I recently took on Abbey, who are to date the worst for bank charges and poor follow up. They continuously charged me after aking an initial error on my account, then subsequently continued to charge me for being overdrawn while they 'investigated' the problem. I threatened them with both legal action and public embarrasment if they did not rectify the problem, at which point they froze my account. I sent continued letters and copied themto the financial ombudsman at which point Abbey started to panic. They repeatedly called me and asked for more time to resolve my query (all the time still charging me) and then quiet for periods up to six months at a time, only sending statment updates. Finally after another barrage of letters, this time cc'd to watchdog, the bbc and various consumer wensites, Abbey offered me almost double my initial charges and prompptly shut down my account without warning. I settled the difference ( a lot less than had been there to begin with) and left it there. They did take 5 weeks to formally close the account, then offered me a new one but Iam happy to say that at least I did not end up with a massive bill at the end of it all, so despite the timefram Iwould recommened anyone to harrass the daylights out of their bank, and definately not to open an Abbey account!!!!