Current account with good customer service and MFA

emsi_b

Hello! I'm on the look for a new current account. My classic Lloyds has served me well for many years, but has recently started an incredibly infuriating habit of declining purchases on my debit card and credit card. They send me a lovely text saying they're going to text (WHY?), then they text to tell me they've cancelled the transaction but I can text them back to tell them it's me, and then try again. The first time it happened, the vendor refused subsequent sales. I've complained to Lloyds who, whilst perfectly polite about it and gave me some money, told me they'd just feed my comments about multi factor authentification and putting codes in etc. up the chain. It's happened again, this time with a company they were offering cashback with!! I'm fed up now. 

I'm not after bells and whistles, would pay in ~£1000 a month, no direct debits (separate house account with Hubs bank for that). I'm not a fan of natwest (where house account is), or Barclays from past experience. I also don't want a mobile banking app. I use the laptop for online banking and happy for that to continue.

I'd like a current account and a credit card with the same bank (have an Amex for most general spending I pay off in full each month, but not everywhere accepts it). I'd also like to hear about how they dealt with any "dodgy" purchases you made that weren't actually! Bonus points if I can pay cash/cheques in at a post office.

Who would you recommend? 

Fighter1986

Nationwide. 

I much prefer them over any high street bank due to their "Old Guard" approach to banking. Straightforward, very good online banking portal - the most powerful I've seen to date, not patronising, don't throw notifications and adverts for products you don't need in your face, and don't have silly features targeted at a generation who can't add (savings pots, spend-tracking, pie charts, all that nonsense).

Just a very mature and down to earth bank account with excellent online banking facilities.

Can't pay cash / cheques in at post office unfortunately, but can sent cheques via snail mail.

Never declined a single card transaction.

They even wrote to me apologising for not having shown me credit card statements in time online some eight years ago, advising they'll be crediting a £100 goodwill gesture into my current account to say sorry (this was seven or eight years after I'd paid and closed off said credit card, honestly had no idea what they were referring to, I don't recall ever having had an issue).

Their credit card offering isn't exciting but I'd never go with a bank just because they have a fancy credit card, and I'd never take out a credit card with a given bank just because they have a fancy current account. 

Judge each of your banking products on its own merits.

If you want a card for travelling abroad with no fees - Halifax Clarity or Santander Zero.
If you want a card for cashback - Amex Platinum Everyday Cashback.
If you want a card for rewards - Amex Rewards Blue.
If you want an interest free money transfer - MBNA.
If you want interest free spending / slow stoozing - Whoever's offering the longest 0% on purchases at the time.

I'd like to say Santander for your current account - OH has been with Santander all his life and they have a good range of credit cards, and a good range of current accounts - but their customer service has been the subject of poor reviews in the past.

I banked with them many, many years ago and their systems / customer service was a joke. I whethered the storm of them taking over Abbey National and it was a dire time, but my OH has more recent experience and speaks very highly of them. 

He'd probably recommend them - check out their current account and credit card range to see if they're to your liking. 

emsi_b

Thanks fighter1986! Sounds like a good couple of options to look at there. I had contemplated Nationwide as they're supposed to be more ethical. I suspect that I won't get everything I want from a bank, so will need to decide what is most important.

My main credit card is an Amex rewards one, just need something for online shopping for everywhere that doesn't accept Amex. I've been abroad 3 times in my life, and always pay off in full, so it really only really needs to be a fairly basic one as a backup.

MDMD

There’s another thread here with more experience on Nationwide 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6233316/switching-to-nationwide