Best bank account for internet banking + general service

Cloudane

blueberrypie wrote: »

You can avoid the £10 fee with FD by having certain other products with them, like a savings account. Put £1 in it, leave it there. That's fairly hassle-free ;-)

I heard about this a while ago but couldn't find any reference to it this time - do you/anyone know if it still applies?

Definitely prioritising from the Internet side of things BTW as that's how I do everything pretty much. Also this is a bit technical but whatever it is should be cross-platform and not Windows/IE only. Luckily I suspect they all are.

blueberrypie

Cloudane wrote: »

I heard about this a while ago but couldn't find any reference to it this time - do you/anyone know if it still applies?

Yes, it does.

From http://www1.firstdirect.com/1/2/rates/charges -

Banking Fee Waivers
You will not have to pay the Banking Fee:

for the first six months following account opening
for any month in which you:
pay into your account* (other than by internal transfer from another first direct account) a minimum of £1,500 or you maintain an average monthly balance on your account* in excess of £1,500 (month means calendar month and we will work out the average monthly balance by adding together the end of day balances for each day during the month and dividing the sum by the number of days in the month) or
hold a first direct mortgage, credit card, personal loan, savings account (*excludes Regular Saver Account and a Regular Saver ISA held for less than 12 months), first directory, or first direct car or home insurance policy; or...

JacksterD

Judging from the online banking demo on A+L's site, it looks like their system is very similar to the Co-Op/smile's, so steer clear if you don't like the A+L system.

I've found RBS's online banking to be excellent, better than HBOS and the Co-Op's, but I've found HBOS to have better/friendlier phone and branch services.

Cloudane

blueberrypie wrote: »

Yes, it does.

From http://www1.firstdirect.com/1/2/rates/charges -

Awesome. Thanks. Very tempted by this route - like I said the only gripe I've had with HSBC is a small one about overseas call centres (and I've found their internet banking to be just fine - sure, it's not exactly "Web 2.0" but what bank is). A better version of them sounds good to me.

JacksterD wrote: »

Judging from the online banking demo on A+L's site, it looks like their system is very similar to the Co-Op/smile's, so steer clear if you don't like the A+L system.

It's difficult to tell from the demos - it's not the interface that bothers me (they're all pretty similar from the look of it) but how up-to-date everything is. A&L's "available balance" tends to be up to date, but their transactions list is a day behind even with Faster Payments.

chivers1977

Another vote for Lloyds here. I was with HSBC for 15 years and the Lloyds online service is so much better. Their branches are open on Saturdays with a full service rather than just personal bankers to sell products and the telephone bank service is quick and easy to navigate through. You don't need to remember a stupidly long online banking username like HSBC (I think it is IBnnnnnnnnnn).

There seem to be loads of votes for LTSB, are you not considering them?

edit: and BTW I agree that A&L is rubbish

Sucker_for_sweeties

FATBALLZ wrote: »

Co-op online banking looks like it was written in 1997 by a work experience student.

Galls me a bit to see the statement

co-operative supports faster payments, rather large letters, bottom of every statement.

Yeah, right as long as you don't have to pay anyone very much in a oner.

I really like HBOS, and I've used a fair few through work through the years. Glad to see some support for LTSB, as I've heard some feedback that HBOS will be basically dumbing down their online system to the LTSB version.

No need for me to panic yet then I take it?

Cloudane

Quite surprised to see so much love for LTSB actually as they were close to bottom on "which" satisfaction surveys. The one that both sites seem to agree on is FD. Certainly considering all the options though (wouldn't have asked otherwise!)

RacyRed

I used to be a big fan of Smile, but find it is going backwards these days.

Faster payments have been introduced, but only for outgoings it seems. Incoming transactions have, if anything, slowed down. It recently took 5 working days for a transfer from the account of another Smile customer to appear in my account :mad:

The online bank facilities are good, especially the bill payments feature, but they have not been updated much in the 5+ years I've been with them. But transaction response times over-complicate. For instance, make 3 bill payments within minutes of each other and 1 or 2 will show immediately but the third might take a day or so to appear. It gets confusing.

I want to be able to see transactions in real tme, but also want a bank that doesn't drag its heels about crediting deposits to my account, so thanks for starting this discussion.

cottager

Won't be moving our main accounts from Natwest, but I must say having just opened a Lloyds a/c for the first time, and talking only about the online banking interface (haven't been with them long enough to say anything about service in general), I like it very much indeed -- clean and uncluttered, like Natwest's used to be before they starting filling it up with promos a year or so back.

Cloudane

Thanks for the feedback and votes.

LTSB was a temptation and it was a close one but in the end I decided on Firstdirect in light of the charge loophole (have a savings account open), my positive past experiences with HSBC and a thorough recommendation from a friend. The poll results show it in good favour too.

If it's of interest, I'll feed back with how the process goes.