Woolwich on the way out

Advantages: Numerous locations,range of products offered
Disadvantages: Falling standards of service,change of direction

...I have been a customer of the Woolwich for around 10 years now.During that time I have watched as they have gone from one of the better buiding societies, through mutialisation, to where they are today, owned by Barclays and run as a profit driven franchise type outlet. I chose Woolwich all those years ago as the local branch was well staffed by a group of ladies who always gave very good service, as well as being friendly and polite. During my time as a customer i have held several accounts with them and although their interest rates may not have been the best available, they were up there near the top. Today I only have one account with them, my normal Bank Account which my salary goes into and then, unfortunately, goes out again extremely rapidly. I have no real problems with this account as I am someone who manages their...

murky5 31.03.2001 · Read review
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Review of Woolwich

Woolwich Open Plan Mortgages

Advantages: Payoff chunks of mortgage whenever you want. Offsetting saving accounts, interest calaculated daily
Disadvantages: Can be tempted to borrow to the max

...We've had a Woolwich Open Plan mortgage for just over seven years. On the whole we have been very satisfied. The mortgage work by allowing you to set up a number of accounts and under Woolwich a number of saving pots, ie mini accounts that cannot be overdrawn, which can be offset agai9nst the mortgage. In simple terms this means all of these funds are taken off the mortgage total and interest is then calculated on the result. We set up pots for a new car, holiday and for a small inheritance, which was to be used by our daughter to help her through university. We also had a reserve that is an extra amount of money that we could borrow at the mortgage rate. In our case this was around £20,000. As you npay off the mortgage this amount increases. We now have an overdraft facility of around £70,000. While the acount...

odtaa 07.11.2008 · Read review
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Review of Woolwich Mortgages

Kindly Woolwich

Advantages: Good return on ISA
Disadvantages: Poor access to branch for disabled

...Woolwich? Not for the disabled! My mother received a letter from her local Woolwich branch confirming that her Maxi ISA had matured. The letter suggested that she should call into her branch to arrange a further investment for the funds. I should explain that my mother is eighty seven years of age incredibly bright and cheerful, but due to arthritis, confined to a wheelchair for outings. She telephoned me and asked when I could take her to the Woolwich and subsequently made an appointment with the branch. I collected my mother/wheelchair and drove to a car park near the branch and then wheeled her to the branch. Entrance to the branch is protected by two security doors, both operated by a push button control. To push a wheelchair operate the door controls whilst holding a door ajar with one foot can only be likened to a Laurel...

Godders 12.07.2001 · Read review
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Review of Woolwich

Woolwich Buy to Let schemes

Advantages: Portable mortgage with excellent customer service
Disadvantages: APR not the most competitive

...I'd like to pass on my positive comments to all with regards to the Woolwich Buy to Let mortgage scheme. Whilst most buy to let lenders just want to look at multiples of income:expenditure ratios and base the lending decision simply on maths, the Woolwich will actually work with you to safeguard your interests (and ultimately theirs!) in a logical step by step approach. I have found that they also provide the best customer service and their staff are very knowledgable about the product range. There are a number of schemes available, fixed, capped and discounted tracker and each option can be discussed in depth at time of application. Lending muliples can also be flexed by varying the rates by those under different schemes. The ultimate bonus is that the mortgage is portable - spmething that a lot of lenders do not offer...

bounty 27.05.2001 · Read review
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Review of Woolwich Mortgages

Woolwich mortgage . made a difficult task easier

Advantages: High lending amount without extorsionate interest rates, Were allocated a personal morgage advisor.
Disadvantages: High charges for returned payments (on top of the charges your bank will charge)

...nearly a year and other than one incident where my bank made a mistake with a transfer which meant my mortgage payment was returned The Woolwich charged me £27.50 even though this wasn't my fault and refused to refund it. Saying that if we know there will be a problem they have no problems delaying direct debits ( which is good to know just in case) however the notice period is about 10 days before due date. which in most cases if you're going to have a problem paying you may not know that early. My bank charged me £35 but agreed fault and did refund it. So as long as you make all your payments on time does go smoothly. Our interest was by all means not the lowest there is but certainly the lowest we found who also lend higher amounts I think at the time we were searching Halifax had the lowest interest rate but only lend 3x annual income...

