I could do with finding a decent bank?

Jlawson118

I've been in the world of banking for just short of three years now and I'm having nothing but trouble with the majority of them. My first bank was with HSBC in 2013 when I was 17, but a year later when I turned 18, they refused to change my account to the adult account with the £300 withdrawal limit and contactless card, and I needed that withdrawal limit a few months after I turned 18 to make a payment.

Anyway, I switched to First Direct. I know they're still a part of HSBC but if you've seen some of my other threads, you'll see that I see them as a God send of a bank, though after a fraudulent attack with them once, I decided it would be better to open a second and spare bank account so that I'm not left completely without funds.

I opened one with Lloyds and as much as their cashback offers were good at some point and saved me a lot of money, all they put on there these days was companies I've never even heard of, as well as I've discovered their customer service is terrible. I cancelled a card marking it as lost, they cancelled the card and never even sent me another, when I asked why, they said I didn't ask for another one. And even then, they sent me the wrong one. Then I had even more trouble with their Avios credit card credit card which put me off them completely, but that's a different story.

So I tried Halifax for a few months, but for one, I never got cashback offers, and two, they wouldn't allow me for a credit card or an overdraft facility whatsoever. I wanted their Clarity card, the reason I had the Avios card with Lloyds was to use abroad, although I was put off by the £24 yearly fee, whereas the Clarity is free. And I thought that if they couldn't even allow me an overdraft, then would they ever lend me money if I needed it in an Emergency? And something that proved that was when I ended up damaging my car door with a fence. First Direct saved my bacon there.

So I closed down both Halifax and Lloyds (Current account and credit card) And switched them to Barclays, opening a Barclaycard Freedom Rewards. But at this moment in time I'm mixed about them, I've had numerous technical issues these past few months and I end up getting put through to Indian call centres, who don't understand my queries and I'm forever passed to the wrong places and sent around the houses to fix. In the end I've managed to fix the problems myself.

So I'm kind of stuck for ideas now. All I want is a bank with a good service and with special offers. I love First Direct's customer service but they don't really have many special offers and that lets it down a little, but apart from that, they're perfect.

Any recommendations now?

eskbanker

I'd just stick with FD if I were you, it's sometimes worth being able to say to prospective lenders that you've held your account for x years so best not to keep burning through them at the rate you are.

Having said that, there's nothing (other than perhaps credit scoring issues arising from all that activity) to stop you opening others for perks, see http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts#cashback

Jlawson118

eskbanker wrote: »

I'd just stick with FD if I were you, it's sometimes worth being able to say to prospective lenders that you've held your account for x years so best not to keep burning through them at the rate you are.

Having said that, there's nothing (other than perhaps credit scoring issues arising from all that activity) to stop you opening others for perks, see http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts#cashback

I don't plan to close my FD account any time soon, I just want a spare one that's all. I was hit by a fraud attack on my First Direct account last year and it left me without money for a while when there was another issue. So I've always wanted a backup account for if that ever happened again.
And I know what you mean about banks trusting you with the time you've been with them. I needed to borrow some money in the summer so First Direct went through my options and found a £1000 overdraft being the cheaper option so they just gave me it. As well as they recently just let me have their Gold Card too. They're definitely my main bank

TheShape

Thought you were coming to London to open an account with Metro Bank?!

Seriously OP? I thought I was a bit harsh on you in another thread and backtracked but you really are just looking for or creating problems for yourself. You seem to have trouble with every bank account you get and did you ever fully sort out your 'two ISA' problem?

What you need to do is stick with one bank account. Put money in, take money out. Keep it simple. That is all the recommendation you need.

eskbanker

TheShape wrote: »

What you need to do is stick with one bank account. Put money in, take money out. Keep it simple. That is all the recommendation you need.

I disagree with this, regardless of whatever problems OP may have had!

There have been many anguished posts on here from people who have all their eggs in one basket with a single account, so when there's a problem for whatever reason (major technical outage, losing cards, temporary blocks, etc) it's always a good idea to have funds in at least one other place....

Jlawson118

TheShape wrote: »

Thought you were coming to London to open an account with Metro Bank?!

Seriously OP? I thought I was a bit harsh on you in another thread and backtracked but you really are just looking for or creating problems for yourself. You seem to have trouble with every bank account you get and did you ever fully sort out your 'two ISA' problem?

What you need to do is stick with one bank account. Put money in, take money out. Keep it simple. That is all the recommendation you need.

Yeah I'd love to open one with Metro bank but I doubt I'll be going to London any time in the next year or two, hence why I won't be opening one with Metro Bank..

