“We are very unhappy with the service we have received from them, we applied for a mortgage direct through them, all was good, adviser James Quigley was friendly and helpful at the beginning. Payment was taken on the 21st June for the £99 and the £370 valuation fee. After that communication was different, his manner on the phone changed and email responses were slow, days after. On the 26th June he said we where moving to far, but he had the wrong address. I called on the 28th June to be told by someone else that the application had been started but not submitted. On the 4th July James promised it would be looked at the next day, 2 weeks after we payed. On the 9th July, after pushing and trying to get things moving as we had the estate agents giving US a deadline we were told it was a no from the bank, and James said he would sort the refund of £370.
I emailed on the 24th and 26th July asking where the refund was, no reply. i called on the 30th July to be told it was authorized in the 26th and to allow 5 days , would be in my bank by Thursday 2nd August. Still no refund, I emailed again on the 2nd to be told you cant find my payment so no refund has been issued?!”
“Very dishonest. They kept my savings for 5 months and returned the fonds to me without paying any interests. When I called them they told me I could do a new investment with them. How could they even think I would ever invest any money with them? They are not professional and have stolen 5 months interests from my money. There are plenty other investment company that pay better interests and are very good. One of the best is Castle Trust.”
“Absolutely dreadful customer service telephone line. I have no way of going online (one of the issues) so to have 45 minutes of a message telling me to go online because they're 'sorry about the delay in answering' is really aggravating. Finally get through to be told it's because of 'all the new customers they're getting'. I think it's most certainly because of the insufficient number of staff working there. So sick of companies like this and their BS.”
“My application got lost and lost on fixed deposit and they had my funds for a month and no communications from them and sent back funds and sent a letter afterwards.”
“Just read reviews and in total agreement.
Opened savings account but have had to contact them several times re internet access.
Still not got account verified in order to get money back and account closed.
All other banks have better systems in place
and will refund money if change mind on opening.
DO NOT USE THIS BANK.
Much better online banks elsewhere.”
“Wonderful news, whether they read my review regarding customer loyalty I don't know, but we were contacted by Aldermore Bank ( I called them back as you should for security reasons) and received an apology and opened the account at the original rate. Well done, and thank you Aldermore”
“We are an elderly couple who like others sometimes find it difficult to navigate around internet banking. We have been loyal customers of this bank for many years and recommended it to relatives. This means nothing to this organisation. They are insensitive and do not understand loyalty so we have found it necessary to cease any further business with them. We recently opened a 1 year bond at a fixed rate, but confusion arose over the transfer of funds to it from a 30 day notice account.It resulted in the failure to transfer the funds in time before the interest rate dropped. They insisted that the a new account would have to be opened at the lower interest rate.
Any organisation that puts profit before customer satisfaction and loyalty is not worthy of support.”
“The reason I give 2 stars is that at least they have a good working internet banking and the withdrawals (originally) work within the timescale they promise.
However, do not fall for it. They make it sound super simple and easy and then they keep your money hostage.
I explain... I opened this account by how easy it sounded to deposit / withdraw money from my main current account in case I had an emergency and needed the money. And the first time around it worked great. Until I get a letter in the post saying that until I prove my current account is my own they have put "preventative measures" in my easy saver (without giving any details about which they are!). I went paperless with my current account provider, so I go to my app's inbox and download my latest statement, I send both a photo of Aldermore's original letter to me and the PDF I just downloaded from my current account provider to them via email... I thought, well this is done. They have my email, they have a photo of the letter, surely there will be no doubt THIS IS ME.
Wrong, I receive an email saying they do not accept digital documents (when are we? 1980s?) and I must contact customer service via phone. I do, customer service then says they cannot accept digital documents... Ok, but I don't have a printer at home, what do I do? Oh, we cannot accept documents printed at home either, it has to be an original from your bank - lady, did you not just hear me saying I had gone paperless?
So, she then explains that I cannot do anything with my money until I send an original statement from my bank via post. Keeping my money hostage!
