Best bank for people with learning disabilities? 7 February at 3:00PM in Budgeting & bank accounts 4 replies 347 views

jesseking10

Hi there, 

I am a support worker and support an individual with a learning disability. As a result of this, he often gets locked out of his account, loses his card, and can't remember his details etc. He's been with a bank who have refused to unblock his account until he comes in with ID, but he lost that too! We've finally got them photo ID, so now we are hopefully able to sort this out and maybe get him signed up with a more user-friendly bank.

Does anyone have tips/recommendations for this? I can't seem to find much information at all. First Direct seems to stand out in terms of being user-friendly, but this person also lost his card-reader when banking with another bank that required it for most transactions.

Any guides/tips/suggestions would massively help.

Thank you!

Jesse

Rob5342

Have you looked at NatWest? They seem to have a number of support options:

https://www.natwest.com/accessibility/banking-my-way.html

marcia_

 HSBC was great with my sister. She was a chronic alcoholic, had no ID, they marked her as a vulnerable customer, let her show her tenancy agreement along with DWP letter as ID.
 They gave a card without contactless and repeatedly gave new cards when she lost them. 

jimjames

Bank of Scotland is pretty good, set fingerprint recognition then it should avoid lockouts

pridehappy

I'd personally say Nationwide Building Society is the best for ease and it's really simple doing business with them too. The app has Face/Touch ID which I'd suggest setting up, or only makes you remember a 6-digit passnumber. If it was noted down somewhere, it would be easier than a full password etc. The service is exceptional and the staff are always really friendly, especially in-branch and willing to help. Nationwide does use a card reader although seems to be slowly phasing it out, but only a disadvantage at the moment. My local branch is very well adapted compared to the others and they seem to promote accessibility.

First Direct's service is good, although I would say that it's more difficult with them being online/phone-based, and probably having a branch is ideal. Service from First Direct in an HSBC branch, although available, is very poor and they seem unable to help with most issues.

I'd recommend Virgin Money for the best products but I would say that they are a little slow at doing some stuff, but it's always another option if you need it. The staff are really friendly although not so sure about accessibility.

If you are looking for one to stay away from, it would have to be Lloyds Bank. Trying to do everything, or even request a pin reminder or unlock your account, is really difficult and had to spend hours and hours making complaints etc. My local branch service is poor from Lloyds too so I'd just imagine how much more difficult it would be with learning disabilities.