Ortu 05.02.2007 · Read review
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Review of Woolwich Mortgages

Woolwich Open Plan

Advantages: One sceme for all needs
Disadvantages: Compicated Statements, Confusing

...In around April this year I opened an account (some £16K) with Woolwich "open-plan" which is a scheme whereby with one account all financial requirements are catered for. One advantage is that any surplus funds on a low interest cheque account are automatically transferred to a higher intersst account so that interest paid is optimised in favour of the customer. However I found the statements confusing and didn't see the need for two visa cards, one a credit card and the other for operating the account. These arrived at different times with different pin numbers being advised and no clear indication of which was which. I might have persevered except that when I opened the account Woolwich as an incentive were offering a WAP phone at a discount for new accounts. I applied for this twice but never received a reply - not even...

2emily8 15.01.2001 · Read review
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Review of Woolwich Accounts

You're either with us...or better off without us

Advantages: Quite a few branches and a couple of good accounts
Disadvantages: You need to actively moitor your accounts - they will NOT do it for you. They are only out to make a PROFIT

...I have had an account with the Woolwich for all of my 26 years, my Grandmother having opened an account for me when I was born. Throughout that time I have tried and tested many of their accounts and feel suitably qualified to comment. My overall opinion of the Woolwich is that it is a bank that has just got too big for its boots. It's savings products at one time competed with the best of the best, offering high rates and good incentives. Following privatisation there appears only to be one word on the lips of the directors - "profit". I currently run several accounts at the Woolwich, ranging from a Prime Gold savings account paying a miserly fraction of a percent interest to an Open Plan savings account paying just over 5%. Take the Prime Gold account as a good example of Woolwich policy. This account used to be one...

CareBear 02.03.2001 (05.03.2001) · Read review
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Review of Woolwich Accounts

Thank you Mr. er

Advantages: Unhelpful information from Local branch
Disadvantages: Everything

...I have been acustomer with the Woolwich for about 5 years changing my current account into the all new open plan about a year ago. I then heard about the merger between Barclays and The Woolwich and I thought time to move having never been a fan of Barclays. I opened an account with Nationwide but before I could get the account up and running I found myself in Hospital following an RTA. In November I made a stupid mistake a wrote acheque from the wrong account (Woolwich account) and managed to become overdrawn (the first time in 14 years that I have been overdrawn with any bank). As soon as I realised my error I transfered funds to the Woolwich open plan account only to receive two letters, at £27 each, telling me of the obvious, one letter dated on the day of the transaction to credit my account and the other after I had credited...

sadcrab 23.02.2001 · Read review
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Review of Woolwich

Are you with or without

Advantages: 24 hour online and telephone banking
Disadvantages: High monthly charge for overdraft, sometimes a temperamental website

...I have had a Woolwich account for as long as I can remember, and a couple of years ago ago upgraded to the Open Plan Account. WHAT IS OPEN PLAN? The idea of the Open plan account is that you can off-set your current and savings accounts against your mortgage resulting in you paying less interest overall and possibly even reduce the overall mortgage term, this is because interest on the account is calculated daily, and credit balances in other accounts are added to the total of the mortgage balance to effectively reduce the amount outstanding. Issued with the open-plan, should you require it, you can borrow monies up to 90% of the value of your home at any time during the mortgage term, and also get issued with a credit card all based on the rate at which your mortgage is calculated. I don't actually take advantage of this...

sue.51 23.03.2001 (26.02.2002) · Read review
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Review of Woolwich Accounts

Bad service an unhelpful staff

Advantages: Open Plan does seem to work
Disadvantages: Staff have no idea what they are talking about

...Sorry to burst the bubble, as everyone else's opinions seem to like the Woolwich, but I have had a lot of trouble with them since I took out my mortgage. I realised that I was tied into them for five years, but had a chance to pay a lump sum off my mortgage. When I tried to enquire about this I was passed from one department to another, with nobody really being able to help me. After writing three letters and getting no reply, and making umpteen phonecalls, an advisor at their Mortgage Centre finally told me I could do this, so I wrote to my local branch, only to be advised by the manager there that I couldn't!! I could have re-invested my money but hadn't on their advice that I could pay off my mortgage. I was so fed up with my treatment that I went through their complaints procedure. My main point to them was that...

kismet 24.04.2001 · Read review
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Review of Woolwich