Recommend a bank account

dchurch24 · 31 December 2005 at 11:37AM

Hi,

I am just about to start suing First Direct over the issue of punitive charges and now need another bank account (preferably a bog standard account - no O/D etc...)

I cannot use:

Abbey
HFC
Barclays
Smile
or
First Direct

due to the successfull legal action I have taken against them in the past (and future in the case of First Direct).

It's a shame about FD, as the customer service was excellent.

I'm not too bothered about interest paid, just customer service.

I have tried to get a basic account with Nationwide, but it was such a nightmare I decided against it on the grounds that it was indicative of their customer service.

So, can anyone recommend a bank (sans the above listed) that has excellent customer service?

Thanks in advance.

mummytofour · 31 December 2005 at 4:39PM

Hmm so Im not the only one is is totally :silenced: by the charges of F/D

Good luck.

balsingh · 31 December 2005 at 5:25PM

Martins recommendations are Alliance/Leicester and LLoydsTSB. I recently switched to Lloyds - so far so good and they even gave me £50 for switching.

dchurch24 · 31 December 2005 at 7:10PM

Would that include the basic account, as that is all I want?

Hmm so Im not the only one is is totally by the charges of F/D

Good luck.

It's a shame about FD really - they offered to reimburse 65 quid out of £230 of charges, so I told them that I would be suing them immediatly, and have indeed started proceedings against them via the moneyclaim.gov.uk site.

By my estimate I should have the money back plus interest within 41 days :-)

grumbler · 31 December 2005 at 7:13PM

dchurch24 wrote:

...I cannot use:

Abbey
HFC
Barclays
Smile
or
First Direct

due to the successfull legal action I have taken against them in the past (and future in the case of First Direct)...

I seems like you will run out of options soon ...

Don't you have more important things to do than suing all your banks?

dchurch24 · 31 December 2005 at 7:32PM

I do have more important things to do, but I see suing the banks as quite a high priority!

I actually quite enjoy watching them squirm, and indeed in some small way am stopping people like Abbey exporting all that money to Spain and thus, keeping inflation lower here!! ;-)

I really just don't like the right-wing way in which they keep the little people little and themselves fatter at the little peoples expense.

Chadsman · 1 January 2006 at 11:59AM

I have been with Nationwide for about 8 years now. Very occassionally some of their branch staff have not been all they might have (like any customer service organisation) but I have found their HQ staff to be excellent.
Most things you can do online anyway.
Were their branch staff really so awful as to put you off completely? It may be worth trying a different branch.

JAMIEDODGER · 1 January 2006 at 12:03PM

i have a natwest step account opened in october...so far so good

dchurch24 · 1 January 2006 at 12:47PM

Sadly it wasn't just the branch staff (who were awful). When I phoned them to see if I could come in to open an account, they told me, quite rudely, that they were too busy and to do it on-line. Fair enough, I did that.

I actually managed to get the paperwork through from them and there was an instruction in there to either send forms of ID to them or take them into a branch - thank God I took them to the branch or I don't know what would have happened!
I took them to the branch, and eventually (after a 30 minute wait) they photocopied my forms of ID - passport and a utility bill and told me that the account would be operative within 7-10 days.

That was the last I heard from them.

I phoned them (not the branch - far too busy to talk to customers I would imagine) to be told 'it was in the post' - I'm still not quite sure what was in the post but that's what they told me.
Eventually after about another 10 phone calls and several ignored emails via their website - payday was approaching and I needed somewhere to put my money - I gave up, and asked them for the copies of my ID that they had taken, as they no longer needed it. I also asked for a letter informing me that there were no other copies taken.
I was told that they had lost the copies of my ID - this from a Multinational, in a day and age where ID fraud is paramount?????

After that little fiasco, I can't allow myself to use their account.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

JoseChungsDoomsday · 1 January 2006 at 2:18PM

id go for nationwide, i moved to them earlier this year and they have been brilliant.

jordylass · 1 January 2006 at 2:26PM

I'm with co-op, I have their basic no cheque account, I can't fault their CS and I think their online and telephone banking is superior to First Direct, who I was with for almost 10 years

Recommend a bank account

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