thinkmoney Personal Account www.thinkmoney.co.uk Review

“I have written before on this forum about TBings...”

Written on: 03/02/2011

I have written before on this forum about TBings inadequate service..



What you must remember is that they are not actually a bank, they simply use the RBS for accounts and their cash card is provided by The Newcastle Building Society and is basically and top up debit card !!



I have had plenty of issues over the past 2 years with the way this cowboy set up is run..



Yes it does provide piece of mind knowing your money is where it should be and DD's are paid..but there are frequent issues with money being unavailable for withdrawal despite being in the account, card transactions failing - it's never theitr fault and will offer no compensation for any error..Many times I have been embarrased in shops when trying to pay and the transaction is declined despite plenty of funds in account.



I have been in quite in depth talks with a fellow from their customer servivce teams after I threatened to go to the bnaking onbudsman about their terrible service and close my account - this was after ytet another failed transaction despite funds being in my account and being unwithdrawable !!!



I have today again had cause to contact them as a transaction was cancelled by an online retailer after an item I purchased was out of stock..The funds initially paid were re-creditted back to my account, but did not appear on my card but did show on my account balance (don;t forget it's a top up card and transactions can not be recreditted back onto it)..after contacting the UNpersonal banking team I was told that it is not an automatic process (load of rubbish) - and that a dispute must be raised in order to reclaim my cash...surely, funds paid in to ones account should not be disputed but should be paid in...this is not the Think Banking way...so after 8 days since the initial transaction, I am still waiting for my money back -



You may be saying = why am I still with TB ?..Well in these tough economic times, main stream banks are not inclined to take on customers with a less than perfect credit past - so for the time being I'm stuck with TB.



My personal advice to anyone think about a TB account or any similar is try first for a mainstream bank simple card account (or 2 accounts) and use one for your bills and one for spending - basically the same priniciple as TB and it will also be fee free !!.



Use TB only as a last resort