WHICH savings accounts rankings

northerner77

http://www.which.co.uk/money/savings-and-investments/reviews-ns/best-rate-savings-accounts/customer-satisfaction/


Top performers:
First Direct (77%) and The Co-operative Bank (68%) are the clear winners in our survey, combining high levels of customer satisfaction with the likelihood of being recommended to a friend by account holders.

Room for improvement:
Santander (formerly Abbey) (38%), one of the largest providers of savings accounts in our survey, did pretty poorly, having also come bottom in our survey last year.
All in all, the results make poor reading for members of the big banking groups. Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Barclays, NatWest, and Royal Bank of Scotland all scored below average for customer satisfaction.

So nothing much has changed....

northerner77

Customer satisfaction for savingsProviderInternetTelephoneCustomer ScoreFirst Direct77%Co-operative Bank68%Coventry BS63%Aldermore Bankn/an/a62%Yorkshire BS62%Leeds BSn/an/a62%Principality BSn/a62%Barnsley BSn/a62%National Savings & Investments (NS&I)60%AAn/a60%Saga60%Nationwide BS59%Yorkshire Bankn/an/a59%Dunfermline BSn/an/a58%Marks & Spencer Money57%Newcastle BSn/a56%Intelligent Finance56%Tesco Bank55%ING Direct55%Derbyshire BSn/a54%Skipton BSn/a54%ICICI Bank UKn/a54%BM Savings (Birmingham Midshires)54%Northern Rock53%Sainsbury's Finance52%Britannian/an/a52%Clydesdale Bankn/a52%Krbs (Kent Reliance BS)n/a51%Post Officen/a51%Chelsea BSn/an/a51%West Bromwich BSn/an/a51%Scottish Widows Bank50%HSBC50%Egg49%NatWest49%Lloyds TSB48%Cheltenham & Gloucestern/a48%Barclays47%Royal Bank of Scotland46%Standard Life Bank46%Cahootn/a45%Halifax44%Bank of Scotland44%Santander38%

northerner77

Oh that came out well, apologies.

innovate

northerner77 wrote: »

Top performers:
First Direct (77%) and The Co-operative Bank (68%) are the clear winners in our survey, combining high levels of customer satisfaction with the likelihood of being recommended to a friend by account holders

This must be one of the stupidest conclusions they have ever reached. Presumably their survey asked stupid questions to start with.

Yes, First Direct would come top for me as a savings bank, too, if I had nothing more than £300 per month to save. Beyond that, First Direct have absolutely nothing even half competitive to offer to savers.

According to an HSBC survey, the average savings & investment portfolio is worth just under £18K. Even if you take this survey with a pinch of salt, it seems fair to assume that a huge number of savers are interested in putting by more than £3,600 a year. Amazingly, Which? don't appear to have spotted that different savers have different requirements and expectations. They have just thrown everyone into one big pot and come up with a conclusion that lacks any credibility.

Putting the Coop second, of a total of two, after First Direct, in their "Recommend Providers" just confirms they haven't got a clue.

Also, I appreciate this "research" is about non-ISA accounts, but any credible researcher would just mention that people might wish to fully use their cash ISA allowance before they settle for accounts most people have to pay tax on.

Overall, the worst piece of Which? "research" I have ever seen!

heloid

Totally innovate, First Direct, sure great service, but they only have 1 decent (well great) savings account out of the 5 or so types people would want.

Biggles

innovate wrote: »

This must be one of the stupidest conclusions they have ever reached.

To be fair to Which?, 'Customer Satisfaction' was just a small part of their survey of savings accounts.

The main parts were focused on the rates, in sections on Instant Access, Non-internet, Notice Accounts, Fixed Term Accounts etc etc.

innovate

Biggles wrote: »

To be fair to Which?, 'Customer Satisfaction' was just a small part of their survey of savings accounts.

The main parts were focused on the rates, in sections on Instant Access, Non-internet, Notice Accounts, Fixed Term Accounts etc etc.

I am sorry, if that was true, they couldn't possibly have come up with their only 2 "Recommended Providers" being FD and the Coop! And them being "clear winners". That's just a joke.

I admit, I have not read the detailed report - - having seen their summary conclusions, this 'research' has lost all credibility and the detail is irrelevant to me.