I would stick with one account, but when you're hit by fraud and left absolutely penniless when there's problems then paying you the money back, it makes sense to have a second account.

I seriously had nearly £1500 worth of savings in my First Direct account, mixed with different savings accounts, and the entire money got removed from my account and gambled away on a website. PayPal and the gambling site refused to cooperate with both me, and First Direct and so FD refused to pay me my money back. It took a lot of fighting for a month or two just to get the money back. And I needed this money. That's why I just want a backup account. Otherwise I was stashing hundreds of pounds worth of emergency money that my family gave me, under my mattress

Any of my other threads are hardly any of your business when I'm just curious about these sort of things when I have problems. After all, isn't what this forum is about?

TheShape

eskbanker wrote: »

I disagree with this, regardless of whatever problems OP may have had!

There have been many anguished posts on here from people who have all their eggs in one basket with a single account, so when there's a problem for whatever reason (major technical outage, losing cards, temporary blocks, etc) it's always a good idea to have funds in at least one other place....

Fair enough, the OP should have two accounts in case of problems, that's sensible. As far as I can tell, OP already has two accounts, FD and Barclays.

But what the OP doesn't (in my opinion) need to be doing, is changing accounts.

You only need to look at OP's posting history to notice that he has problem after problem.

Jlawson118

TheShape wrote: »

Fair enough, the OP should have two accounts in case of problems, that's sensible. As far as I can tell, OP already has two accounts, FD and Barclays.

But what the OP doesn't (in my opinion) need to be doing, is changing accounts.

You only need to look at OP's posting history to notice that he has problem after problem.

Yeah changing accounts is a problem I'll admit that, but I'm just constantly feeling let down by banks. I admitted in my original post that I'm just having issues. All I wanted was a few opinions on finding a decent bank though

Voyager2002

There is a reason why you can't find a bank with good service and good special offers -- banks that invest money in good service don't need to spend money to "bribe" people to join them. Anyway, you like First Direct but want something similar as a back-up, so look at Nationwide but just go for the Flex account rather than anything complicated.

TheShape

Jlawson118 wrote: »

Yeah I'd love to open one with Metro bank but I doubt I'll be going to London any time in the next year or two, hence why I won't be opening one with Metro Bank..

I would stick with one account, but when you're hit by fraud and left absolutely penniless when there's problems then paying you the money back, it makes sense to have a second account.

I seriously had nearly £1500 worth of savings in my First Direct account, mixed with different savings accounts, and the entire money got removed from my account and gambled away on a website. PayPal and the gambling site refused to cooperate with both me, and First Direct and so FD refused to pay me my money back. It took a lot of fighting for a month or two just to get the money back. And I needed this money. That's why I just want a backup account. Otherwise I was stashing hundreds of pounds worth of emergency money that my family gave me, under my mattress

Any of my other threads are hardly any of your business when I'm just curious about these sort of things when I have problems. After all, isn't what this forum is about?

Yes, you post problems/questions and invite advice/answers.

When friends or family ask me for advice though, I might not just answer the question at hand without putting it in context as that can lead to poor advice.

In the context of your other posts I'd advise keeping things simple. You've had a good few accounts already and you've had a good few problems or the accounts haven't met your expectations, perhaps you are expecting too much?

Jlawson118

TheShape wrote: »

Yes, you post problems/questions and invite advice/answers.

When friends or family ask me for advice though, I might not just answer the question at hand without putting it in context as that can lead to poor advice.

In the context of your other posts I'd advise keeping things simple. You've had a good few accounts already and you've had a good few problems or the accounts haven't met your expectations, perhaps you are expecting too much?

I might expect too much. But surely it's out of order for me to cancel a debit card because it was damaged (I told them it was lost though) and they refuse to send me a new one because I didn't declare I wanted a new one? Surely if there's a problem with my old one, it's standard to send me a new one, I've never known any practice like that..
Or when I'm abroad and they cancel the wrong card whilst I'm abroad, meaning an expensive postage bill to get my cards abroad. Or I need to borrow a little bit of money and the bank just refuse it from me? Or any form of credit for that matter. And then I have a technical problem adding a debit card to my credit card account to pay my bill early, and on the phone in the Indian call centre, the guy cannot understand my queries and on the other end I'm welcomed by the debt collection department?

Surely this practice isn't even good enough at all. Surely I'm to expect even the slightest bit better than that practice? Especially when I phoned up First Direct the other week, changed my mobile number, a few security questions and my password all within the space of three minutes..

They've turned me into expecting so much from a bank. Which some of what I ask for isn't too much to ask for at all..