Principality Building Society Arvostelua 249

Have been a loyal saver for a number of years. A simple transfer request was not executed correctly. Customer service could not have been less interested - no explanation or apology offered. Not even a refund of the fee levied. Strongly recommend any saver to think twice about having funds with this company

I've been saving with them since June and have no complaints so far. Application process online is quick and easy. Online service is a pleasure to use. Secure messages sent to them are always responded to quickly and they offer some good savings rates too, particularly with their Christmas 2023 regular savings bond at 5%. I now have 3 different regular savers with them. Keep up the great work.

Dreadful Online System. I have been a saver with them since the early 2000's and in the past rated them highly and even recommended them to various friends. In the past if you had any issues you could always phone customer service and they were always helpful. Since they changed their log-in system everything has changed and now it's really difficult to get online and worse, their phone system has gone downhill (so getting through on the phone is hit & miss too). The online system is now the WORST and most non-user friendly one I've ever used. Now, every time I try to log-in I get into a continuous loop (involves a number of calls to your mobile) and takes a lot of time and then you are eventually locked out which means IF you can get through on the phone you will eventually get a letter (a couple of weeks later) giving you a code to try to get back in. After the last time this charade happened (sept22), I stopped funding anything and started to unwind anything that matured. Today, I thought I'd have one last go but it happened yet again (even though after the last time it happened in sep22, I printed all the passwords plus questions & answers out just so I could make sure it couldn't happen again) ! Basically, I've now given up and will close all my accounts as soon as they mature.

So, Dear Reader, unless you have lots of time, I would suggest you avoid using them until they sort their systems out.

They offer a very good ISA savings rate but then you can't register with them. For the particular account I wished to transfer my ISA savings to, you can only do it online but their IT system simply doesn't work. I entered all my details three times over the course of today and, each time, I got the message 'Sorry, something went wrong'. What a waste of my time. How can a large company be so incompetent and why would you trust them with your money if they can't get the basics right? They must lose so much business through their stupidity. Onto the next company.........

My husband and I went into Shrewsbury branch to open a new savings account. I had opened one online but it wouldn't let me make it a joint account so we went in with our id etc to open one in branch.
The lady we spoke to said we couldn't open an account today we would have to come back in a week and do it then. She wasn't very helpful or friendly. We left and went to The West Brom where we were welcomed with a smile and opened a savings account to put the proceeds of a house sale into.
She needs to improve her customer service. We will not be going back

Another visit to Principality Llandudno Branch to complete ISA Bond transfer and again excellent service.
Quick phone call to Jane the manager who told me to come in and collect my new book. Gentleman at counter was very efficient and friendly. Staff are very welcoming. Would recommend.

Had an appointment today at 12.30 in Llanelli to open a child savings account for my 9 week old daughter who I had with me. Unfortunately due to issues at home I was 10 minutes late for the appointment. When I arrived I was told by the woman I had the appointment with, that I was late so she probably wouldn’t be able to see me, I apologised and explained the situation to which she replied she would have to go and ask the manager if they needed her to do anything else if not then she might see me, I was so upset by her attitude I just said it was ok and left. I couldn’t believe someone would be so mean and abrupt if she did not have the time she could’ve just said politely. There was absolutely no compassion or customer service skills. I’d never go back. I hope they can train their staff to think about people might be going through and to be kind.

Principality appear to be well behind the times. No app!!! No way to pull bank statements online (have to be posted ….really!!) they are so behind the times it is woeful- Principality with all the money you are making you need to invest back into Technology!!! Also a 9 day turnaround time for underwriter queries … really!!!

After being declined by over 10 banks in the UK, my wife and I got our first mortgage with the Principality. Everything was so fast and easy, they always answered on time, with no problems at all. Many Thanks :)

Recently opened a new cash ISA. The online signup was simple and only took a few minutes. I already had an existing customer portal account and the two were automatically linked.

Website is perhaps not to my taste, but easy enough to use and navigate offering easy navigation to your accounts.

Inbound transactions for funding the account were smooth with funds appearing in the account the following day.

Applying for our first home and this provider messed us about for weeks. Every week they needed something else rather than just asking early on. We was the declined right at the last minute over a transaction on our bank account paying off a parking fine! Nothing on our credit file just a parking ticket whcjh was paid in full and appeared on our bank statement. We was told had we had not paid the fine the mortgage would have gone through!!!! Disgusting. We nearly lost the house of our dreams because 2 months after our offer we had to start the process again. Avoid at all costs. The FSA need to be looking into company’s like these where they are clearly not treating all customers fairly.

Absolutely avoid taking a mortgage with these people, slow bad communication from the outset perfectly matched by there conveyers who are equally lacking in aptitude or purpose. Had my mortgage offer about 1 month ago, still getting letters of the conveyers for more titbits of information so decided to stay with my current lender Skipton which payments are slightly more but you can trust them and always get a member of staff who can help and know what there talking about...a lesson learned...never again Principality!!

Want to transfer my instant access cash ISA to another bank with a more favourable interest rate. The new bank requested the funds and my account with Principality was closed 10 days ago. The funds have still not arrived in my new bank account and I have since found out that Principality do not transfer funds electronically - they send cheques!! Who sends cheques these days? How did they operate during lockdown?? Unbelievable. I will be raising a formal complaint shortly.

Worst Mortgage Company Ever!! AVOID!!!

