recommend me a Bank - and give reasons why

[buzzer]

I have has enough of banking with Smile... They (well the Co-OP bank) refused to give me more than £2000 in one day saying that was the max per person, and when I said I would go and get my wife, they changed their mind to per account. Then I said that's OK, I have 2 accounts with enough in each... they still refused. In fairness they did compensate me £50 because they got it wrong, but I lost the purchase of a car...

Now they have "lost" 3 cheques, and despite me having a receipt for them, they are asking me to approach the companies to sort it out! enough is enough, I will be voting with my feet and moving on.

So, where do I move our joint current account to? Lloyds have a branch local, so that appeals. But its been a long time since I changed, so any reccomendations?

I am more interested in any new account features you find useful, rather than they are "just good"

We dont need/use an overdraft and we also internet bank

[Heathwood]

First Direct seem to be give very good service . The wife moved her ac/s to them a couple of years back and is a very happy customer.

[Z4monster]

My recommendation would be First Direct. I think you'll get that one a lot on here from previous posts.

Excellent service over the phone. Nothing was too much trouble and always a friendly english voice on the other hand.

PC banking is great and you can do most stuff for yourself via it.

HSBC counter services if you ever need them. (or you can post cheques direct to them)

Not sure about getting large amounts of cash instantly as I've never tried.

I've been with them since 1993 so they must do something right!

[Zippee]

Whatever you do don't go anywhere near Abbey/Santander.

[Blue Oval84]

Yep, Santander get bad word of mouth in my office.

[LouiseGT4]

Heathwood said:

First Direct seem to be give very good service . The wife moved her ac/s to them a couple of years back and is a very happy customer.

+1, moved from Barclays, Decent call centre, helpful and I like their phone app which meets most of my banking needs.

[chevy-stu]

I've been with Lloyds for many years, both personal and business and generally had no issues, compared to what I've heard other people have with other banks..

[mattdaniels]

My current account is with Natwest and my business account is with Santander and I've never had issues with either.

[Chicane-UK]

Lloyds are pretty good to be honest... with only one caveat.. don't venture into a branch as all they will ever do is try and upsell accounts, credit cards, loans, and so forth. I get it nearly every time I go in and it gets on my nerves

Once they get you to upgrade, they couldn't give you the time of day.. the "liaison" people who work in branches couldn't give a toss.

[OllieC]

I have hadnothing but good experiences with HSBC, been with them for 10 years.

I have heard some stories about HSBC being generally less than perfect however, but my own experiences with my local (Northants area) branch have been very good.

[KelWedge]

Been with Coop, Nat West, Midland (showing my age) TSB (done it again) am with Barclays OK and First Direct, Bril service, just bril been with them since 1989,

[Zippee]

mattdaniels said:

My current account is with Natwest and my business account is with Santander and I've never had issues with either.

Our business account is with Santander, just a shame they can't apply the same ethos and level of professionalism to their retail customer base.

[chimster]

Santander for me never had any problems with them, I suppose it's all about personal experience.

[rog007]

HSBC; fine until they just sent me that clumsy key ring thingy I now have to carry everywhere to generate a new security number every time I want to do Internet banking... What happens when I lose it or sit on it and it breaks?

[-Pete-]

We've had bad experiences with Lloyds, Barclays, and especially Abbey before Santander bought them. Now with Nationwide for 4+ years and couldn't be happier.

[DickSkruttock]

mattdaniels said:

My current account is with Natwest and my business account is with Santander and I've never had issues with either.

Same with me, no probs with either.

[buzzer]

thanks all,

I have pulled the plug on Smile... and gone to Lloyds TSB as I have a local branch with parking and I can easily pay any cheques in there... instead of the Post Office, which is what I have been doing for Smile.

So, Smile refused to give me MY money...
I have had 2 cheques go missing when I posted them directly....
I have had 3 Cheques go missing when paid in at the the post office, and got a receipt...
I have voted with my feet, and gone somewhere else

good bye Smile!

[ringram]

chimster said:

Santander for me never had any problems with them, I suppose it's all about personal experience.

You are in the minority.

They are useless and incompetent.

However whilst ringing up yesterday to abuse them about stuff I switched to a 3% on call savings and they upgraded my current to 5% (cap at £2,5k) and debt card to the zero one (no foreign charges) all without changing account numbers or anything.

So they basically bought me off again with their good interest rates.

Now it remains to be seen if the change actually goes through, but you cant beat their interest rates, even though their customer service is the worst on the planet!

[groak]

ringram said:

They are useless and incompetent.

That's what I think whenever I hear the word 'bank'.

No exceptions.