Have current accounts improved? Let us know your views...

Former_MSE_Wendy

The OFT is reviewing the current account market to see if things have improved in the last few years.

We’re speaking to them later this week and would love to take your views – both good and bad - on the following areas:

SWITCHING:
Is it easier to move account?
If you have switched how did it go, if you haven’t what’s putting you off?

CLARITY:
Is it easier to keep track of your account?
Have you had an annual statement or info on your average credit and debit balances?

BANK CHARGES:
Are they clearer?
Have you ever been given the choice to opt out of unarranged overdraft charges or been warned you were near your account limit?

OTHER:
Have you received help if you’ve been in financial difficulty?
Is there more choice of free accounts?


Thanks in advance

innovate

MSE_Wendy wrote: »

SWITCHING:
Is it easier to move account?
If you have switched how did it go, if you haven’t what’s putting you off?

Experience with FD and Nationwide:

• switcher service needs to be watched like a hawk.
• need money in old and new accounts to cover the DDs because it's not always clear where the money will be taken from
• I would now always switch my DDs and SOs myself - seems a lot less hassle than letting the switcher service do it

General points:

• opening current accounts is easy (I have FD, Nationwide, Natwest, Santander, HSBC, Lloyds, Halifax, RBS - - though never asked for an overdraft)
• the concept of just one current account seems bit dated. Various offers [savings / interest etc] pre-req a current account, therefore many people have several. Also, as the Natwest/RBS IT meltdown has demonstrated, is seems prudent to have more than one current account (or at least some other easy access account at a different banking group).

MSE_Wendy wrote: »

CLARITY:
Is it easier to keep track of your account?
Have you had an annual statement or info on your average credit and debit balances?

• I only use accounts which offer online management, so looking at statements is not too difficult
• I know of no bank account that gives me a clear picture of forthcoming debits and credits. Not sure I am expecting this from a bank, anyway - - I use Microsoft Money to track my finances, and reconcile this with my bank accounts. I would not want any bank to hold that data for me - - none of their business to know about all my finances.
• an annual statement of average credit and debit balances is pretty meaningless to me

MSE_Wendy wrote: »

BANK CHARGES:
Are they clearer?
Have you ever been given the choice to opt out of unarranged overdraft charges or been warned you were near your account limit?

• Not an area I have extensive experience with myself - I am much more interested in interest payments by banks.
• figuring out the (credit) interest rate applicable is totally intransparent

MSE_Wendy wrote: »

OTHER:
Have you received help if you’ve been in financial difficulty?
Is there more choice of free accounts?

• not needed help myself, luckily
• as far as I know, all the high street banks, and many Building Societies, have been offering a free current account for many years now.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

• you didn't ask about current account benefits, such as credit interest or bundled insurances, some against fees. This should be added to your considerations for completeness.
  .
• you didn't ask about the proposal to introduce charges for all current accounts. My view is that , in the context of "fair trading", banks have no reason to charge any more than they do already for current accounts
  .
• you didn't ask for any "overall satisfaction rating" with individual banks (not just the "complaints" stats that I personally find quite meaningless in their current form). I reckon this could be a good indicator of what people think about the banks they use. MSE is in a prime position to conduct such a survey on a regular basis. If you do such a survey, please do it on the basis that many people have more than one current account, sometimes with the same bank, and definitely with different banks

Former_MSE_Wendy

Amazing reply - thanks innovate

We carry out regular (every six months) polls on bank service levels, only for a customer's main account. This is the last survey FYI


http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/13-08-2012/how-do-you-rate-your-banks-service

anniecave

SWITCHING:
Is it easier to move account?
If you have switched how did it go, if you haven’t what’s putting you off?

Easy to open accounts if you have good proofs of ID (passport, photo ID driving licence, approved items with your address on them). I've struggled to open savings accounts in the past due to not having the right ID.

Switching service resulted in all my direct debits bouncing for one month as LTSB tried to switch them over with insufficient time for the organisations to react in time. Like the above poster, I'd probably do it myself in future.

CLARITY:
Is it easier to keep track of your account?
Have you had an annual statement or info on your average credit and debit balances?

Online banking is a big help with keeping track. Text messages with statement information is also helpful.
Never had annual statements or average credit/balances, I don't think I'd find them useful anyway. I know I'm always in credit as I manage my account so that will always be the case!

BANK CHARGES:
Are they clearer?
Have you ever been given the choice to opt out of unarranged overdraft charges or been warned you were near your account limit?

I don't take much notice of bank charges. Some banks I think have simplified them, but that sometimes leads to higher charges depending on the situation, as people's financial activity patterns vary.

OTHER:
Have you received help if you’ve been in financial difficulty?
Is there more choice of free accounts?

Not applicable.
Haven't looked recently so don't know.

HTH.

olly300

MSE_Wendy wrote: »

Amazing reply - thanks innovate

We carry out regular (every six months) polls on bank service levels, only for a customer's main account. This is the last survey FYI


http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/13-08-2012/how-do-you-rate-your-banks-service

What's the definition of a main current account?

