Co-operative Bank - Caveat Emptor!

sabretoothtigger

Co-op is especially ruthless in applying as many charges as possible, I would also recommend being very careful with them

grey_gym_sock

mulronie wrote: »

Even members of unions have the right to elect for their subscriptions not be used to contribute to political parties - but the Co-Op don't offer this to their members.

i would also ask: why don't shareholders in companies who make political donations have the right to opt out?

it is "interesting" that there is an opt out for trade union (who mainly donate to labour), and you are asking for an opt out for co-op (who donate to labour co-op), but there is no opt out for companies (who mainly donate to the conservatives).

IMO, nobody other than individual voters should be allowed to donate to political parties at all.

jack_spratt_2

The Co-operative Bank's parent organisation the Co-Operative Group Ltd makes significant donations directly to the Labour Party (e.g. £50,000 paid in the first quarter of this year), as well as funding its own "Co-Operative Party" which fights on the same ticket as Labour Party members (e.g. Ed Balls is technically a Labour Co-operative politician).

And how do you think the Conservative party gets there funding

I would also like to point out that the Co-operative bank comes near the top of the customer satisfaction tables year on year there will be dissatisfied customers as with any bank but they do seem to go the extra mile for the customer.

As the comment they are ruthless being a mutual why should customers who are shareholders absorb the the cost of customers who do not play by the rules ! An endless pot of credit to a customer is no use to the bank or the customer sometimes people need tough love but you do have my sympathy sallyjo with regards the position you were in and I am pleased you seem to have turned the corner

codetown

I have been with The Cooperative Bank for 6 months.
They made so many mistakes with me and never admitted them (letters sent late, calls never returned, incentive denied for no good reason, weeks and weeks of wait to have an answer, impossible to speak to a manager) that when I left I told them clearly they were worst than Santander.

I still think the Coop has been managing me as a customer worse than what Santander did (more mistakes in 6 months than the ones I had in 6 years by Santander).

And I am not talking ethics or politics here. I talk about financial business, the only one that attracts me to a bank... to me the Coop is just a real disaster in its internal organisation and will never ever go back to them.

Biggles

I was with the Co-op Bank several years ago and found all their operations to be run in a very amateur fashion.

Worst were the 'Handybanks'. You were supposed to be able to go in and carry out normal banking transactions, but they were operated by Co-op shop staff, who were always completely baffled by anything more complicated than banking or withdrawing cash. When I wanted to pay my monthly bills by bank giro (this was before the days of online banking), I was met by blank expressions, and it was suggested that I took cheques around to the various payees, or maybe posted them.

Porcupine

They are fairly amateur (in my 10 years of experience with them), but not generally in a bad way. For example, they aren't very sharp in converting student accounts into graduate accounts, so I got quite a few extra months of free overdraft with them . When my account did convert, they charged me an overdraft arrangement fee, despite me already clearing my overdraft. They applied bounce charges when I set up a direct debit on my savings account (I didn't know at the time that you couldn't do that). But every time it was sorted out with a single phone call, none of this 'we can't do it on the phone, you have to fill in form XYZ123 and send it to Siberia'. I'd rather have a bank that's gently incompetent than actively evil (yes, I'm looking at you A&L/Santander and NatWest).

Jegersmart

sallyjo wrote: »

Hi,

I read the following on MoneySupermarket just now
Disgruntled bank customers vote with their feet

Building societies have seen a 30% increase in the number of enquiries, while ethical banks are also reporting higher demand for their products. The Co-operative for example, has reported a 29% hike in online applications over the last week, .....

I would like to warn anyone who is considering moving their money to The Co-operative Bank, thinking they treat their customers 'ethically', that this was certainly NOT my experience. In fact they were worse than the other current accounts I've had over 25 years which included Abbey, NatWest and HSBC who I'm with now.

A few years ago I had cash flow and debt problems. I got into trouble. (I'll be paid up by the year end, it's taken forever, but a useful lesson!) The Co-operative Bank were my current account then and the way they managed my account and treated me as their customer helped push me into problems. I got myself into trouble but by god they lured me in! I had an overdraft then, and on a few occasions I needed a temporary extension, eg £100 just for a week, they would routinely refuse those, but offer me a £2000 loan instead. I resisted for a while and then took them up on it. I had children and shopping to buy, and a car to keep running. It gave me even more debt which I struggled to pay back. I had several cards and was already juggling, they should never have offered it.

I also sometimes made a mistake and went over the overdraft, in those circumstances they debited their fee almost immediately, making it even more difficult to pull yourself out of the problem and make it to payday. The bank charges were coming like labour pains and I had to default and went to the CCCS. Five years later have paid off all but the Co-operative Bank, they're the last to go. All my other creditors one by one accepted offers. Not that lot. But they will get paid off by November. Hurray!

As you should know, once you're in debt with a bank, you are their b**ch, if in default you are their war criminal. Whilst in default, The Co-operative Bank has sent me the nastiest letters of most of the creditors, has routinely resisted the DMP arrangement annually and have to be negotiated with. AND they have sent me a default notice each and every year, ensuring that my credit rating stays poor-not that I need it as I'll be debt free soon and have learned how to save. None of the other creditors did that.

So - if you think they are better than the rest - they are not, absolutely NOT! so caveat emptor, stay clear of that nasty organisation.

Hi

As others have pointed out, this is mostly irrelevant to whether the CO-OP is a more ethical organisation than another bank for example. Having said that, as far as I know the CO-OP Bank operates under the same fractal reserve system that all banks do so in a larger sense they are as bad as any other bank. But that's another story of course

You seem to have taken responsbility and climbed out of the hole - and well done on that!


J

nilrem_2

IMHO Co-op bank are no better or worse than any other bank. They do tend to be more ethical (than other banks) in how they invest and use their customers money but otherwise they are a business whose aim is to make money rather than be a charity.

I have used them for many years and found them OK, my only complaint is that the interest they pay on their savings accounts is not much to get excited about and they are not very 'hi-tech' compared to others. However I do trust them more with my money than some other banks!