How friendly are banks?

JuicyJesus

innovate wrote: »

I beg to disagree. There is no such thing as a "relationship" in their programs which decide whether you get a mortgage or other credit or not. Also, particularly for a mortgage, you want to shop around for the best deal rather than take what your friendly bank might tell you to.

It does depend. The credit scoring may take into account length of relationship, credit turnover, how you run your account etc which might tilt a decision towards you if you need credit (better rate on a loan, for instance).

However it's probably not worth blind loyalty. As far as I'm concerned though, current accounts are one of those things where more interest etc is less important to me than service, reliability and my personal happiness with them, because if a credit card with a good APR goes tits up, the damage is far less likely to cause me lasting harm than my entire current account going with it.

opinions4u

The majority of people are happy with their bank, mainly for reasons posted in this thread.

The majority of those who express dissatisfaction with their bank stay put. So it's fair to assume that their dissatisfaction isn't extreme.

Manzila

I think being friendly is the way of advertising.

opinions4u

Manzila wrote: »

I think being friendly is the way of advertising.

It's certainly a way of building trust which is a precursor to making a good sale.

If it's a suitable sale that trust remains. If it isn't, it's probably gone forever.

anoncol

I've gone from hsbc to 123 and am a very happy customer.

I still have my hsbc account too, but dont use it. I just got fed up of getting no financial return from my hsbc accounts, but now with a 123 debit+credit accounts, i get £30 a month cash back!

I got naff all from hsbc. I dont care for good customer service when i never need to use it.

ses6jwg

A lot of it will boil down to the individual members of staff in your local branch and/ or the individual you get when you call up a call centre, regardless of the bank.

innovate

JuicyJesus wrote: »

..... because if a credit card with a good APR goes tits up, the damage is far less likely to cause me lasting harm than my entire current account going with it.

why would a current account go "tits up" if you manage your finances properly? What is a "tits up" current account? And for that matter, same Qs for a credit card.

JuicyJesus

innovate wrote: »

why would a current account go "tits up" if you manage your finances properly? What is a "tits up" current account? And for that matter, same Qs for a credit card.

Administrative errors basically; Direct Debits bounced when funds available, DDs or SOs cancelled by mistake, other clerical errors that can be a pain in the a*se to rectify.

If a firm mismanages my credit card, it's not really that big a deal. If a firm mismanages my current account which has all my actual cash money then I've potentially got a big issue on my hands.

Caladan

innovate wrote: »

I beg to disagree. There is no such thing as a "relationship" in their programs which decide whether you get a mortgage or other credit or not. Also, particularly for a mortgage, you want to shop around for the best deal rather than take what your friendly bank might tell you to.

I'll counter that and say that at HSBC I have seen plenty of examples where the duration of a customers relationship is taken into account to allow for decisions to swing into the customers favour.

The computer based credit scoring doesn't care (unless it's a very new account), but once it hits underwriters or if something is referred to a branch for a decision to be made trust me, it matters.

Mirey,
I'm glad you've found HSBCs service to be really good. I'd love to say it's because we're all the best of the best, but ses6jwg said it all in his post. If you encounter friendly, talented and reliable staff, you'll love it, if you encounter an absolute muppet, you'll think the whole bank is like that.

Incidentally, First Direct are rated number 1 for customer satisfaction in the industry, for the 3rd year running I believe.

There's a picture in this link that shows scores, the article is from September 2012 so not massively out of date.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2203401/Major-high-street-banks-fare-badly-latest-customer-satisfaction-survey.html

I wont comment on where Santander are placed

innovate

Caladan wrote: »

.....

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/saving/article-2203401/Major-high-street-banks-fare-badly-latest-customer-satisfaction-survey.html

Clearly a sound reference, the Daily Mail.

As I said before, the OP should check the reports on here about the 123.