Bank App Chat Facilities

Fingerbobs

Been manipulating some credit limits and closing some unused cards this week, and thought I would try out the 'chat' facility in the various banks' apps. 

Halifax, NatWest and Santander all seem to use the same chat system, just with different colour schemes according to the bank brand. 

All of them make you negotiate a 'chat bot' before putting you through to a real person, but my experience with each bank after this is as follows: 

Halifax: Replied to each message within a few minutes, and the agent was able to redistribute credit limits and close down the unused card. All done and dusted very quickly. Excellent service. 

NatWest: Slightly slower response than Halifax, but never longer than 10 minutes. Agent was able to do everything I requested. Excellent service. 

Santander: Waited over 24 hours for a reply to my first message. When it finally came, it said "you need to phone us to do that" and the chat was closed without giving me an opportunity to reply. Additionally, When I went into the chat to read the reply, a satisfaction survey popped up, preventing me from reading the reply! How they expected me to rate my experience before I'd been given an opportunity to have an experience defeats me. Rubbish service.

Lloyds: Was never able to get an actual person. Tried repeatedly at various times over a few days. I always just received an automated message about how busy they were dealing with their vulnerable customers, and I'd have to phone instead. Update 23/11/21: As of the last iOS app update released last week, the chat facility has been removed completely.

Just thought I'd share that. 

EssexExile

I've always had prompt responses from the Santander chat service. After a few inane responses from the bot I usually type something like "I need to speak to a human" and one usually comes along pretty soon. However I agree that once you get a human they can rarely help!

wiseonesomeofthetime

I am afraid that I can only concur with the views expressed with Santander chat.

Rarely, I got a response that was efficient and effective.

Hopefully, I shall not need to contact them much, going forward. My household bills account has been moved elsewhere.

Fingerbobs

Just popped back to this thread to add that Lloyds seems to have removed the Chat facility from its app altogether, as of the latest update (on iOS at least).

Sensory

Fingerbobs said:

Just popped back to this thread to add that Lloyds seems to have removed the Chat facility from its app altogether, as of the latest update (on iOS at least).

How peculiar, as Halifax still has the option.

Fingerbobs

Sensory said:

Fingerbobs said:

Just popped back to this thread to add that Lloyds seems to have removed the Chat facility from its app altogether, as of the latest update (on iOS at least).

How peculiar, as Halifax still has the option.

Yep, and it's essentially the same app. They've just taken the button away in the Lloyds version. 

superM

I think Barclays online chat is worse from all. Too slow and they don't respond correctly either. 

Ringo90

I've switched from Nationwide to Lloyds in October, one of the reasons was to have the ability to call and chat to them directly from the app. Especially chat. However I have never seen that ever since I installed the app the first time approximately a month ago (Android user here). The button just isn't there even though you can see it in the screenshots on Play Store. Guess we're only left with hoping they'll bring it back. What a shame though.

MarkFromCornwall

My experience is similar to Fingerbobs.  If you want to design a chat bot to drive customers to despair just copy Santander's.