The Cumberland Recensioni 67

The level of incompetence is disturbing and can result in your money going missing.

Having been with the Cumberland Building Society for over two years, I never expected to experience what happened recently when I made three payments of several thousand pounds, each to a well-known financial organisation.

My first payment was £2000 on April 13th. I then made a second payment on 17th April of £2000, and both never turned up. The reason why is that Cumberland Building Society uses Barclays Bank as an intermediary on behalf of its customers. The organisation you're attempting to pay doesn't 'see' the money coming out of the Cumberland Building Society account you have registered with them. If you're fortunate, they will return the money as unallocated funds to the custodian bank used by the Cumberland. Fortunately for me, this happened with my first payment of £2000 made on 13th April, and it prompted me to make a further payment to the same organisation on 30th April—something I bitterly regret.

My payment of £2000 made on 17th April, however, has not been returned, and the tracer requested for it took several weeks before I received it. The organisation I made this payment to is looking into what's happened.

Now, this next bit is a real eye-opener for anyone concerned about customer service. The organisation I paid £1500 to on 30th April was once again unable to allocate it to my account because it didn't appear to come from one of the bank accounts I had registered with them. They duly returned it to the Cumberland Building Society on 11th May. About a week later, a telephone conversation with the Cumberland revealed that they'd received unallocated funds of £1500, but were not willing to credit my account with them. I've been told this is because on the same day, they also received other lots of unallocated payments, each of £1500, and therefore can't identify that I am the beneficiary without further proof.

Going back to organisation I'd attempted to pay, I was unable to get any further proof other than a reference number that happens to be the Cumberland Building Society's pooled Barclay's Bank account number. Unfortunately for me, they are not accepting this as proof.

Let's get one thing clear: I've done nothing wrong at all. Cumberland Building Society has lost my money, and although £1500 is nothing to a building society, they haven't got the decency to make reparation. I'll be put to the further inconvenience of having to contact the FCA and the Financial Ombudsman.

In summary, Cumberland Building Society are unreliable and not customer-focused over rectifying mistakes when your money goes missing from your account due to their shortcomings not yours.

Fallen behind technologically with apps and online banking. Their customer service, which was a selling point a few years ago, is now generic and poor.

Historically, their business team accepted our business account transfer, opened the account, then decided it hadn't passed their criteria (after we had started using it). An appalling time for our business and our stress levels, luckily a real bank assisted us and the business has gone from strength to strength since then.

I was the last of my family to switch away, I finally moved this week.

There are much better options around than the Cumberland.

Use to be happy with Cumberland customer service. Today spoke with Sophie and she really did not want to help . Could tell by the way she responded.
Need to sort that out to keep customers happy and not fob them off of paperwork in a different department.

Great atmosphere, very friendly service, Delicious food. Will definitely eat here again.

I used to work for them and was a great advocate for 20 years. Not anymore. I called their support number to ask if their mortgage rates had changed and they could not answer that simple question. Not advice or payments but a simple yes/no question. This happened multiple times. So very disappointed.

The CEO and CFO at The Cumberland pay themselves over £1 million per annum. Yet they preside over a company which is not fit for intended purpose.
While front line staff are invariably helpful and charming, their behind the scenes colleagues at Carlisle Head Office are generally clueless.
The Cumberland is currently boasting that it's been operating over 175 years. Its such a pity that technologically, it is still operating in a bygone era.

Lancaster branch. I have had several difficulties with the branch but the head office totally make up for these local difficulties . Deborah and Emily totally sorted out a recent problem with great care and I’m very grateful. Tory in the branch is excellent, she should be manager!

Does anybody of importance in this company read the Trustpilot reviews ??
Apparently not ...... the score of 2 from 4/5 is poor and going by their recent service (or non service) I'm surprised the Cumberland can achieve even this lowly figure.
Getting hold of your own money when a savings account matures is a huge challenge to say the least.
I almost lost a retirement investment because of the Cumberland's lack of urgency and due to their inflexibility.
The customer service people whilst pleasant are largely clueless.
The financial advisors never call back despite promises made to do so.
I've banked with this company for 9 years but not for much longer.
What on earth has happened to the Cumberland ??
I used to praise them to the skies and recommend them to other bank users.
No more ..... I'm recommending that users go elsewhere.
Even the biggest banks perform better than the Cumberland.

Worst bank actually the worst bank. Been a member for 4 years and everyday I wish I’d apply to a new bank instead of this one. I have to wait over an hour for money to go in and out. I NEVER get responses from the support team even though I email and call, the only time they ever seem to get back to me is when I’m being asked about being in -0.70p (which shouldn’t be allowed to happen to my account by the way) and when I can pay it back.

They are so stupid. Even though I had the right money, while trying to send it to someone I got a send wasn’t successful, exceeds withdraw limit. I have more money than I was sending?

