Competitive interest rates but their back office IT is a shambles

They give me 0.45% interest for an online savings account with same-day access and unlimited number of withdrawals, which at the moment is close to being the highest rate in the country. However they often have online banking outages or glitches, and... Read more

They give me 0.45% interest for an online savings account with same-day access and unlimited number of withdrawals, which at the moment is close to being the highest rate in the country. However they often have online banking outages or glitches, and twice recently they have shown duplicate transactions on my account. The first time my salary was shown as deposited twice - however the second deposit didn’t increase the account balance but rather all the previous interim balances were decreased incorrectly. I raised a complaint and after a few weeks they said it was a widespread problem which they had now fixed, on my request they gave me £50 compensation. However when they credited the £50 it was also shown twice - same problem - if it wasn’t so disturbing it would be hilarious. Another £50 compensation and three weeks later they seem to have finally fixed it. The annual statement then was issued online but inserted into the list of statements years back, this was apparently the case for all customers since Kent Reliance put a little note online advising customers to display all 6 years of statements to find this year’s statement. Shambolic.

Reviewed on 5th June 2021

Mark Clayton

A shoddy building society not worthy of custom

Like a lot of other investors with this building society I am having real problems having money... Read more

Like a lot of other investors with this building society I am having real problems having money returned
after a substantial bond has matured, despite them receiving clear instructions to return the money to my linked account. Three emails and a telephone call have been ignored and they have set up a new account instead, at a lesser rate of interest. A very shoddy company which should be avoided

Reviewed on 29th April 2020

W.H from Durham

A Satisfied Customer

Transferred a cash ISA to Kent Reliance a year back. Never had a problem with them, transactions have been easy to conduct on-line, and telephone service has been fine. I have never been kept waiting on the phone, and have found their advisors to be... Read more

Transferred a cash ISA to Kent Reliance a year back. Never had a problem with them, transactions have been easy to conduct on-line, and telephone service has been fine. I have never been kept waiting on the phone, and have found their advisors to be helpful and efficient. I have experienced no problems at all.

Reviewed on 31st January 2020

Mark Evans

Great building society with a local branch that looks after its existing savers.

Local branch if you want to pop in and chat face to face or all available online. Being able to pop in was very helpful when I wanted to move my money over to one of their newly launched offers which had a better rate than the older once I had with... Read more

Local branch if you want to pop in and chat face to face or all available online. Being able to pop in was very helpful when I wanted to move my money over to one of their newly launched offers which had a better rate than the older once I had with them. All done there and then in the branch.

Very good rates from a trusted provider.

Reviewed on 17th November 2019

AndyT8

AVOID at all costs

Mortgage application - asked for reams of paperwork and questions answering, had me paying a valuation fee to be then told THREE months later they only lend me £20,000 less than original application, who applies for a mortgage with the wriggle room ... Read more

Mortgage application - asked for reams of paperwork and questions answering, had me paying a valuation fee to be then told THREE months later they only lend me £20,000 less than original application, who applies for a mortgage with the wriggle room to reduce £20K.. They are shocking !

Reviewed on 16th October 2019

Debra

Good regular saver rate

Although we had to go to our nearest branch to open regular saver accounts for both of us, we found the staff very friendly and helpful. As an existing customer, my wife was able to open an Easy Access account online.

Reviewed on 27th May 2019

Norman

Dreadful customer service

I was the only customer and kept waiting over 6 minutes whilst the four female staff behind the counter completely ignored me, chatting, putting on their lip balm and generally looking very unprofessional.

Reviewed on 12th April 2019

Rosie

DO NOT USE

These people are the biggest waste of space I have ever met! Messed us around for the last 2 month's wanting so much paperwork to be told at the last hurdle that they are going to decline the mortgage offer after taking our money and saying everything... Read more

These people are the biggest waste of space I have ever met! Messed us around for the last 2 month's wanting so much paperwork to be told at the last hurdle that they are going to decline the mortgage offer after taking our money and saying everything was fine! Truly upset and devastated as we have not only lost money but lost our new house and quite possibly homeless in a minute as can't find suitable accommodation for my whole family!!!

Reviewed on 17th October 2018

Hannah

Puzzling

I find it extraordinary that customers awaiting the repayment of maturing investments should be told that this may take up to 5 days after the maturity date. In an age in which money can be moved around the world in seconds, one can only infer that... Read more

I find it extraordinary that customers awaiting the repayment of maturing investments should be told that this may take up to 5 days after the maturity date. In an age in which money can be moved around the world in seconds, one can only infer that the agenda here is to squeeze some further financial benefit from hapless customers, at the latters’ expense.

