Principality Building Society Reviews 248

Would give minus 50 if I could. Appalling
draconian customer service. Would not touch with a bargepole. Reset ever being introduced to this sham of a company. Do Not Use under any circumstances, worst decision of my life.

How poor is this online service .
No App
Locked out from account because the codes are too slow to come through.
No body to answer the phone after 5pm
all in all poor quality from a supposedly leading building society.

Everything just takes so long! Moving my ISA to another provider. No electronic transfer! They sent my funds via a cheque (presumably signed by Fred Flintstone) by snail mail to my new provider. This meant my not unsubstantial funds were sat in their account earning me no interest until the check arrived was processed and cleared. Never again will I be opening any account with this bunch of dinosaurs.

My Mum passed away and it turned out the society rules I had to apply for probate, this took 3 months at a cost of nearly £300, the account is closed losing interest. They won’t now give me my money as the executors are estranged and insist on them being together. The Manager at the Barry Branch had little empathy and instead of being helpful came across as rude. Will never deal with them again

Their processes are sooooo antiquated!
Its 2023 but they still do everything via post and cheque!!

Its now 4 weeks and counting trying to transfer my ISA from them!

Just avoid unless you like being in the 1990's!

Update: Its the 21 November (a Month later from my review above) and my ISA has finally been transferred. The whole process took over 10 WEEKS!! They sent my ISA money via Cheque in the post (not tracked, not special delivery just popped it in the post and like other say why it is in the post it is earning NO interest!).

2 week later and I once again contact them (not proactive at all) and they discover they have sent the cheque to the wrong address...

In comparison (as it had taken so long the ISA rate I was transferring too was now rubbish) The next ISA transfer took 24 HOURS!!!

I did make an official complaint but that got no where, I would go to financial ombudsman but I have lost the will to live after these 10 weeks.

Read the other reviews and avoid them at all cost.

Dear Trustpilot,
First, I would like to thank your organisation (Trustpilot) for enabling mistreated customers to have their say and complain to make things right.
We were with Principality Building Society for a few years with our mortgage till the period came to an end recently.
We did not experienced problems during this time. Everything was alright and straightforward.
When the mortgage deal finished, we signed a new one.
We got a letter from Principality stating that the new payments monthly will be a sum of £ X and no other fees required. The monthly new payments would start this month on the 16th.
Last month I noticed that Principality “helped themselves” with a sum of 3 times of my new monthly payments, completely with no warning or an authorisation.
Now, I would like to present the sequence of my action since I have discovered missing of my money from my account over two weeks ago.
1) I sent an email to Glenn Gebhard who we were dealing with during signing the mortgage, to look into it. We exchanged a few emails with him before.
2) After a week of no response from him, I spent a long time on ringing the Principality . The lady took all details , thanked me for my call and said a consultant will contact me soon. Nothing happened.
3) I sent a second email to Glenn asking him to explain why I was charged so much (under£ 2000), but unfortunately no reply.
4) My husband made a second call to Principality yesterday. He was politely told that Glenn will contact him soon after, but nothing happened.
5) I send another email to Glenn requesting a refund of my money, but no response.
6) My husband made another call this morning, but he was cut off.
7) He rang Principality again today. He was told by the person on the other end , that he will look into it and he will ring him back.
This time around the person came back and said it was a computer error. The problem will be solved until I see my money.
I find it despicable, the level of an arrogancy towards the loyal customers. It took over 2 weeks of constant ringing and emailing asking for an explanation of missing money from my account. What if I had not much money in my account and it would send me into an overdraft. And there was no apology.

Very good service. I opened an account online. A few questions, so I called them. My call was answered immediately unlike with some institutions.
Impressed!

I have been with Principality Building Society for over five years. Their customer service has been second to none over all this time and put understanding people as a higher priority than most other lenders I've come across. Principality are pretty competitive and they are the only company I've renewed my mortgage with for a second time over a couple of decades because the deal and customer service was great. I have nothing but praise for this Building Society.

Horrible customer services!!!!!
I wanted to remortgage my house and every time I call them I get different story. Last time when I called them the person who I was speaking he just disconnected my phone he sounded like he wanted to go home.

Cash ISA:
Update to previous review, as below: Because they have reverted to using cheques (post C-19) other institutions have to deal with them on that basis. I waited over a week for a response to my concerns (they state it should be 3 business days.) The response was contrary to a letter they sent, that took 6 days to arrive; both arriving on the same day! I've determined they have lost the cheque, sent Special Delivery by my previous provider. Interest lost, literally - and with that, I've lost interest in them and will be moving away ASAP.
Previously:
Like others, I'm a little disappointed that transfers in require paper applications forms. I'm more concerned that money went from my previous provider over two weeks ago and still does not show in my new account. I appreciate they may be slow but worse than this, I sent a secure message 6 days ago regarding my concern and this has not even been acknowledged. Their rates may be cometitive but their service is awful.

Appalling customer service. Spent hours on the phone trying to sort out an issue with a joint mortgage. Frequently either asked them for a call back if there were updates or got told ‘we’ll call you back tomorrow morning with an answer’. Never a call back. This was a joint mortgage, I was frequently told I couldn't make a change to the account without the other mortgagee's permission. Only for Principality to allow the other mortgagee to make changes that affect my credit rating without my knowledge. Expect extremely poor customer service, complete mishandling of your account. Will never bank or borrow with again.

Excellent customer service.
I would just like to give some feedback about your excellent staff member on the phone based at Llantwit Major, Andrew.
I was considering moving my ISA to another provider, but to be honest the 0.4% difference in interest rate is far outweighed by the fact that you can get in touch with Principality easily and quickly by phone and speak to a REAL person not a robot. Andrew was courteous and helpful and as a result I have decided to stay with Principality. I have been a member for 14 years and unless there is a HUGE difference in interest rates between you and and any other provider then i can see no good reason to move my money elsewhere. (May well move money INTO Principality when an account matures with another provider that is less easy to deal with and seems to rely on "Chatbots" that never understand your questions). Please continue to offer this good customer service, and please pass this feedback on to management and/or Principality CEO.

I recently made a partial ISA transfer from my Hargreaves Lansdown ISA to my new Principality cash ISA. The transfer went very smoothly.

From my applying online for the Principality account, to the money effectively earning interest in my new account, took 10 working days.

Hats off to Principality (and HL) for their efficient service.

Excellent online system which is so easy to operate and responsive phone access to answer questions.

Customer service is lovely but in order to transfer my ISA I'd need to print and fill a form and send by post, same if I wanted to transfer out. Major flaw and rings alarm bells as relying on such a manual way of moving money opens up a whole host of potential issues. Shame as their interest rate is one of the highest right now but cannot risk issues with my money.

it didnt go well.

Effortless opening of an acct.
Quick, simple and efficient to manage acct funding and withdrawals.
Customer services were very responsive, helpful, knowledgeable.

Called in local branch Bridgend today to find a note on the window saying shut for 4 weeks . No email no letter with info My money is in this society what is going on.

Very disappointed in my local branch Bridgend today. Found out on visiting there that they are closed for a month. Had no notification what so ever. Not very professional. Will have to do what I needed to do today next month now. Very annoying.

Very helpful and courteous staff turned an initial poor experience into a very positive one.
I felt like my concerns were Iistened too, so thank you Jennifer at Portcall.