MSE News: Revealed: The best and worst banks for customer service

I never saw the poll, so never had an opportunity to vote.

So just for the record, here are my feelings on a few of the banks I use(d)

First Direct - wouldn't touch with a barge pole. Had a bad experience in the past when I enquired about an account and they got rather snotty when I said I wanted time to think things over.
It speeded up (and possibly changed) my final decision

Lloyds - Been with them for years. Did go through a bad patch with them a few years back, but realised they were probably only as bad as anyone else, so have never moved away. Things are ok at present, but I'm wary (perhaps a case of "better the devil you know"?)

HSBC - Have them as my back up account. Got them when I was having issues with LLoyds, but whilst they've done nothing wrong particularly, they've not done anything particularly well that has ever persuaded me to ditch the form bank.
Used them for business direct banking until recently too- but ditched & switched with their introduction on monthly fees.

Co-op - Was put off them initially years back when local retailers would not accept their cheques (when cheques were the 'thing' to pay with). It seems they bounced a few cheques from a few small retailers even though they were accepted in good faith, supported by a cheque guarantee card. Word got round the other retailers and there was a local ban on acceptance.

Also had a guaranteed free for life credit card from the co-op, but when they realised, they just dropped by credit limit to such a low level it was practically unusable and they got their wish - I cancelled it - company were unhelpful to my cause, but perhaps they knew they needed to be for make me cancel the card?
(Nothing to do with my credit score - I have other cards with higher credit limits than the Co-op gave me and some providers are upping my credit limit, certainly not lowering it)

[Edit: I'll add another one here:
Britannia - Although now owned by Co-op, always had tremendous service from them. Not sure if this is general, or because of a particular senior member of staff in my local branch who does a tremendous job and I find is very helpful and efficient.
She did once try and entice me into taking out a co-op current account, but when I told her about the bad experience particularly of the credit card, she promised not to mention it to me again ... and never has ]

Santander - Not really used them, but ditched & switched a savings account with them recently when they dropped the interest from about 1.5% to 0.1%. Seemed pleasant, friendly & efficient when I went into close my account, but that was my only recent experience of them.

Nationwide - I'm not sure why, but our local branch don't seem to have any tellers. Staff are friendly and polite. Cant really say much about their proficiency - they try to make you use the automated machines instead - how proficient do they need to be to direct customers to to automated machines?. Not sure if this is just my local branch - again I don't use them much. Like Santander, I switched & ditched a couple of savings accounts recently from them due to poor interest rates (when a finally got someone to do this for me, they were not that efficient and needed to disappear a couple of times to get authorisation (help?)
Still have one account with a ton in it them from the days of carpetbagging - still hoping out, but also keeps me entitled to members special offers such as special fixed term savings bonds
(not very good at present, but have been good in the past)
However these are processed via HO, not in branch.

Natwest - Like FD, a case of once bitten with me I'm afraid. Opened an account with them when I was at uni. Unfortunately got burgled and some scrote nicked my chequebook (again at a time cheques were commonplace). Not just Natwest, they took all by bank books.
So next morning I rushed round all the banks (this was before the days of 24 hour banking so no great risk). No issue with LLoyds who cancelled all the cheques in my old book and order me up a new chequebook. Building Societies were even easier - they just cancelled the passbooks and issued new ones on the spot:)
Natwest - well first of all they insisted on my account number, but having lost my chequebook I didn't know it. Eventually I got it from somewhere, I think from my cheque card.
Then they wanted to know all the numbers of the cheques that were stolen. I said I didn't know, but it was my latest chequebook, and I was happy to verify any that had already been banked, (and was happy to void any that hadn't been) - not good enough for Natwest.
So I eventually found a cheque number of a cheque I had recently written and then gave them a load of numbers from that point onwards.
Then they said there was a charge for each cheque number I wanted cancelled. Despite my protestations about the chequebook having been stolen and so any of the numbers, if presented, would not have my signature on them. and I was just trying to help the bank prevent possible fraud, they still wanted something like £2 a cheque number. I refused and asked to close the account. Not without your chequebook I was told. So I just withdrew all the money over the counter and took it across the road to LLoyds and never been to Natwest since. It's probably all changed nowadays (and I now banks terms a lot better so could would stop the nonsense Natwest tried on me) but again, as I said, a case of once bitten I'm afraid.

RBS - funny little old branch near me (the building - I find it creepy).
Only been in there once, I had a problem with an RBS card (Tesco?) which was swallowed up at an ATM. They weren't particularly helpful as I recall.
Looked to open a business account with them recently (had to call their CS). I just wanted some general info and an application form should I decide to proceed. They told me to read the website for info and to apply for an application form would take about 40 minutes.
I said I just want an application form, not apply to open an account at that time. They confirmed it was 40 minutes of questions & answers just to apply for the application form, not to actually apply to open an account. So they never got that business either.
(Since discovered with the help of another MSE'er the particular application form is available to download from their website but it's not easy to find.)


Finally, I do seriously wonder if some people may vote high on customer service because of the bribes on offer - but that's not customer service. A backhander to tempt you to switch, or the offer of cashback is not CS
(yet Santander 123 is voted higher than the rest of Santander, and we all know the bribes FD offer)

InsideInsurance wrote: »

It seems a little odd to split out some packaged accounts for some banks allowing them two entries where as for others you have actually rolled up multiple brands into a single entry (eg RBS & Natwest)

Is there a logic to this? Surely for the most useful results you should treat all banks equally rather than manipulating results to try and support your advertisements/ affiliate linked heavy other articles?

Probably because Santander is the best instant access savings vehicle at the moment, but the service is always rated as shocking. As a consumer site, you can't honestly highlight a product that has an appalling record.

I am genuinely interested to see how the 123 account differs from normal Santander accounts. It poses a few questions.
1) Is the 123 package deal prejudicing results and making customers think the bank is better than customers who don't get cashback/interest?
2) Does Santander genuinely offer better service to their 123 customers? I'm dubious, so I'm curious why they would think so.

They are stand-out products, and it's useful to know account specific information if you're looking to switch. On the other hand RBS/Natwest (I know it was just your example) don't offer much that would persuade someone to switch to them.

If it is the survey I completed it only allowed you to vote on your main bank account. If I could have voted on others I would have given Nationwide top marks too as I have always found them really efficient and helpful whenever I contact them about a complaint etc

Maybe the Santander 123 has attracted hordes of savvy MSE-ers who are:
(a) always in credit, and
(b) read the T&Cs, and
(c) have some pretty good 'pre-complaint' (ie RTFM) advice on here...

I had Santander savings accounts before getting a 123 and have found their Branch and secure message servicing to be very good (haven't used their phone service).

Umm - surely First Direct are just an HSBC product and the table should list 'HSBC - First Direct' and 'HSBC - All Accounts' which would put them on about par with Santander overall?