Loyalty to banks

Rob5342

I don't have any loyalty whatsoever, In the last 20 years I've had 17 different current accounts. I currently use Monzo as my main account as they nice and modern and have one of the best apps by far, but I'll change as soon as something better comes along.

Rich1976

I wouldn’t say I am loyal but I do tend to stick to the companies which generally offer a decent level of service or where I have no need to ever contact them because everything just runs as it should.

we are with First Direct for banking and have been for a long time because the app does what I need to do on it within seconds and the telephone support has always been excellent. I wouldn’t use them for instant access savings products despite the good service.

Ford Money we use for most of our savings and have down for about 3 years . Never had to contact them and everything is easy to deal with . Never had a single issue and we pay into this account pretty much every month.

so if it the above are classed as loyalty then fair enough but at present we have no reason to change.

in the past I have used Midland Bank and found them to be really good but once HSBC got hold of them and call centres moved abroad, the service rapidly deteriorated.

Nationwide I was with for a long time but generally found their staff unhelpful and had a computer says no attitude. They also made a number of quite basic errors which took ages to correct and mostly only got resolved satisfactorily when a complaint was issued.

Halifax was only with about a year but found them quite dismissive on the phone. Though we do have their credit card for overseas use which has been trouble free so far but we’ve not used it much to be fair.

Barclaycard were good until something when wrong and were then a nightmare.

so really as long as the customer service is very good even when mistakes happen or if I just have a general query I tend to favour those companies rather than the ones which may have the best deals but are less customer oriented.

TheBanker

I opened my account with Natwest about 20 years ago, simply because they had a branch near my house. I now live over 100 miles away and the branch is long gone, but I still use it as my main current account. This is despite having worked for other banks and, at times been required to have my salary paid into a staff account with my employer. (to clarify, I don't work for Natwest and the bank I work for currently don't offer personal current accounts). 

So why do I stick with Natwest? Basically because in 20 years of banking with them, I've only ever had one problem - the branch made an error with a deposit which they corrected the next day, but they didn't realise I'd incurred a charge as a result. When I told them, they apologised and refunded it. When I raised a problem with another bank's ATM that didn't dispense the correct cash, they resolved it quickly. When I've asked them to recover funds through chargebacks, they've done so. 

And while their products aren't the most competitive pricing wise, I've generated over £1,300 cashback through my Rewards account and credit card.

Basically, Natwest just works for me. They might not have the most exciting mobile app but it does everything I need, and their standard debit card design is frankly offensive (which no longer bothers me since they gave me a black Premier card!), but I have no real reason to move elsewhere. If Natwest's service was poor, I'd move, but I've had 20 years of banking without having to make a formal complaint, which I think is a good result. 

subjecttocontract

Doesn't it depend on what is meant by loyalty in the context of bank accounts ?

 I dont think loyalty has anything to do with the period of time one has held an account. If you are happy with an account, why change ? If you have problems or are enticed away by a switch bonus you go. 

I don't believe anyone stays with a bank just because of loyalty.......they are more likely to stay because they have got used to the banks processes, location, benefits etc

dealyboy

@subjecttocontract said:

Doesn't it depend on what is meant by loyalty in the context of bank accounts ?

 I dont think loyalty has anything to do with the period of time one has held an account. If you are happy with an account, why change ? If you have problems or are enticed away by a switch bonus you go. 

I don't believe anyone stays with a bank just because of loyalty.......they are more likely to stay because they have got used to the banks processes, location, benefits etc

... yes familiarity, a known quantity ... rather than 'change' to an unknown environment ... we need a reason to break out of our inertia  .

[Deleted User]

RG2015 said:

I have just seen loyalty to banks mentioned in another thread. I am sure it has been mentioned many times but I was interested to see if anyone feels any loyalty towards their bank.

I have had a current account with NatWest for 50 years and this is still my primary current account. Some might suggest that this is evidence of loyalty, but I see no reason to change. I have even received a switching bonus for switching another account to my ancient NatWest account.

I have or have had current accounts with 13 major banks. Some have features that are better than NatWest but none come anywhere near NatWest when considering all of its attributes.

What do you mean all of its attributes?

RG2015

Deleted_User said:

RG2015 said:

I have just seen loyalty to banks mentioned in another thread. I am sure it has been mentioned many times but I was interested to see if anyone feels any loyalty towards their bank.

I have had a current account with NatWest for 50 years and this is still my primary current account. Some might suggest that this is evidence of loyalty, but I see no reason to change. I have even received a switching bonus for switching another account to my ancient NatWest account.

I have or have had current accounts with 13 major banks. Some have features that are better than NatWest but none come anywhere near NatWest when considering all of its attributes.

What do you mean all of its attributes?

It was a poor choice of word, features of functions would have better. The word attribute assigns a favourable value to a feature hence contains a large degree of subjectivity.

I would rephrase as follows.

Other banks have some features that are better than NatWest, but in my opinion the features that NatWest offer make them the best bank for my particular preferences.

Rob5342

dealyboy said:

@subjecttocontract said:

Doesn't it depend on what is meant by loyalty in the context of bank accounts ?

 I dont think loyalty has anything to do with the period of time one has held an account. If you are happy with an account, why change ? If you have problems or are enticed away by a switch bonus you go. 

I don't believe anyone stays with a bank just because of loyalty.......they are more likely to stay because they have got used to the banks processes, location, benefits etc

... yes familiarity, a known quantity ... rather than 'change' to an unknown environment ... we need a reason to break out of our inertia  .

I like change personally, if I've been with any company for more than a year I'll always have a look round and see what else is available.

dealyboy

@Rob5342 said:

dealyboy said:

@subjecttocontract said:

Doesn't it depend on what is meant by loyalty in the context of bank accounts ?

 I dont think loyalty has anything to do with the period of time one has held an account. If you are happy with an account, why change ? If you have problems or are enticed away by a switch bonus you go. 

I don't believe anyone stays with a bank just because of loyalty.......they are more likely to stay because they have got used to the banks processes, location, benefits etc

... yes familiarity, a known quantity ... rather than 'change' to an unknown environment ... we need a reason to break out of our inertia  .

I like change personally, if I've been with any company for more than a year I'll always have a look round and see what else is available.

As a customer or as an employee?

[Deleted User]

Rob5342 said:

I don't have any loyalty whatsoever, In the last 20 years I've had 17 different current accounts. I currently use Monzo as my main account as they nice and modern and have one of the best apps by far, but I'll change as soon as something better comes along.

I was loyal to Nationwide as they customer service was amongst the best in the High Street and their banking products were always fairly competitive.

A certain website highlighted their free overseas usage and it was withdrawn as uneconomic. I then took out their packaged account but it was uneconomic for us singleton & FlexDirect offer ran out after a year. Their app is ok but doesn't do the basics like cheque imaging and you can't deposit at the Post Office. 

Moved to HSBC and not looked back with £200 credit and free worldwide travel insurance