In October 2008, my wife & I opened a 1 year Fixed Rate Bond paying monthly interest at 6.5%. our initial sum was £57,000.00 .. All OK until the end of April 2009 . We received £308.75 interest per month9(Bradford and Bingley Bond)

For the month of MAY 09 NOTHING. For the MONTH of June 09 NOTHING ..Apparently so we found out later all the Bond monthly payouts with B & B had been transferred over to ABBEY. Customers were not informed of this change.

After many many letters and phone calls ( including lies, not being called back as promised, letters not received etc.All the usual excuses we took our complaint to the next step ABBEY COMPLAINTS at Milton Keynes.

In fairness they got us a payment for £620.87 (18th July)and confirmed with apologies that everything was now in order and our monthly payment would be paid into our current account as before.... PROBLEM SOLVED..(so we were told).

The 4th August came ... NO JULY payment made... Back to square 1 . Not being able to get any sensible information out of ABBEY in Bradford and ABBEY COMPLAINTS in Milton Keynes. I rang Bradford and Bingley. I was surprised to hear that Abbey could not set up any interest payments on old Bradford & Bingley Bond accounts due to IT problems with CAHOOT .. Cahoot is our current account provider.... The reduction in our monthly income of over £300.00 is quite a blow to us as we are both over 70 and living on the state pension.. The £57,000 is our life savings.

We have had enough. I have passed the whole matter over to the Financial Ombudsman and requested that they arrange for ABBEY to return our full capital immediatey PLUS the monthly interest up to the 22nd October 2009 when the Bond expires.

Abbey have broken the terms of their contract with us TWICE and we are very worried.

We have never dealt with the Financial Ombudsman in the past and as you can imagine we have no confidence whatsoever with ABBEY. Obviously no member of our family will ever deal with them again.

Has anyone out there had any similar experience ? Or experience with the Fianacial Ombudsman's Office.?. Apart from going to our Solicitor and taking this through the small claims court we are at our wits end....

Any help appreciated... We await communication from ther Ombudsman on a daily basis.

Roy

First let me say that your plight infuriated me just reading it. big picture it's "a" Government's fault over many years but governments neither know or care about detail. The key in this case is for it to be legally binding to sort out this sort of thing in say seven days and if not swingeing daily fines etc...

Back in the real world I don't know if you were technically allowed to submit your complaint to the at best mediocre FOS which sees as its goal putting things back to where they were before the problem and up to £100,000 compensation. the FOS was taking about six months to process claims last time I was involved with them. You say with a flourish that you've handed over the claim thinking they'll bang heads together, so did I they don't. I suggest you phone the FOS and get as much "real" info out of them and dig in for a long campaign and be delighted if Abbey sort it out "tomorrow". If you haven't already used the site click on the link to put flesh on the bones...

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/PUBLICATIONS/consumer-leaflet.htm

Roy Saunders:

Nothing surprises me about Abbey, or indeed most parts of the financial industry.

I'm a strong advocate of using the Financial Ombudsman Service, partly because of the hefty case fee the organisation is hit with regardless of the outcome and the potential for criticism.

Unfortunately its unlikely the FOS will make a decision for months and it could be nearly a year.

I understand how worrying and frustrating this is but I would focus your energy on ensuring the repayment arrangements are in place for when the bond matures. There will be something in the Terms & Conditions probably. I would expect a communication offering a range of options. You need to ensure that any default options is not to roll-over into a new fixed term bond. The possible vulnerability is that no letter arrives but Abbey claim to have sent a letter. Sorry I know that's not want you want to hear but you need to be alert for that possibility.

In time the FOS will make a decision about the monthly payments and compensation if due. I would hold off legal action until then.

Sorry I forgot to mention your backstop of "small claims". I certainly second Jalexa but would, if it was me, not even consider it. By the time Abbey have probably quite genuinely unintentionally mucked you about something rotten you will be biting the carpet - much better off to keep on top of the FOS.

Thank you jalexa and access for your welcome replies to our plight.

So far we have done everything correctly.. ie waiting 8 weeks before referring our problem to FOS. First we telephoned FOS and they sent us a complaint form within 48hours. All filled in with all the copies of the letters etc... We did read their form you kindly mentioned.... In for a long wait no doubt.

We will watch the termination of the bond and a letter will be sent to Abbey well in time requesting the capital be returned by cheque . Nothing on this earth would every persuade us to take out another bond with Abbey, regardless of interest rates.

I will list further postings on this to alert other people of the pitfalls with these people and the disgusting way we have been treated with this bond.

Roy

Hi Roy,

Given your situation I would also consider writing to the media (like the mail, times or telegraph) to get some advice / help, as the abbey will not want to appear in the press with this negative image, especially given your situation using the interest as income to pay bills etc.

