switching from Barclays to Coop advice and tips

randomnut

If you are looking for a ethical banking service then look for a Building Society. They have no shareholders to spend their time trying to please and not stock market listed so no shady dealings to keep their share price high.

I've personally moved to Nationwide from Barclays but there are plenty of others available.

badger_

Another vote for a building society here, I've just joined Nationwide and used their switching service. I am very happy with the service from them I personally cannot fault them.

Dr_Cuckoo3

Hazzanet wrote: »

How do you find the service with them?

The account sends and receives faster payments during normal banking hours

I am not particularly impressed by the staff , I find that they treat non-Muslim customers as an inconvenience and merely tolerate them (unless they have one of the accounts requiring a large deposit perhaps)

The Bank closed some of it's branches recently and replaced them with agencies

I wouldn't use it as my main bank

I don't use bank branches much , so interaction with staff isn't high on my list of priorities - I doubt that I will set foot in one of their branches again

But then , how many Citibank current account customers use Citibank branches ?

bankhater_1965

there is no such thing as a nice bank !!!!

martley

I wrote on here a few weeks ago as I was thinking of moving from Smile (part of Co Operative) to First Direct after seven years with Smile. I was declined an account by FD and am now so glad I was.

I went into the local high street Co Op bank and was offered a review of my banking needs there and then. It took about about an hour and I was very impressed with it. There was no hard sell but they looked at all aspects of my current arrangements. There and then I was given:

1. A switch to a co-op account with a 2,500 overdraft facility.
2. The co-op members credit card offering cashback with a £6,000 limit.
3. Advice on all accounts and opted for the Privilege account at £9.50 a month, but which will save me a lot on my insurance, offer insurance for my iPhone, and other benefits. I can upgrade or downgrade my account at anytime if I can save more without the monthly charge.

I know there may be other cards that offer a little more 'cashback' but I already have a co-op mortgage at a great tracker base rate, and I'm happy. I receive about £100.00 already a year back via the dividend, and if I do my shopping on the card and pay it off in full each month, I'll earn extra cash back as a bonus. The co-op have also now launched an iPhone app for banking on the move, although it doesn't yet offer the facility to move money, but have been assured that this is coming.

Overall I've swapped from Smile to Co-Op even though it's part of the same group because it is easier for me and they have some extra products that bring it all together, and I'll finally be able to see all my products in one place. I was finding smile a little anachronistic sadly.

Since going to the branch I've contacted the call centre and found staff to be very helipful. I have no compliants so far, and am glad I have stayed.

realaledrinker

Britannia, now part of the Co-op bank, offer access to their current accounts in branch - deposit/withdraw cash, pay in cheque (but goes to central clearing so takes an extra day to appear on the account) plus stuff like change of address, etc.

The on line service is almost identical to smile's except for no secure messaging and you get hard copy statements every 30 trans or 3 months (whether you want them or not!)

agrinnall

poggs wrote: »

I just closed my co-op account due to them favouring terrorists over fruit farmers. I also no longer shop in any of their stores.

Their disgraceful decision to stop trade with Israeli fruit farmers forced me to leave them over my ethical concerns.

Barclays may be dodgy, but at least they dont support middle eastern fundamentalism.

No, instead they were bailed out by those well known supporters of democracy, the state and royal families of Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7701405.stm

davevincent

Poggs, for the record I think Co-op made a decision based on the ethics and international law ww.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/29/co-op-israel-west-bank-boycott

junkmail42

I don't know about ethical, but I wouldn't switch to them based on their website / customer service.

Reasons:

1. The website is very amateurish - you have to give your memorable facts to a person on the 'phone. Not exactly secure, then when you trying to logon, I had to 'phone them again to be told it doesn't accept capital letters (for first school / memorable name etc!).

2. Faster payments? Somebody on this thread says that they send faster payments. Not in my experience. Transfers between Lloyds / Santander / NatWest / Halifax are almost instant. Coop to any of them takes hours at best. On 3rd July 7pm ish, I arranged £1k transfer to Santander from Coop, it still hasn't arrived, just listed as 'I' in their list of transfers. Meaning that the reason it hasn't gone is Unknown! Great. I presume I'll have to phone them at my expense on their new 0844 number to find out why?!

I'll be closing my Coop account asap.

Anyone know if there's any way they can get their £200 back off me?!

EmSp

I'm with Co-Op Bank and never had any problems.

I signed up last year when they offered the £200 to switch deal, so was very pleased with that!

I live in North London and there isn't a branch very close to where I live, but I've never really had the need to visit one.

I still have an old HSBC account with £0 in it, so on the odd occasion I have to pay a cheque in, I pay it to my HSBC account then use internet banking to move it to my Co-Op account.

It's not that much of a hassle!

I'd say go for it!