Co-Op Bank And Their

Mister_Zen

(Sorry had to rejoin as I can't find my old details, wasn't much to see anyway to be honest.)

Is anybody else finding Co-Op to be a bit primitive? I opened an account with them a few months ago and have found the online aspect of things to be horrendous.

This morning I got a recorded message saying that my account had a payment stopped because there wasn't enough money to process it. Checked my account and it was fine. I rang them up to find that there was a payment made on Tuesday that wasn't showing up on my account yet (I'd ordered something that isn't being despatched until next week and wasn't sure if they were taking payment immediately or on despatch). I know these things take a bit of time to update, but my old bank were bang on the money with this sort of thing and provided near real time updates. Co-Op then told me they had SMS services, then they had removed them, then put me through to a manager who told me SMS services were in place and would be live and include payments in progress, only for me to register and find that a quick balance check showed the same horrendously out of date figures.

I like Co-Op's stance on ethics and trying to do things the right way but there has to be a balance between that and giving people the functionality they need.

I'm wondering if my morning off tomorrow might be well spent looking at alternative banks with better online facilities ahead of the "switch in 7 days" thing that arrives on Monday.

Sorry, rant over. I'll get back in my box now.

P.S. Oops, I meant to put "Primitive Internet Banking" on the thread title.

mrsjanebanbury2009

If you want to do banking online, I'd suggest the Co-op's online bank Smile. We've banked with them for about 10 years and they are brilliant. And ethical, of course.

keyser666

mrsjanebanbury2009 wrote: »

If you want to do banking online, I'd suggest the Co-op's online bank Smile. We've banked with them for about 10 years and they are brilliant. And ethical, of course.

I believe they use the same platform as provided by smile

peachyprice

I have to agree with you Mister Zen, it is pants.

Why they have the balance and available balance I don't know, they're always the same, pending transactions are never reflected in the available balance, even when I know 100% there are pending transactions.

The only way to get a true balance is go to the cashpoint and check.

But other than that I've had a good experience with them.

1jim

I maybe wrong but isn't the balance what you have and the available balance what you could have if you included authorised overdraft?

Agreed would be nice to see any pending transactions or have them taken into account, although have never really needed to look at this too closely so it hasn't been an issue for me

MothballsWallet

I bank with Nationwide, and their online bank gives figures for available and current balances: current being what's in the account at that time and available is what you've got left after taking off any pending direct debits or card payments.

peachyprice

MothballsWallet wrote: »

I bank with Nationwide, and their online bank gives figures for available and current balances: current being what's in the account at that time and available is what you've got left after taking off any pending direct debits or card payments.

Yes, I think that's what the Co-op one is supposed to do, but it never does online, the figures are always exactly the same, you only get the two different balances at the cashpoint. It's been like that for years.

Mister_Zen

Co-Op tell me their system is meant to do it but that it doesn't and it has been delayed until Q1.

Everything else about banking with them has been great, but their online stuff just makes me a bit twitchy.

dezziecymru

I find their text balance pretty accurate

peachyprice

Mister_Zen wrote: »

Co-Op tell me their system is meant to do it but that it doesn't and it has been delayed until Q1.

Everything else about banking with them has been great, but their online stuff just makes me a bit twitchy.

Don't hold your breath Mr Z, I've been with them since 2008, it's never worked in all that time

chuckley

welcome to coop... its all downhill from here on...