So I contacted my current account provider, who confirmed the copy of the statement will come in 7-10 working days. This plus the amount of time it will take to send the statement back to Aldermore and having them processing it, means that this won't get resolved any earlier than 15 days. I sincerely hope I will not need this money within these 15 days or I am going to be a very angry person.
This is MY MONEY! Why do you go through all the trouble of limiting deposits and withdrawals from a specific current account to then do all this? It's ridiculous and outdated.”
“Applied for mortgage in principle through broker; explained very clearly to Business Development Manager about self-employment status, time trading, available accounts etc.
In principle was approved with no issues.
Was informed all was ok and employment status was within their lending criteria.
Made full application and passed all affordability checks, LTV criteria etc. etc.
Full application was OK'd by underwriters but then refused by Risk Manager who decided he wanted another years accounts or he'd lower the offered LTV from 95% to 85%.
This was challenged by my broker and by Aldermores' own underwriter but the Risk Manager would not honour what had been promised all through the weeks of the application process.
Making a Financial Ombudsman Service complaint about 'unfair treatment' of customer by clearly stating one self-employment criteria all through application until final minute when criteria was changed with no reason or warning.
Read on other review sites that Aldermore has a reputation of issuing In Principle decisions and then reneging on them - guess I'm just another victim who's lost a house sale and purchase due to shoddy practices by this lender.”
“The slow pace at which they handle the underwriting process is a major deterrent for me when it comes to reapplying. It's unfortunate because they offer quality products, but their inefficiency makes me lean towards other lenders instead.”
“Avoid! I opened an account a few years ago and sent a secure message to request the withdrawal of funds as the fixed period had passed (there was no obvious way to withdraw the funds online).
I received no response to the secure message so phoned them to be told that I couldn’t access the money as the fixed period had started again. Apparently they had sent me a letter to advise that it would roll over into another fixed rate but I didn’t receive it. The advisor said I needed to write a letter explaining why I needed the money! I sent the letter and received a phone call today advising I couldn’t access my money unless I could prove hardship?! No, I’m not trying to claim benefits or the like, I just want access to MY money to spend it how I want to! I’ve had to raise a complaint and will report to the ombudsman if this is not resolved quickly. Absolutely shocking that a bank is making it as difficult as this. I worked in financial services for nearly 30 years and this sort of aggressive commercial behaviour is very dated!”
“The worse experience in my life! Please avoid them. They delay the application asking the same question all over again and decreased the amount 2 times! We lost our buyer because of that. Shocking communication. Checking cases and putting back on the queue for another few weeks to check it again. 4 months off extreme stress. Not worthy at all. Never again!”
“I would strongly recommend to avoid this bank for mortgages. Communication is poor and they are very slow to act. Due to the mini budget they pulled our mortgage application even though we made the application beginning of July. They say their turn around is 21 days.”
“Have had various types of savings accounts. All with no problems whatsoever. As long as I don't exceed the agreed parameters, and stick to the rules and regulations and terms, everything is/has been exactly as stated at the time of the original agreement. Transfers of monies has always been easy. Rates go up and down (unless you opt for a fixed rate/term account) as with all banks and they are no different to any other bank there. They make money from collating and handling our money and the system fluctuates, according to the markets. It's a simple process! You ask, they offer, you read it fully, and then accept or refuse.
Only after that, if they fail to meet their side of the bargain, do you have a right to complain and then do it directly with Aldermore. Not on some public forum which is yet another bitching site.
I can't understand all the bleating and one sided stories on these reviews. We all have the option to go back to a face to face with a bank official and not bother with online banks at all.”
“Poor, fail to meet FCA regulations, no understanding of FCA treating customers fairly, I'm going to continue posting negative reviews each week until this company accepts they have got it wrong, this company wouldn't go wrong having there FCA licience revoked and be put out of business, make things up as they go long make offers they don't stick too, then they try to cover tracks with further unorthodox tactics. NAMED AND SHAMED ADAM GUNTON AND NEIL DAWSON”
