"Excellent student facilities"
A review of Abbey National by DeeJayTee - Wednesday 1st of September 2004
I have been with abbey national now for three years. I signed up to their student account when I became a student at APU and have found their services to be very good during my time with them. As a student they tell you that you have to only one bank account with them, but I have found that as long as you pay at least £10 or more per ninety days into your account you get the same free overdraft and facilities as any other account and you can open more than one in several banks. It is not illegal to have more than one bank account.
As far as their premises are concerned they are refreshingly well furnished and the coffee shop provides a nice atmosphere. It also gives you something to do while you wait to be seen which is good. However, the more cynical among you will have noticed that this is a clever marketing ploy and the symbiotic relationship between Abbey and Costa (I think its Costa) serve them well. While you wait, you fork out for expensive coffee (tea for me – I cant stand all the multi-adverb coffee names) and this means you can be diverted from perhaps long waiting times. In fact, I have never been waiting more than 15 minutes to be seen and they give you a little buzzer to tell you when they are ready to see you – which I thought was a bit superfluous (especially since I usually don’t notice it going off).
All in all, the actual services they offer, which, let’s face it, is about all you should be interested in, are actually very good. I have had no trouble with them - barring a little technical difficulty in arranging my graduate account upgrade. The post-graduate offers are good too, with you getting a gradual decrease in overdraft, all free, so that you can work your way out of debt once you find that elusive post degree employment. I think I may stay with Abbey on the strength of this alone and this is testament to good service – this is what you want from capitalist society, where the ideal is to have consumer power and the corporate authorities providing quality in order to keep your loyalty. You don’t always find it.
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