Revealed: The best and worst banks

markonline_2

So no TSB cards then?

YorkshireBoy

markonline wrote: »

So no TSB cards then?

Why on earth would I use a card that charged a small fortune for overseas use?! (except in emergencies)


I also have Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Nationwide, Yorkshire Bank, Santander, HSBC, & NatWest debit cards...but they won't be travelling with me!

markonline_2

Lol... thats my point. You can't rely on them in an emergency. They will leave you stranded.

YorkshireBoy

markonline wrote: »

Lol... thats my point. You can't rely on them in an emergency. They will leave you stranded.

You relied on ONE means of payment. I have 6 means of payment for my holiday spends.

innovate

markonline wrote: »

Lol... thats my point. You can't rely on them in an emergency. They will leave you stranded.

You are missing the point - relying on a single card is a risk you create for yourself, and you don't even have to leave the UK for this to be a risk.

Jetting back to the UK because the current account you held for 26 years won't pay your mortgage just doesn't sound necessary. Nothing of that dimensions that cannot be solved on the phone, and it doesn't matter where in the world you are calling from.

Unless you have been identified as an international money launderer or drug dealer etc. in which case, there's little chance you will jet out of the UK once you have jetted in to resolve your mortgage payment, lol.....

JKSandy

I don't really care what service banks provide, anyone of them can go pear shape.

It's how quickly they resolve problems that matters. What I can I get from them with the minimal of cost to me and as above I don't rely on just one of them.

anna2825

markonline wrote: »

I have banked with the TSB since I was 16 (I'm now 42). I was really looking forward to the brand returning to the high street.

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 completely agree Mark as I have had exactly the same issues with TSB since being disposed of by Lloyds! I cant get to my branch which is miles away from where I live so I use my local where a Personal banker has taken me in hand so to speak and she is amazing. The Customer Services team however are absolute rubbish. I too have to go in branch to sort things out on Monday as I failed their security checks twice even though I KNOW I gave the right info! And as for TSB Card Services....got their card in December, they took the wrong payment in January (took the whole amoutn0 but then refunded when I spotted the mistake. They then did the same again in February helping themselves to nearly £1k therefore bouncing all my standing orders, DD etc!

Herbalus

innovate wrote: »

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.

To be fair, the subheading does qualify the heading:

"People banking with the newly-created TSB have voted it the worst for customer service in a poll of 9,000 MSE users..."

Though I do agree with you in the main part: as a standalone heading it is misleading.

I also agree that customer service is entirely subjective, but that will always be a problem when asking someone what they think of a bank. An unreasonable person will always give an unreasonable answer, and a prejudiced person will maintain that bankers should begin with a 'w' even if his or her service has been fine. Similarly, a person who hasn't contacted their bank in the last six months because they do everything online (and hasn't triggered fraud indicators etc), will probably give a great rating. This will be more likely if they like their account because it pays interest etc.

Also, the number of people who will form an opinion of a bank because of the design of their mobile app is quite staggering.

I guess MSE can't evaluate the reasonableness of each respondent though...!

MsSupertech

With respect folks, anyone relying on a single card - or even cards from a single organisation - deserves all the problems they might get. ALWAYS have at least one alternative source of cash and or payment avaiable, either at home or on holiday. There are so many reasons a card might not work as expected, IT failure, lost or damaged card or a problem with the retailer's system. It's simple common sense to have an alternative

System

It's pretty foolish to rely on one source of funds locally, never mind across the globe.

The categorisation of the ratings is odd - trading name are sometime split out / sometimes not and even account types are sometimes split out. Obviously to do with affiliate links.