Switching to the Clydesdale - Wise or Unwise?

scook94

I currently have a current account and web saver with the Bank Of Scotland (HBOS). I'm not looking forward to the acquisition by LTSB so am thinking of switching banks.

I'm far from an expert on these matters, but it seems National Australia Group have been less affected by the credit crunch (and hence the Clydesdale) than others. I may be way off here, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

However, on this thinking I've been looking at the Clydesdale Signature Account and it's linked savings account. Granted, I'm planning on waiting to see how things pan out with LTSB and am in no rush to bail on HBOS at the moment, but am I way off on this thinking and would I regret switching to the Clydesdale?

Many thanks, Steven.

sutton111

i have a yorkshire bank account, which is the same company, i wouldn't bother with that signature account unless you

a) want to pay for a service.
want some insurance.

They are okay, i wouldn't go OTT about them, you can't do alot over the phone it's quite branch related which is a good thing unless you live miles away like i do. You get a masetro with them not a visa debit like you get at HBOS, which i suppose is no big deal unless you travel aboard alot. If i had a choice i would stay with HBOS and wait and see what actual happens as nobody knows as yet.

shoe_girl_2

i dont have a account with them (im a bank of scotlander to ) ) but from what ive heard, clydesdale staff seem to be in there own leage of being..................


unhelpfull (trying to find a nice word to say there :op)

BASFORDLAD

Clydesdale and yorkshire both seem rather old fashioned to me and very branch based.

sutton111

that exactly what there like.

scook94

shoe_girl wrote: »

i dont have a account with them (im a bank of scotlander to ) ) but from what ive heard, clydesdale staff seem to be in there own leage of being..................


unhelpfull (trying to find a nice word to say there :op)

I used to be involved with "contractor" type IT work for LTSB and you get a "feel" for a company after a while. I think we're in for some shoddy customer service with LTSB. I did similar work for HBOS and I always got a far better feeling working with their staff, even though they did take pelters after the merger from their some of their customers!

BASFORDLAD wrote: »

Clydesdale and yorkshire both seem rather old fashioned to me and very branch based.

I don't see that as a negative, I'm kinda that way myself. As long as I can monitor my account online and transfer funds between the current account and saver, then I'd much rather pop into a branch for everything else. Mind you, we may have more Clydesdale branches up here than their are Yorkshire Banks down south, I don't know...

I guess I'm wondering if after I were to switch to them, are they likely to get taken over by the likes of Santander?

moneysavingallday

scook94 wrote: »

I used to be involved with "contractor" type IT work for LTSB and you get a "feel" for a company after a while. I think we're in for some shoddy customer service with LTSB. I did similar work for HBOS and I always got a far better feeling working with their staff, even though they did take pelters after the merger from their some of their customers!



I don't see that as a negative, I'm kinda that way myself. As long as I can monitor my account online and transfer funds between the current account and saver, then I'd much rather pop into a branch for everything else. Mind you, we may have more Clydesdale branches up here than their are Yorkshire Banks down south, I don't know...

I guess I'm wondering if after I were to switch to them, are they likely to get taken over by the likes of Santander?

Yeah I dont think much of what i've seen of lloyds.

BASFORDLAD

yea its not always a bad thing, just the whole bank seems old fashioned, thier branches have that feel to,

scook94

BASFORDLAD wrote: »

yea its not always a bad thing, just the whole bank seems old fashioned, thier branches have that feel to,

I guess it wouldn't do any harm to go in and have a chat to them about switching accounts, that way I can get a feel for them myself....

shoe_girl_2

scook94 wrote: »

I used to be involved with "contractor" type IT work for LTSB and you get a "feel" for a company after a while. I think we're in for some shoddy customer service with LTSB. I did similar work for HBOS and I always got a far better feeling working with their staff, even though they did take pelters after the merger from their some of their customers!

I think we're in for it to the way its shaping up i work in a insurance type place where we need to deal with the banks ect. and it dosent look good.

If it goes like the take overs in my place im guessing weve got about 2-3 years before Lloyds starts making there changes though, unless theyve got stuff already planed out

you should go to the clydesdale though and see what you think,

ChasingButterflies

Hi,

Not sure if internet banking is important to you... imo it isn't that user friendly (Although I can only compare with RBS)

Also you cannot phone your branch directly unless you happen to have a note of the number from the pre 0845 days :rolleyes:

tbh the only reason I have kept my current account with them is because my branch manager once told me "you are not the sort of customer we want" :rolleyes: anything that goes in get transferred straight into our RBS a/c As soon as they charge for having a current account I will close it, as things stand I cost them money. It took some level of "service" to make me that narky (sp?!)