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Abbey National 0845...

Useful tip, if you are the sort of person that takes standard of servie seriousy. I rang the 0845 number to inquire about ISA's. Results:

  1. Choice of phone buttons to choose from

  1. Irrelevent information given to me about some sort of documents that may or may not have been sent to me

  2. Music and "all lines are busy"

  1. Invitation to call back later.

This sort of thing is irritating and if enough people whinge then thing might get better.

Incidently, Bradford and Bingly answered the phone straight away and also do an ISA at 5% if you invest 3000 for 12 months.

Cheers

PS Now I'm going to forward a copy of this posting to the Abbey, all of which makes me feel my wasted phonecall has been avenged. :-))

Reply to
david
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I suspect that it won't make any difference whatsoever.

The bean counters will have factored 'lost business' into the equation when they calculated the 'cost savings' of giving crap service.

tim

Reply to
tim

Should have just tried calling 0141 565 7361 (assuming it still works as haven't used it for a couple of months).

Reply to
Dave Parker

I did send a copy of this posting to the Abbey National and I got the automated reply straight away and an apologetic letter (which I think was written by a human) within 3 hours!!

However, I suspect that they could'nt beat the 5% ISA ftom the Bradford and Bingley, as I'm sure they would have told me.

Reply to
david

May I point out a few things:

To all intensive purposes, this is a fixed rate 1 year bond, not an ISA.

To call it an ISA is misleading really, as it is a) Not really a Mini-Cash ISA, and b) is NOT CAT standarded - indeed, how could it be?!

You have to compare like with like here mate!

Oh look - there is a managed fund ISA which generated 8.2% last year - that MUST be a better option than my 4.00% Cash ISA!! Doh!

MC

Reply to
Marcus Collie
  1. The Bradford and Bingley gave me a certificate which says "fixed rate ISA" and "ISA Easy Saver", the poster in the window said "ISA".

  1. The two pages of information that they gave me said it was CAT standard.

Is this misleading?

Reply to
david

Yes it is - read the product literature as distributed in branch, and posted on the B&B website:

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It specifically states it is NOT CAT standarded!!

A 'mini cash ISA' generally implies a savings account which offers tax free interest on a cash investment. So, B&B issue a tax-free 1 year bond which has a fixed return (in this case 5.00%) and call it an ISA. This is not a lie, but you cannot compare it with say, a Halifax Mini Cash ISA or Barclays Mini Cash ISA etc which offer say 4.00% but give you immediate access to the money if requested. Further, IF bank base rates rise to say 7% (unlikely, I know!) then the

5.00% investment suddenly doesn't look so good!

MC

Reply to
Marcus Collie

ok, thanks, I see what you mean. Hopefully it'll work out fine, it's only a small amount of my savings and was not worth looking into anymore than on a superficial level. I fact, if you read my first posting, even hanging on listening to music on an 0845 phone number was TOO MUCH hassle!

Reply to
david

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