Are all banks inefficient?

kayej

Help, I am going through banks like there is no tomorrow but I am sooo fed up with them all! I have a Barclays current account as I have a Woolwich mortgage. I opened a business account with Santander but found them difficult to deal with. I opened an HSBC account in the belief that I would be able to become a premier account holder but found I couldn't tie in my (sole trader) business account and personal together so that was a waste of time. I used to be very happy with Nationwide but they removed their no commission when travelling which had hooked me in in the first place.
I have now moved all my bank accounts to Barclays but am sick of having poor customer service - or speaking to India when they should be supporting the UK economy and employing Brits... Does anyone in the UK have success with banks I wonder...:eek:

iereboy

I think the majority of us are very happy with the service our banks provide. I have dealt with many, many financial institutions in my short time on this earth and have never had a truly bad experience which have caused me to have a negative view of a particular bank.

As long as you play within the rules you are fine and you can prosper and make money out of them with their gimmicks, introductory offers, 1 year bonuses, 0% interest on purchases, switching bribes, freebies etc.

People who go through so many banks like yourself have got to wonder, is this really normal? Who is to blame? Who is not reading the rules here?

In my daily experience with people who are never happy with their relationship with the bank and keep changing so often, its not us, it you. Get lost ,you're dumped for being too stupid to play by the rules!

pinkdalek

From what you've posted a lot of reasons seem to be because the bank cannot offer you what you expect or a service you have once had has now been taken away.

How can you say Nationwide are inefficient because they now charge you for using the card abroad? Or HSBC are because they did not offer you something that you "expected"

Some of it sounds like sour grapes to me, if you can't stand the heat then keep out of the kitchen. All businesses change their policies, systems, procedures, some of them are forced, some are to cut costs, some are to improve, it's life mate, move on.

Lith

out of all the 4 banks i bank with


RBS has the best service (which i find odd) due to there past lol

jalexa

kayej wrote: »

I used to be very happy with Nationwide but they removed their no commission when travelling which had hooked me in in the first place.

Is that really a sound reason to move to poor customer service and an off-shored contact centre?

pqrdef

All the banks are struggling with inadequate IT systems and inadequately trained staff. But that's because they put excessive demands on them with constantly changing products and over-complex terms and conditions.

The exception is First Direct, which because of the way it works has a small and simple product set and doesn't muck about with it.

opinions4u

Sounds to me like you are trying to get personal banking services for what is a business banking relationship with them. As such your expectations are different to what's really on offer.

Most banks are pretty efficient with personal accounts. Their products do what they say they'll do and the automated processes work the way that they're meant to do.

When complaint volumes for a "bad" bank tell you the 996 out of 1000 customers aren't complaining things are perhaps a tad rosier than some perceptions.

Are they perfect? No, I don't think they are. But most banks are pretty efficient most of the time when dealing with their retail customers.

dzug1

pqrdef wrote: »

The exception is First Direct, which because of the way it works has a small and simple product set and doesn't muck about with it.

And i suspect also because they are a bit fussy about who they accept and weed out those who don't know how to run bank accounts in the first place. So fewer things to go 'wrong', fewer complaints

kayej

iereboy wrote: »

I think the majority of us are very happy with the service our banks provide. I have dealt with many, many financial institutions in my short time on this earth and have never had a truly bad experience which have caused me to have a negative view of a particular bank.

As long as you play within the rules you are fine and you can prosper and make money out of them with their gimmicks, introductory offers, 1 year bonuses, 0% interest on purchases, switching bribes, freebies etc.

People who go through so many banks like yourself have got to wonder, is this really normal? Who is to blame? Who is not reading the rules here?

In my daily experience with people who are never happy with their relationship with the bank and keep changing so often, its not us, it you. Get lost ,you're dumped for being too stupid to play by the rules!

Gosh what a !!!!!!, really unhelpful and offensive. Banks have too many rules and yes, I do expect personal service when I am putting up to £200k through them...

Lokolo

kayej wrote: »

Gosh what a !!!!!!, really unhelpful and offensive. Banks have too many rules and yes, I do expect personal service when I am putting up to £200k through them...

With that attitude it's no surprise that banks don't treat you well. I know if someone like you came and wanted my business, even with £200k, I know where I'd tell you to shove it.

bengal-stripe

kayej wrote: »

........yes, I do expect personal service when I am putting up to £200k through them...

You might want to try Coutts (the Queen seems to like them)

http://www.coutts.com/