How friendly are banks?

innovate

Caladan wrote: »

What matters in my opinion is what the company does to rectify a mistake and re-build the relationship with the customer, any company can make mistakes, only the best fix them properly.

I agree, everybody makes mistakes at times. And what counts is how they (who made the mistake) rectify it.

Though blaming the other party as a matter of course is something I can't agree with. Not that you have in any way suggested this - but countless posts here are of that nature.

leeroy2009

well high interest, cash back on my direct debits and discounts on my car / home insurance means more to me then how happy or helpful a agent is in a call centre, I deal with any questions through secure messages.

id only ring them for lost cards or suspicious transactions.

rb10

Caladan wrote: »

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.

Most banks have moved on from that view, and have realised that (to minimise write-offs) they should be lending money based on how likely the customer is to repay, and not based on how long they've had an account.

MoneySaverLog

Caladan wrote: »

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

I wont comment on where Santander are placed

First direct are good but they are not the b's and e's of the banking world. I'm considered such a bad risk to them that I cannot even get a offline contact less debit card.

Still their loss.

I won't comment on Santander either.

Caladan

rb10 wrote: »

Most banks have moved on from that view, and have realised that (to minimise write-offs) they should be lending money based on how likely the customer is to repay, and not based on how long they've had an account.

You're quite right, and so has HSBC, but on 'borderline' cases where there is a long, established relationship it is far more likely to be overturned.