My wife and I are literally being forced to increase our monthly mortgage costs by £hundreds of pounds which is completely against the 'Treating Customers Fairly' outcomes of the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) and they just don't care at all...all due to corporate greed!! Poor show against a loyal customer for many years.

When we moved house we were told by the local branch and mortgage service centre that our existing flexible lifetime tracker mortgage could not be extended (it could have) and that we would have to take a 2nd flexible mortgage charge in order for the additional funds to purchase our new house. Now mid way through its term, some 10years since we moved purely because the Principality have decided that they no longer want to offer flexible mortgage products, they have told us that once the 2nd discounted mortgage expires in Aug 2023 we can only have SVR (which is likely to be 5-8+% who knows?!) or sign a deed of variation to forego our flexible features and take out another mortgage, all of which is a massive increase financially. Im not sure they read the news with the cost of living crisis?!!

The kicker is they underhandedly changed our original oldest ported lifetime tracker mortgage to a 'secondary' mortgage charge and put the new additional 2nd mortgage as the 'Primary' charge without us knowing. Which now in their eyes means they can shaft us, as the new 'Primary' discounted mortgage is due to end in Aug 2023 and whereby we could've usually picked a new discounted mortgage, they have decided they no longer offer them. Therefore ALL new products can only be 'Unflexible'...and we cannot possibly have 2 mortgages, one being flexible and one unflexible!!
They have commercially decided midterm that they do not offer flexible mortgage products and that they are going to do all they can to force ourselves and others from our Lifetime Tracker products rather than putting right their mistake in the first place.

They themselves raised a complaint when I queried it, some 8wks later a complaint handler called Nick Scotland has reviewed the complaint and replied to say sorry but he is siding surpringly with the Principality. He proceeded to detail out incorrect information and stating the decision is final and we can take it to the Ombudsman, but please contact him if we feel he has misunderstood the case. We have now asked TWICE for him to provide the correct information and explain how he has come to his decision in line with the FCA regulated 'Treating Customers Fairly' outcomes (as he has perhaps inadvertently misunderstood the issues as per his own advice) and he has deliberately avoided answering. It speaks volumes...we are proceeding to the Ombudsman, but please avoid this company as they do not honour their advertised mortgages and the underhand way in which they have deliberately processed our mortgages to suit their agenda is shocking. They make enough money from our existing mortgage, but they appear to want more. Although they are now happy for us to leave our mortgage agreement, safe in the knowledge that the interest rates have risen greatly in the 8weeks this complaint has taken them, meaning even if we wanted to switch providers we no longer have that option so we can keep our mortgage costs to a similar level as they are...appalling!

If anyone at the Principality picks this up, I've no idea what level Nick Scotland is, but we have genuinely tried very hard to avoid getting to this stage and he appears to stubbornly want to avoid reviewing the matter passing it on to a colleague or manager or providing the information requested. Very Odd. Rant over 🙄 anyway on to the legal route instead...(I'm from Wales too, you'd think they would look after their own wouldn't you 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿)

UPDATE 27th Aug 2022: ...still waiting for one! No one has responded after Julie passed this review on and also I am awaiting an email reply from a Carl Kimber (Complaints Team Manager) who I emailed directly but have yet to have even a courtesy reply?

I'm not sure what more as a customer we can do, this is a fair review for a very poor company unfortunately, I would love to have been able to update this thread with a positive response, but again it highlights the very poor unfair customer practice the Principality has engage in.

UPDATE: 30th August

I have provided you with the complaint ref (CAS-45246-WSVTXI) via the Trust Pilot link. However, please contact Nick Scotland (Complaint Handler) and Carl Kimber (Complaints Team Manager - who i haven't yet received a reply from) who are both fully aware of the complaint details as above and also the email chain and factual evidence to support the above. It shouldn't have to be this difficult to be fair.

Poor process’ for mortgage updates, online account too basic. Call centre staff are generally helpful, yet seems they are tied to what they can assist with. Had to be passed from employee to employee just to receive certain information and confirm an appointment 2 times to discuss ‘consent to let’. Won’t be renewing for these reasons when the time comes.

Perfectly happy to receive savings from me but now that I urgently need the cash, they're doing all they can to deny it to me.
Procedures are archaic and the staff are either not permitted to think, or lack the capacity to do so.
The online transfer could be completed in under a minute but the Complaints Team has advised that it hasn't already looked into my case, isn't currently doing so and will consider investigating at a timetable to suit Principality. Junk.

Wish I could give less than one star to be honest. This company kept stringing us along for over 4 weeks before deciding they no longer support shared ownership. Not only causing a delay with our house purchase, but causing us the trouble of having to find a new lender which then lead to us also having to change solicitors. Formal complaint raised and still no action months later. Cheers for the HUGE delay and no apology!!

I wanted to open an ISA and transfer in from another provider. The transfer requires filling in a form and sending all of that personal information, along with a signature, through the post. The alternative is to visit a branch.
Therefore, I decided to use another provider. Everything done online in minutes and the transfer complete within 3 days!

Thank the Lord that they still have branches because if you had to rely on their not fit for purpose online accounts they would go bust.
I have been trying for over 3 years to register my account , this usually will end as account locked and I give up. I have asked people 4 times over the phone to open it for me, without success.
I am now going to close my account and find a building society who can actually offer an online account.
Truly ,truly pathetic.

I have mortgage with this company, I have tried to remortgage my house and they give me very silly offer. I have to change the mortgage company, I got much better offer.
Well done ,you know how you can lose a good customer.
Balazs Toth