They are a terrible bank and building society please please please do not sign up with the Cumberland as you’ll be enduring headaches and questions that you’ll never ever get a response to unless it’s “why did you take money out my account?” And the response will be “we’re a terrible bank, please stop your business with us”

Genuinely that’s how it is and that’s how it’s felt for the last 4 years of my life. I may as well open my own building society and ignore myself if I want to keep staying with Cumberland. A hole in the ground will give me better money security than the Cumberland building society

Loved our room and staff were exceptional.even had a bottle of champers and chocolates in our room. Outstanding service on all levels. Shout out to Jacob from the Sound Bar. Best barman ever. Very highly recommended.

The worst place I’ve visit ever very rude stuff
No hospitality no service
The only thing they’re good on it it’s give ya bad energy

We had a wonderful mortgage advisor to help us remortgage… Sarah Nichol, she was polite, professional and absolutely understood our needs from day one…. Absolute asset to the Cumberland team. Thank you so much Sarah x

The staff are usually nice and that's one of the Cumberland's only redeeming features. Their entire system is incredibly slow and outdated. Constant security checks via tedious automated phone calls for EVERYTHING including security checks after you've already performed a security check, money takes hours if not days to transfer. The company feels like a mid 20th century relic. I once had my card stolen and they recovered the lost money pretty quickly, within a week or so if I recall correctly, but I believe any bank would do that today. I've been with them for decades and I'm finally at my wit's end with this nonsense. Not recommended.

Let me begin by saying the staff that deal with telephone calls are lovely . But they must feel extremely foolish knowing that they can only deal with very limited things . And no chance of getting a call from the people who you actually need to speak to .
Also they need to stop and look at the outdated limited technology they use.
Payments into account don't show up until head office opens most other banks shows at midnight . After waiting till 8-830am for salary or any payment going in. Then you have to transfer or pay an account outside or Cumberland and that can take at least 2 hours that is just ridiculous in this day and age . If they wished to be viewed as a modern bank /building society need to seriously start changing business been customer since approx 1990 and now make sure my money is transferred out my other bank account as soon as it goes in. They blocked my application from new bank to do a switch. Leaving me having to manual transfer out straight away . I sadly wouldn't rec

Fixed isa was coming up for renewal. The maturity letter reminder said you can come into branch if you dont want the isa to auto renew, otherwise it will auto renew for 12 months. Went into branch and they said you dont need to come in, you just need to transfer isa to the new provider. Not all providers however can you pick a date to transfer isa. You also cant start the process too early for risk of the 90 days loss of interest, you need to go last the maturity date. Basically was a wasted trip to branch and didnt help me one bit and my isa was set to auto renew fixed for another year. If you dont want to renew the Cumberland should automatically put you on an easy access isa, however they don’t do this and make it painfully hard to stop the process. Had to have a call to set up a new easy access isa, to avoid this auto renewing. This should not be the process. Finally trying to change provider and the cumberland have ignored the isa transfer request.

Also dont believe the reviews on feefo, they clearly only contact the customers who have left a good rating on in branch feedback

Bond matured, wanted to withdraw. Can't withdraw until a month after the one anniversary of opening the bond account. It's like it's thirty years ago. No app, no internet- you have to write to them or go in branch. No bank transfer available. Cheque only. Of course the bank I want it to go to doesn't accept cheques as it's 2024. The poor staff at branch are victims of the Cumberland as much as the customers having to deal with this archaic nonsense. Sort yourselves out, Cumberland, it's not 1972.

When I first transferred my savings to The Cumberland BS two years ago I was out of the country for 3 months and on my return I had received absolutely no correspondence from them, no confirmation that they were holding my assets, I was aware then that The Cumberland BS was not a well-run financial institution and the standards that one would expect institutions to adhere to when entrusted with people savings are clearly not adhered to by CBS,
I made early arrangements for the transfer of my savings on maturity and these arrangements were rejected by CBS on the pretext that a penalty would be incurred for early withdrawal, no early withdrawal was intended but anyway surely it is my choice what I do with my money, and I should have been consulted, I wrote to a Dawn Moore on 13th November and received no reply.
I have made 3 phone calls to CBS (for which I require transcripts) and received no satisfaction at all, I wrote again on 2 December and mailed it recorded delivery and again no reply.
The incompetence and unprofessionalism that I have encountered from these people beggar’s belief

This institution is an absolute joke. Started process in AUGUST 2024. No responses to emails, texts phone messages to manager. After chasing for over 6 weeks I decided to contact senior manager who then got on the case. Underwriting took a week to answer questions. I provided the proof the underwriter requested including verification from accountant as to income etc. waiting another week for a response. I have a very high net worth, never missed a mortgage or loan payment, four businesses, keep income as low as possible to avoid tax. At one stage they were instructing a valuation. Then not. The problem.....I am £500 short on income verification which my accountant then provide proof. This is probably the worst institution I have dealt with for customer service. I would avoid like the the plague. Dont waste your time try other building societies or banks. Small town building society trying to act big.

Tried to get a mortgage and the internal broker did a good service. The problem was the underwriter putting a few conditions in the mortgage offer and more specifically one of them, demanded a licence to be provided before we even bought the property, put the whole purchase in jeopardy.

As a result, we lost the deal, experienced poor service in this underwriter communication and were forced to pay their own £1,220 solicitors fee.

Avoid!

Dreadful, just don’t…….