As innovate says expecting people to only have one current account is dated. For example I'm self-employed so I can pay money from my business account into any of my 4 personal current accounts and I can pay my mortgage and council tax out of any of them. The rest of my DD are split among them.

innovate

MSE_Wendy wrote: »

Amazing reply - thanks innovate

We carry out regular (every six months) polls on bank service levels, only for a customer's main account. This is the last survey FYI


http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/13-08-2012/how-do-you-rate-your-banks-service

Thanks, Wendy, I had seen that. Not sure this survey produces what I had in mind when I talked about "overall satisfaction rating" since

1. the survey focuses on customer service ("Please vote based on CUSTOMER SERVICE NOT RATE"). Customer service is clearly an essential part of what a bank offers, but far from everything that I would roll into a bottom line satisfaction level.
   .
   E.g. the perennial MSE survey favourite, First Direct, may well outperform every other bank in terms of their telephone support but other than a superb Regular Saver they have nothing on offer for anyone wanting to save more than £3.6K a year.
   .
   Compare that with the perennial MSE villain, Santander, who may not quite live up to the standard of the First Direct CS but who pay me at least £90 cashback a year (net after account fee), plus I get relatively decent interest for my current account balance, they have a good e-saver, and had a market-leading cash-ISA earlier this year (for all of which I need a current account with them).
   .
   Even if I would put FD above Santander on CS, my overall satisfaction level with Santander might well be the same or higher than with FD
   .
2. the survey needs to be normalised/related to the number of customers a bank has. Otherwise comparative results are not meaningful.
   E.g. 1,000 'bad' votes for a bank that has 2m customers are not as bad as 1,000 'bad' votes for a bank that has only 1m customers. 1,000 'good' votes for a bank that has 2m customers are only half as good as 1,000 'good' votes for the 1m customers bank.
   .
3. the survey doesn't recognise the fact that many people have more than one current account (with different banks), none of which might resemble a "main" account (assuming we had some sort of a definition of what such a beast is, and that everyone could accept).

A customer service survey has its place (as long as people don't need to arbitrarily pick a "main" account, and the results are relative to the number of customers the bank has) but in order to answer questions like "Have current accounts improved", a much wider set of data would need to feed into a survey.

EDIT: a lot of the regular 'forumites' never know when these surveys take place - - any chance we could get a tip-off on the forum when the next survey is due, please?

davethorp

SWITCHING:
Is it easier to move account?

I've moved twice in the last year from Natwest to Lloyds TSB and from Natwest and Lloyds TSB to Santander

If you have switched how did it go, if you haven’t what’s putting you off?

Comparatively smoothly. Two or three direct debits required some kind of manual intervention in order to get the switched over but otherwise was a relatively painless process. These switches were the first times I'd used a switching service for my DDs

CLARITY:
Is it easier to keep track of your account?

Several banks including those I bank with have introduced grace period features which certainly helps with keeping track as if I do slip up I have a few hours to correct the situation before I get charged or items get returned unpaid. Text message and email alerts make this easier too

Have you had an annual statement or info on your average credit and debit balances?

Not that I recall

BANK CHARGES:
Are they clearer?

They always have been pretty clear. Just stupidly expensive

Have you ever been given the choice to opt out of unarranged overdraft charges or been warned you were near your account limit?

Opt out no. Warned yes see comments about text and email alerts above

OTHER:
Have you received help if you’ve been in financial difficulty?

Not been in financial difficulty. Since none of my current banks wish to let me loose with an overdraft (yet) I doubt they would be much use if I said I was in difficulty. I have also seen threads on this forum where people have told their banks they were having financial problems and the bank has immediately cancelled their arranged overdraft

Is there more choice of free accounts

Not really. My main account isn't free however the benefit I receive (cashback from 123 account) more than covers the monthly fee

System

SWITCHING:
Switched from Citibank to Co-op. Some DDs failed because originators tried to take them from Co-op before the Co-op was ready. Contrary to the advice from BACS about how the automated switching service operates, the Co-op did not (and claimed it could not) cancel standing orders at Citibank.

CLARITY:
Co-op's on-line banking is opaque about what is included, or not, in the cleared balance.

BANK CHARGES:
Standard charges are clear. Co-op has latterly attempted to introduce a stealth charge for phone banking, by adopting rip-off 0844 numbers. (But is currently having a re-think about this.)

FREE ACCOUNTS
There is no such thing as a free account. There is always a charge, in the form of forgone interest on credit balances. Personally I would prefer fair interest on credit balances, and charges for transactions that reflect their costs.

Former_MSE_Wendy

innovate wrote: »

EDIT: a lot of the regular 'forumites' never know when these surveys take place - - any chance we could get a tip-off on the forum when the next survey is due, please?

Do you not get the weekly email?


I'll try and remember to post the next poll in the banking board but all polls are mentioned in this board if you want to keep your peepers peeled. The next one will be around February time.


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=46


Wendy