who to bank with?

chili1496

Currently i bank with "The royal bank of scotland" i have never had any issues with them, always in credit and have a £900 overdraft which i nevr touch. my wages and all my direct debits are maintained from this 1 account. i also have my sons savings account with this bank, and it gets almost nothing back i'd be better off keeping this money under my bed

anyway just lately i have been getting more and more frustrated over nothing and feel like moving my accounts to somewhere else, however i have no idea where or who to bank with?

my sons savings we need to be able to make withdrawls for him to buy presents etc with his money

myself i like to do most of my banking online.

anyone got any reccomendations? oh should add i get paid weekly and this would go into my account

thanks

innovate

Adult accounts: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/

Kids savings: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/child-savings-tax-free (check on the savings board for threads on kid's savings)

chili1496

many thanks for the link which i had read prior to posting i was actually hoping more for real life comments from people on here about various banks to avoid and to consider.

thanks

pmduk

There is no one bank that's best. I suggest you work out what you don't like about RBS exactly and then concentrate on finding a bank that doesn't have these faults.

Defining how you use an account and the facilities you want would also help.

For everybody that recommends any particular bank, a dozen people will come along saying that they're awful.

ColdIron

I'm not sure how much use this will be and it's quite subjective but, for the ones I feel qualified to have an opinion upon, here are some lists in order of preference

Customer Service
First Direct - Great
Lloyds - Fine
Santander - Fine
Nationwide - Fine
Metro Bank - Tries hard but too many young employees wishing you 'An Amazing Day'. Very fast phone answering
Barclays - Rubbish, too many foreign call centres

Interest Rates on Balance
Santander - 3% to 20K
Lloyds - 3% to 5K
Nationwide - 5% to 2.5K
Barclays - 0% but easy to set up saver at 0.85% - 1.25%
First Direct 0%
Metro Bank 0%

Other Financial Stuff
Santander - Good - cashback and ISAs
First Direct - Regular saver and ISA if you can fund it
Nationwide - Occasional stuff
Metro Bank - 0% debit card on foreign purchaes and cash
Lloyds - ?
Barclays - Generally appaling

Online Banking
Barclays - I like it a lot
Santander - Fine
Lloyds - Fine
Nationwide - Fine
Metro Bank - Poor
First Direct - Very poor for an online only bank

Security
Barclays - PIN Sentry, I like these a lot, some don't
Nationwide - PIN Sentry
Lloyds - Phone back on new payees
Santander- Phone back on new payees
First Direct - Standard
Metro Bank - Standard

Cool factor of ATM card in no order
Barclays - Very platinum
Lloyds - Very horsey
Metro Bank - Very comic
Santander - Very red
Nationwide - Very blue
First Direct - Very gothic

Yorkie1

The cool factor of the ATM card being, of course, the most important criterion

(says the poster who chose Lloyds as their first ever bank because there was a branch on campus and also because their bright green logo was my favourite )

chili1496

pmduk wrote: »

There is no one bank that's best. I suggest you work out what you don't like about RBS exactly and then concentrate on finding a bank that doesn't have these faults.

Defining how you use an account and the facilities you want would also help.

For everybody that recommends any particular bank, a dozen people will come along saying that they're awful.

i think my initial post defined how i use my bank and what i am looking for, sorry if it was not that clear

ColdIron

I chose Barclays all those years ago as I thought the blue would stand out better at night when looking for an ATM

persa

ColdIron wrote: »

Online Banking
Barclays - I like it a lot
Santander - Fine
Lloyds - Fine
Nationwide - Fine
Metro Bank - Poor
First Direct - Very poor for an online only bank

Security
Barclays - PIN Sentry, I like these a lot, some don't
Nationwide - PIN Sentry
Lloyds - Phone back on new payees
Santander- Phone back on new payees
First Direct - Standard
Metro Bank - Standard

This interests me. I've been recommended First Direct, but good online banking is key for me. I'm leaving HSBC because I hate their version. Nationwide is IMHO easy to use and has great functionality. Santander is easy to use, but doesn't do nearly as much.

Anyone else have any comments on the internet banking of a particular bank or building society?

persa

chili1496 wrote: »

Currently i bank with "The royal bank of scotland" i have never had any issues with them, always in credit and have a £900 overdraft which i nevr touch. my wages and all my direct debits are maintained from this 1 account. i also have my sons savings account with this bank, and it gets almost nothing back i'd be better off keeping this money under my bed

anyway just lately i have been getting more and more frustrated over nothing and feel like moving my accounts to somewhere else, however i have no idea where or who to bank with?

my sons savings we need to be able to make withdrawls for him to buy presents etc with his money

myself i like to do most of my banking online.

anyone got any reccomendations? oh should add i get paid weekly and this would go into my account

thanks

I use Nationwide - rarely go into branch, I like to manage my finances online. The internet banking is easy to use, if there's a screw up, they do sort it (my main account has been with them for 9 years, mistakes happen, it's how they deal with it) and interest rates aren't bad if you choose accounts/products carefully.

I'm looking for another account as a backup, but I'm happy with Nationwide as my main one. I'd recommend.

ColdIron

persa wrote: »

Anyone else have any comments on the internet banking of a particular bank or building society?

To me Barclays and First Direct are at opposite ends of the online banking spectrum

Security and ease of use are high on my list. Many people think PIN Sentries are a pain but not me, you need physical possession of it AND the PIN No

I'm not a fan of tabbed dialog boxes, though they are very common, and Barclays have gone to some trouble to do away with them. They use collapsing panels you can drag and drop to suit you and everything you do frequently is up front and obvious. They've made full use of the screen with nice clear fonts, good use of colour and is a joy to use

The FD form on the other hand has been designed to work within a 768*600 area with a plain navigation menu on the left and a minuscule details section. As the corporate colours are black and white that's what you get, it feels like banking in the 1950's - at night. It's functional enough but clumsy and a chore to use

In defence of First Direct, sometimes you just have to phone your bank and then they are like chalk and cheese but the other way around. Labyrinthine menus and communication problems by poorly trained staff verses nearly instant phone call answer by a cheery Leeds lass