MSE News: RBS bottom in our banking poll as First Direct remains top

jamie_02

God I hate First Direct. My current account with them is a zombie account purely to pay off a cheap loan I have there.

miller

MABLE wrote: »

Been with Lloyds Bank since 1984 and found them to be really good. The only issue I had was in early 1984 when I wanted to make my £150 overdraft facility permanent. The assistant manager said ok with him but the manager did not like me so was rejected. How times have moved on. Also Nationwide brilliant.

Instead now you get "Computer Says No", which I suppose it at least consistent and not based on personalities. Though you may have got "Computer Says Yes" of course if it hadn't been for that manager.

patman99

My main bank is NatWest. I no longer bother going into the main Colchester branch as they have replaced proper human tellers with machines.

Barclays have done the same. Might explain why the Metro Bank branch that opened year back is so popular.

I have accounts at Barclays (a zombie account purely for the free Kaspersky antivirus), TSB (never been in branch but use this for my EF), and Metro (where my 3-6 month EF sits).

Mchambers

I am amazed that RBS have beaten Barclays to bottom spot. Maybe 'Jessy' got some of his staff to vote to make sure the 'Go-To' bank did not get last place.

Like others, I have a zombie account with Barclays so that I can get Kapersky each year.

JuicyJesus

GingerFurball wrote: »

First Direct are anecdotally rubbish.

They're not as great as they're cracked up to be. Competent, sure, but also downright rude on occasion. I got the distinct impression that I wasn't considered "their" type of customer so I got the absolute bare minimum in the way of service, and never could see why everyone raves about them as they do.

Frankly, I'm with Nationwide now, and have no need to call anyone or go into a branch except in a dire emergency, and I'm quite happy with that.

djpailo

Generally I've not had any issues with any banks thus far. Been quite lucky but I also try to be as polite as possible on the phone.

Dewpoint

From First-hand experience I've found First Direct total rubbish. Their delays robbed me of 1% extra interest on savings, and their response to account problems was abysmal. I suspect the fact that MSE get paid to advertise this bank completely devalues any poll it conducts.
Nationwide - again from personal experience - is way ahead of FD in my opinion.
I suppose if you keep on asking the same people the same questions over the same banks you will always get the same results.
The MSE used to be a source of information you could trust - but no longer. Sadly, it too has succumbed to the lure of advertising money.

eskbanker

Dewpoint wrote: »

From First-hand experience I've found First Direct total rubbish. Their delays robbed me of 1% extra interest on savings, and their response to account problems was abysmal. I suspect the fact that MSE get paid to advertise this bank completely devalues any poll it conducts.
Nationwide - again from personal experience - is way ahead of FD in my opinion.
I suppose if you keep on asking the same people the same questions over the same banks you will always get the same results.
The MSE used to be a source of information you could trust - but no longer. Sadly, it too has succumbed to the lure of advertising money.

It's not a fact that "MSE get paid to advertise this bank" as MSE doesn't take advertising as such, as per http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/moneysavingexpert-finance

Granted the line becomes a bit blurry when affiliate links are involved but they're adamant that this doesn't influence their editorial stance and to be fair the situation is much the same as it was exactly ten years ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20070816223827/http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/moneysavingexpert-finance

Dewpoint

eskbanker wrote: »

It's not a fact that "MSE get paid to advertise this bank" as MSE doesn't take advertising as such, as per http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/moneysavingexpert-finance

Granted the line becomes a bit blurry when affiliate links are involved but they're adamant that this doesn't influence their editorial stance and to be fair the situation is much the same as it was exactly ten years ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20070816223827/http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/moneysavingexpert-finance

Come on - you can kid some people all of the time etc, but others see through this smokescreen and the feeble defence MSE puts up to distance itself from advertising. The truth is they push First Direct for all their might because they get lots of revenue from it. Anyone with half a brain can see through through this charade.

eskbanker

Don't get me wrong - I'm as cynical and sceptical as the next person (hence the earlier posts) but was just correcting the inaccurate assertions that (a) there is actually 'advertising' (in the accepted sense of the word) and (b) that things are significantly different now from how they used to be, although happy to be corrected on either point if there is suitable evidence....