Revealed: The best and worst banks
Former_MSE_Michael
Former MSE 95 Posts
"People banking with the newly-created TSB have voted it the worst for customer service in a poll of 9,000 MSE users..."
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Revealed: The best and worst banks
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Revealed: The best and worst banks
Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.
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having experienced banking with natwest and lloyds in the past i cannot understand how these banks are still going?
they offer rubbish banking, the worst rates ever and their customer service is none existant.
HSBC is a suprise to be so low down. but i suspect that that maybe because of the cutbacks they did to in branch services.
they dont even open their counters on a saturday morning! something which all other banks still do!
If you stand in a queue in HSBC to pay in to your FD account, you probably blame HSBC not FD if there's a problem.
Begs the question, why is Smile incorporated into the Co-oP figures?
Perhaps the sample size of them individually is too small to warrant it?
Be interesting to know the breakdown of the scores, eg what areas are each company failing in?
Perhaps a build for the next survey would be to rate a selection of categories. eg Branch Service/Online/Product/Complaints Handling
This would help people tune their 'next' bank by what is important to them? eg, if people marked a bank down for having a poor in-credit rate, then that's not something I would that worried about as whilst I typically bank in-credit, there's seldom a balance in there long enough for a better % rate to make much of a difference, as I keep my savings in a savings account
You can see the poll here:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/10-02-2014/how-do-you-rate-your-bank-account-service-feb2014
If all you do is collect your salary and pay your bills, any bank does the job.
Ask a teenager have you had alcoholic drink or smoke - most will say yes to look good - same with banks - people who act responsibly will get what they want from their banks (in most cases) those who don't will not and it is they who knock the banks.
IMO its nothing to do with service.
And a survey on how many people who answered the MSE poll on banks' customer service did actually read the question before they answered the original poll.
Plus a poll that asks whether customer service (once defined what it is) is the most important factor in determining the value of a bank to a consumer.
I think it's pretty disappointing that MSE managed to spin a pretty basic survey into a "Revealed: the best and worst banks" headline. A very sad day when MSE sink to the lows of the UK tabloid press. But understandable, numbers make clicks, and more.
Two weeks ago I was on holiday in Spain, the bank locked me out of Online Banking, Telephone Banking and my Debit Card stopped working. I rang the bank and was told i'd failed security (which I hadn't) and was told there was nothing I could do other than go into a branch.
With no option to get my salary out of my account and pay my mortgage I had to fly back to England to go into the branch. Missing Valentines day with my Partner and having to fly on my birthday when we'd planned to do something special in Spain.
Without admitting liability the bank did pay out £180 compensation (this just covered the out of pocket expenses), and they did admit to their being "some failings". This is not the old TSB which the launch ad claimed it to be.
In fairness the staff in the branches seem to know their stuff, but the call centre seem to be staffed with kids who don't know a bank from their elbow.
I don't expect to have any trouble.