Co-op Bank

michael1983l

Not often you see this but I am going to heap praise onto this organisation. I am a relative new customer with these guys being only 1 year and a half. I have a mortgage, current account and now a personal loan with the co-op. so far EVERY dealing with them has been a pleasure, they have UK call centers where a person generally tends to answer and not a machine and they answer quickly. They are always happy and helpful, and if you have any out of the ordinary requirements, they usually tend to be able to deal with it.

I had one charge for a missed direct debit, which was immidiately refunded when they looked at my account conduct history and the fact they could see it was a genuine mistake.

They also have just given me a loan to consolidate my total outstanding debt with no fuss, I can afford it and my credit file isn't so bad at all yet nobody else would touch me with a barge pole. They viewed my current account and could see that it was in good standing and that I could afford the repayments.

On top of all of this there is the co-operative membership, where I get a share of the profits each year that the company earns. They relate this to how much debt/savings you have with them. This year if the profits are average I will earn roughly £500 from them. All in all not bad for a bank that usually takes, not gives.

To add a bit of balance to this account, I must say that their rates generally tend to be slightly higher than some. For example the loans start at 8.9%, however for the extra you pay I'd say it is worth it in every respect for the service delivered.

10/10 Couldn't reccomend them any higher, those thinking of switching accounts, don't be succered in by the £100 switch deals, get over to the co-op and I guarantee you will not regret it.

apt

I am glad you are enjoying banking with the Co-op, but I don't think your post is necessarily good advice. Are you really going to earn £500 from the Coop membership scheme? A £90,000 mortgage only 'earns' around £45. You must have a lot of debt with the Co-op to get £500. Co-op savings accounts generally pay poor interest rates. As for switching offers the Co-op also has these, and currently offers a good one on their packaged accounts. Yes Co-op/Smile are good for some things and some people, but I doubt they are the choice for all as the OP implies.

michael1983l

apt wrote: »

I am glad you are enjoying banking with the Co-op, but I don't think your post is necessarily good advice. Are you really going to earn £500 from the Coop membership scheme? A £90,000 mortgage only 'earns' around £45. You must have a lot of debt with the Co-op to get £500. Co-op savings accounts generally pay poor interest rates. As for switching offers the Co-op also has these, and currently offers a good one on their packaged accounts. Yes Co-op/Smile are good for some things and some people, but I doubt they are the choice for all as the OP implies.

You normally get around 4.5 pence per point, on a mortgage you get 1 point per £20, and on everything else 1 point per £10.

£90,000 mortgage = £202
£8500 loan = £39
£2000 savings = £9

Obviously that would be short of the £500 but obviously most people with new mortgages have double that so would be near on £500.

As for the rest it is indeed up to the individual to decide if the facilities suit them however I was focussing on the service delivered which is second to none.

premierfella

• 1 point for every £10 held or borrowed on average in The Co-operative Bank or smile current account, credit card or outstanding on a loan
• 1 point for every £20 held on average in a savings account with The Co-operative Bank, smile or Britannia
• 1 point for every £40 outstanding on a mortgage with The Co-operative Bank, smile or Britannia

http://www.co-operative.coop/membership/earning-points/
and full terms here: http://www.co-operative.coop/terms/membershiptermsandconditions/

Points have in recent times been worth 2p
http://www.co-operative.coop/corporate/Press/Press-releases/Headline-news/The-Co-operative-Group-members-share-record-50Million-dividend/

I'm not sure that they have been anywhere near 4.5p in value (it is possible that the OP is misunderstanding the pro-rata system - dividends are paid twice a year but on a pro-rata basis).

michael1983l

Maybe I have misinterperated the terms then of which I will hold my hands up, however this is a peripheral issue to the point I was raising and that is take all the frustrations of highstreet banks like Santander or Barclays, you will find little evidence of them existing at the co-op if any at all. Their customer service is fabulous and they are still flexible in the way they approach the handling of your accounts. If you have any problems, they will always look for an alternative to help you through as well.

premierfella

This is moneysavingexpert forum. Given that there won't be many Co-op members earning anywhere near £500 I'd argue its not all that peripheral. Particularly as your personal points calculation has gone from £500 to less than £100 in the space of a couple of posts.

Good news stories are always welcome though for balance. Particularly as the Co-op (and smile) appears to have dropped the ball for one or two posters on here recently (those negative news posts surprised me as my personal experience of Co-op Bank has been similar to yours).

NotAFraudster

They dropped the ball spectacularly for me. As in, called me a money launderer and denied any wrongdoing after making me spend £50 on phone calls chasing up their idiotic mistakes.

Many of their staff members have been obstructive and/or jobsworths (and that is a term I really, really hate using and hate the people who use it, but it definitely applies in this case). Some have been lovely, mind - many have been as described above. Others would tell me things which others would then contradict, or ask me to do things which would then turn out to be utterly pointless after I've gone to some effort to do them.

I couldn't warn people away from the Co-op enough. Great food shops, awful and incompetent bank.