Secure Trust Bank, anyone have experience?

Blackjack_Davy

I've succesfully managed to open an account I have to make a minimum deposit of £1000 within 30 days I've been sent a sort code and account number but no other information, when I set up a payment in my bank account it asks if its a business or personal account and it asks for a name and insists on a Reference to be entered, trouble is I have no idea what I'm supposed to put in here its rather a lot of money to risk vanishing into the banking system

Anyone have any ideas? The "secure messaging" service on their site doesn't exist it simply directs you back to a FAQ page with a 0345 helpline number which reviews state they can 45 minutes to answer...

TIA

edit: looking at a review it states you need to state personal as account type and your own name as payee... all extremely confusing. No idea about reference though.

MikeJXE

Try £1 first see if that works 

Blackjack_Davy

Apparently it gets bounced or declined or something if you try its £1000 or bust

I think I'm going to have to spend a long time on the phone tomorrow

wiseonesomeofthetime

Blackjack_Davy said:

looking at a review it states you need to state personal as account type and your own name as payee... all extremely confusing. No idea about reference though.

I cannot see how that is confusing tbh.

I transferred several thousand pounds to three Secure Trust Bank products, 2 Year, 3 Year and 5 Year Fixed Term Bonds.

I put the payee name as Secure Trust 2Y FTB, Secure Trust 3Y FTB, and Secure Trust 5Y FTB, instead of my name (purely for my own reference purposes), selected Personal, and double/triple checked the sort code and account number each time. Reference field was again, whatever I wanted to put in there.

All transferred correctly. Received letters of confirmation of deposit from STB, and further letters when funding window closed.

All a smooth process, with zero issues.

wardlen

I am currently trying to close my joint savings account with Secure Trust Bank (STB) as the service in its current form is unworkable. 

Story: I registered online a new joint account (this was my mistake!!). I provided necessary details and added my partner as the second account holder. She received an email invitation and registered herself.
Having done this,  I noticed that the login did not automatically force the industry standard 2 factor authentication (e.g: send a txt message to my phone) but just asked for digits from a PIN.

I then deposited an amount into the account. Whilst doing this i also noticed that the nominated account was completely different from what I had entered at registration. I then had to ring Secure Bank to tell them to update to the correct details.

A month later I wanted to transfer a small amount back to my nominated account. At this point it said there was a Uxxx error. No idea what this meant. I rang STB customer services and they said it wasn't an error but needed authorization from the other account holder. At this point i knew that it wasn't going to be a workable solution where i need to ring my wife to login and authorize anytime we wanted to move our money around - so I hit the nuclear button to close the account. It then came up with the same Uxxx error (needing authorization from other account holder). Rang STB again. Going through the security checks over the phone was a nightmare and had to be done for both of us. It was then suggested that I reset my security details so i was then sent an email with a unique code and then had to ring the security team. At this point I already had a number of 2 factor txt messages sent from from SB and  then received a new one. Unfortunately i selected the wrong one, failed the check and was then told that I had to ring back 20 minutes later as they couldn't send another one until then. I am typing this whilst waiting. Going forward - once i manage to reset my security details i will then have to ring STB customer services back, confirm these new details to confirm my account closure.

Oh I forgot to say. When I tried to correct the nominated account. Guess what- it returned the Uxxx error. The lady at SB tried to do this herself but couldn't do it.

I know that security is paramount but the service in its current form is just unworkable. Maybe in a month or two they will rework all of this. At a minimum 2 factor authentication for every transaction and get rid of PINS and memorable words (this went out 10 years ago)

 

A._Badger

I must just add a word in defence of Secure Trust,having been a customer of theirs for some years. By and large they pay among the best rates and I've never had any problem with opening, closing or managing accounts with them. In fact the only criticism I have is that they are one of those banks that assumes you won't notice when they open a new 'issue' of an account and pay a higher rate of interest on it, leaving you on a lower rate for no obvious reason. This means you have to keep opening new accounts and transferring from previous issues.. 

jameseonline

A._Badger said:

I must just add a word in defence of Secure Trust,having been a customer of theirs for some years. By and large they pay among the best rates and I've never had any problem with opening, closing or managing accounts with them. In fact the only criticism I have is that they are one of those banks that assumes you won't notice when they open a new 'issue' of an account and pay a higher rate of interest on it, leaving you on a lower rate for no obvious reason. This means you have to keep opening new accounts and transferring from previous issues.. 

That's a standard banking thing though tbh, hence why I use this site, check banking sites/apps etc regularly to keep an eye out for better accounts.

I only have an easy access account with Secure Trust, the app is decent enough, managed to get 1p interest out without hassle, managed to message them ok.

gld73

I've never had any problems with STB, I've found their accounts easy to open and manage, and with good interest rates.