantages: Open to Fraud, unhelpful, rude, arrogant, no customer focus, terrible bank

...So a recent survey by BBC Watchdog (that average programme that highlights issues and makes you more annoyed with the state if this once great country) listed the Abbey as Britain's worst bank and I couldn't agree more. Let me give you a little bit of history, I have been with them for 23 years (with a few minor niggles, but nothing much to be concerned over), but the last 4 years the bank has hit the bottom in terms of customer service (the bane of my life). About 3 years ago my account was scammed by a lovelly little company and at that time it started with a £1 purchase with a chat line (to test the card was active) and then from there the wonderful gents decided to hit Tesco petrol stations across Birmingham at £25.77 per transaction at exactly the same time. Now being diligent I reported this to my bank had my cards stopped...

ChrisJJ 03.03.2008 · Read review
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Getting out of the Abbey habit

Advantages: None that other banks don't have
Disadvantages: Too many to list

...My husband and I had bad experiences with Abbey National that put us off for life. If started off OK, we banked with them for about 14 years. We had a current account, savings accounts, TESSAs and a mortgage. We went to them for financial advice and trusted them. But after they changed into a bank, things went downhill. It was partly our own fault, we didn't keep a close enough check on our accounts. We discovered that they had been taking our mortgage payments out of our current account twice a month (instead of once a month) for a year. When we pointed it out to them, there was quite an argument, not even a hope of an apology. Also, we were in the habit of keeping our mortgage payments at the high rate whenever the interest rate went down. We hoped to pay our mortgage off early this way. We accumulated £4,800 extra in our...

MichelleScott 03.12.2000 (23.01.2002) · Read review
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Review of Abbey

Get In To The Abbey Habit

Advantages: Excellent Overdraft Rate, Online Banking, Telephone Banking
Disadvantages: None

...~~~~ UPDATE AT THE END FOR THOSE WHO HAVE PREVIOUSLY READ THIS OP ~~~~ Abbey National, the habit of a lifetime. How many of us change bank accounts regularly or look around for a better deal? Let?s face it most people will shop around for the best mortgage deal before committing to one institution. How many of us are happy with our current bank or building society account? If we?re not do we actually do anything about it? Have we become complacent in keeping abreast of financial developments? How many of us keep all our receipts for debit card transactions and scrutinise our statements thoroughly when they arrive? I?m one of those people who likes to keep up to date with what?s going on in the financial world. Not so much in the way of monitoring stocks and shares but more in the way of what?s on offer to us consumers in...

criple 24.07.2002 (04.04.2003) · Read review
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Review of Abbey

GET THE ABBEY HABIT

Advantages: High street, postal, telephone, internet, ATM access. Variety.
Disadvantages: Status

...The Abbey National is now the Abbey following an acquisition by a European multinational. I joined the Abbey National just before it became a PLC and enjoyed a windfall from share options issued then. I transferred due to dissatisfaction with another bank and found facilities for transfer very easy. Even in the 1990's they took care of all my direct debits and standing orders etc. I just completed the paper work. I should think the facilities have improved. THE WEBSITE Since the development of online technology and the Internet in the 1990's The Abbey website and services have expanded considerably. The website has a user friendly interface with advice on many branches of finance including Abbey business, Abbey international, Abbey share dealing, the internet bank Cahoot, Abbey funds centre, Jobs at Abbey, Inscape, Scottish...

JeffreyB 27.12.2004 (18.05.2006) · Read review
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Review of Abbey

UPDATED: bad Abbey habits

Advantages: trying to think of one
Disadvantages: shrinking and closing branches

...avoid paying the charges, but then I have to stand in the rain, with a queue behind me while I pay my bills each month. Well, I don't even mind that now and then,(much!) but now the opening hours of my branch have been reduced as well. I live in a seaside town, and there are often queues at the ATM on Saturdays, as the incoming holiday makers want their dosh, and the branch is shut. I am sure that this does not bode well for security issues as their is little privacy to be had when using ATM's in the middle of a shopping area. My other big gripe is that many towns now don't even boast a branch of the Abbey. This means I get charged to draw money from my own account, because of the closure of so many of the branches that used to grace our county we are forced to use the ubiquitous ATM, again! I do save up small change...

ICECOLD 01.10.2003 (20.10.2003) · Read review
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Review of Abbey

My Downward Abbey Spiral

Advantages: Regular bank accounts are provided with Visa Debit cards and good overdraft facilities.
Disadvantages: Rude customer service, mistakes frequently made, banking systems often go down, extortionate unauthorised overdraft fees.

...When I was a very young lad (about 9 or 10 years old) my dad took me up to the St Austell branch of the then Abbey National bank to get my first "super saver" bank account. I can't remember ever using it, except to make the odd withdrawal. Then one day my dad decided that it was time for me to finally stop using cash, and to have my first proper bank account. I soon recieved a bank card which I could use to withdraw money from ATM machines. I seem to remember my dad being more enthusiastic about this moment than I was. I've come a long way since then. I got my electron card when I was, I believe, 16, followed by a Visa debit card. I got pressured into having a £100 overdraft when I was a mere teenager by a woman who would not take no for an answer. I remember being quite intimidated by the sharply dressed bank workers and the formal...

killstrelok 16.01.2009 · Read review
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Review of Abbey