Reviewed on 4th September 2018

Dissatisfied

ISAs

My wife and I were tempted by higher interest rates, to transfer ISA’s to Kent Alliance. We have never met such tardyness and incompetence from any finanancial institution and, fortunately, were able to stop the transfers before they were completed. W... Read more

My wife and I were tempted by higher interest rates, to transfer ISA’s to Kent Alliance. We have never met such tardyness and incompetence from any finanancial institution and, fortunately, were able to stop the transfers before they were completed. Will never be tempted again, reliability and efficiency are worth far more than a slightly better rate. Pity it was not possible to give a zero mark

Reviewed on 22nd June 2018

Twosome

Poor Organisation

I applied for an Easy Access Savings Account and received an e-mail asking for proof of address which I sent the same day. Ten days later, having heard nothing, I called their Customer Services and, after a 20-minute wait, was told they were... Read more

I applied for an Easy Access Savings Account and received an e-mail asking for proof of address which I sent the same day. Ten days later, having heard nothing, I called their Customer Services and, after a 20-minute wait, was told they were inundated with applications for the new account and I should hear in the next few days. Twelve days later I have heard nothing. An “enticing” Interest Rate is no good when an account cannot be opened... In the meantime I applied elsewhere and am now up and running... to Kent Reliance’s loss.

Reviewed on 13th June 2018

Unhappy non-Kent Reliancer

Not the level of customer service I expected

This refers to the online system, not the high street branch. I opened a savings account here because I read that it had very good reviews for customer service. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for me. Every time I called, I had to give up... Read more

This refers to the online system, not the high street branch. I opened a savings account here because I read that it had very good reviews for customer service. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for me. Every time I called, I had to give up waiting to speak to someone and wait for a callback. Despite having to leave a message to receive a callback, the person who called back had no idea what my call was about, so I had to go through it all over again. I found it hard to understand some of the advisers (they are Indian - despite there being a KR office about a mile away in my home town) and there was often a lot of background noise which made it very hard to hear what they were saying. They gave me the wrong information about depositing the money and spent over a week sorting themselves out on this issue, causing me to have to pay my bank twice for the transfer. A number of the letters they said they had sent me never arrived; this may not be their fault but I haven't had a problem about missing post before. I also had a problem registering for my online account, although this has finally been resolved and the message system online appears to work better. However, it has taken a month for the whole operation to work correctly, which is not good enough.

Reviewed on 7th June 2018

Alcabe

incompetent service

I wanted to transfer an ISA from another provider to Kent Reliance.They sent an ISA transfer request form to the original providers twice but they were never received.When i checked which address Kent Reliance were sending them to I discovered it was... Read more

I wanted to transfer an ISA from another provider to Kent Reliance.They sent an ISA transfer request form to the original providers twice but they were never received.When i checked which address Kent Reliance were sending them to I discovered it was to the wrong address.How difficult can it be to find the correct address of a nationwide financial institution? Consequently the Isa has been sitting in a very low interest rate amount for 2 weeks .
Why is this not done electronically? Kent Reliance seem to be stuck in the past.
Poor and incompetent service

Reviewed on 5th June 2018

Anthony Harris

GROSS INCOMPETENCE

Horrendous: I sent an application a cheque for a fairly large sum of money for an easy access saving account , no documents for identity were requested in the application papers obtained online. I sent relevant identification documents after they were... Read more

Horrendous: I sent an application a cheque for a fairly large sum of money for an easy access saving account , no documents for identity were requested in the application papers obtained online. I sent relevant identification documents after they were then requested. These were allegedly not received. After my substantial cheque was in limbo for 3 weeks it was returned, as they supposedly had no proof of identity. I would urge potential customers to stay clear of this organisation.

Reviewed on 26th May 2018

Cantley

Poor Features

While the savings rate itself is good they fail too key areas. 1. Their phone number for customer services seems to be permanently engaged. 2. There is no easy way to order bank statements online.

Reviewed on 20th March 2017

Mark Reardon

Great rates

Really good saving rates, pity it is only by book although once opened can deposit monthly via the internet. The queues in the branch can be pretty daunting as still work the old fashioned way by hand.

Reviewed on 31st January 2017

PAULINE SOUTHCOMBE