I would also write to someone senior within the bank (not sure who - CEO of the retail bank or investment bank?) about your complaint.

Good luck

Sparky.

Roy Saunders:

a letter will be sent to Abbey well in time requesting the capital be returned by cheque .

Not all bank can return funds by direct credit believe it or not. Not sure about Abbey. I prefer BACS transfer because it's one less excuse. The only risk factor for the customer is making a mistake with the account details.

Roy, if you want to go the media route Abbey does have "form" for this. From memory during the transition from Abbey to Santander subsidiary there was a flurry of adverse media coverage along these lines. The one that sticks in my mind was about someone who died and Abbey simply not releasing Estate funds for nearly a year as opposed to "immediately". A bit of "Googling" might help. PROBLEM stated was system glitch SOLUTION you'll just have to wait.

Hi there... read your comments about Abbey with interest. Yes you have done correct to put the issue into the hands of the Ombudsman, but I worn you that it does take some time with them, but keep at it !!. I had an issue with my bank. who I will name Lloyds ... but it took almost 10 months of twoing and froing to sort things out for me. I feel with the banks now they should not be allowed to get away with the issue you have. Good luck! - but keep at it.

Thanks everyone for your support and interest in our serious problem with Abbey. I will keep up the postings and follow this through until the end... Our Life Savings is in here. How these multi national organisations can behave in this disgusting way leaves me cold....

Phoned the contact I had at the FOS this morning... Spoke to a voice mail and left a message.... so far no call back. Hey Ho.. what a world we live in .

Roy

sorry to read about your situation with abbey roy. i cant add much to the above advice. i can tell you though that abbey are on my blacklist of companies i will never deal with again, along with the halifax. 2 of the most inefficient, careless & clueless groups of cowboys i have ever dealt with in over 45 years - i wouldnt trust either with the contents of a piggy bank !

good luck with your savings and i hope you get a satisfactory end soon and can move on and away from unnecessary worry.

Today is a great day.... We got back our £57k invested with Bradford and Bingley 22.10.2008 on a monthly interest acct which has given my wife and I HELL since June this year...

I posted the details of the shabby way Abbey had treated us. with the above which resulted in a skirmish with them via Abbey Complaints office in Milton Keynes and a follow up with the Financial Ombudsman Office (as much use as a chocolate teapot?)

Bradford and Bingley moved all their monthly payment admin over to Abbey in June 09.... What they did not tell Cahoot Current acct owners that their IT set up would not let any monthly interest payments be made to a Cahoot acct by BACS from Abbey.... It still does'nt and all interest payents since June have had to be collected from one of their Branches... From where we live a fair journey complete with heavy traffic.... OK they admitted defeat and paid us compensation of £300 . Numerous requests (which I felt were justified) asking them to send us a cheque through the post all fell on deaf ears....

If like us you are in your mid/seventies and welcome interest payments to assist with your pension.. watch for this snake pit... I doubt whether they will tell you their problem if you open a bond with them which pays interest monthly...

As far as Cahoot are concerned we find them superb with their on line current acct . We have been with them many years.It's just a pity that they do not pay monthly interest with their savings account and give a slightly better interest rate with their current account as they used to do......Be warned......

Roy

But isn't Cahoot part of Abbey ?????What a c*****up!!

Hi Brewerdave,

Yes indeed Cahoot are part of Abbey...Fortunately( so they tell me) they will continue to trade under the Cahoot name and will not be changing their brand name over to Santander in January when the rest of them do....

When I collected my cheque yesterday from an Abbey branch (they could not even return my capital by BACS to my Cahoot current acct) Abbey were showing off, telling me , when the move over entirely to the Santander brand they will gradually change over to a 'global' pc system.... ie if you have a current account here , it will be recognised in every Santander branch in the world.... I think I upset the guy when I commented that I hope they dont put the same IT staff on

to the change who screwed up Abbey/Bradford & Bingley amalgamation in June... Don't think he like that..

However, no member of my family will ever deal with this lot ever again, regardless of their interest rates.......

Glad to hear you got it sorted at last. I too will never agin deal with Abbey, or any other subsidiary of Banco Santander.

I've been battling to be treated as a human being by this disgraceful excuse for a bank since June 2009, when it came to my attention that they had 'mislaid' a £3,500 ISA I'd been stupid enough to transfer-in in April 2008. To this day (in so far as I can get any response from them at all), they maintain that they never received the transfer – even though the building society which sent it to them has provided me with a copy of their cheque, made out to “Abbey National plc Re: [My Name]”, which was cashed in June 2008.

I've been through the usual channels – the useless “Customer Service” department, the obstructive Complaints department and the Ombudsman. More than four months after bringing the matter to Abbey's attention, I'm no further forward, and still £3,500 down.

Basically, Abbey don't give a stuff. Your money would be safer under the doormat.