Why is opening an additional bank account so hard?

LoobyLou1

wmb194 said:

LoobyLou1 said:

Sorry, I hadn't realised my choice of bank would set off such a discussion! My original query was simply that I couldn't understand why some banks do not make it easy to bank with them. 

You mean, the Co-op aka Smile doesn't. I think we all agree but most other banks will allow you to open additional current accounts with a few clicks and a short application.

TSB makes it easy for the first but you might have some fun if you open additional as it tends to get into a mess with creating and merging new internet banking profiles.

Yes, I didn't say all banks. My father has also struggled to get an additional bank account with Santander, so some but not all. He gave up in the end. I already have an account with TSB; getting an additional one has been plain sailing.

wmb194

LoobyLou1 said:

wmb194 said:

LoobyLou1 said:

Sorry, I hadn't realised my choice of bank would set off such a discussion! My original query was simply that I couldn't understand why some banks do not make it easy to bank with them. 

You mean, the Co-op aka Smile doesn't. I think we all agree but most other banks will allow you to open additional current accounts with a few clicks and a short application.

TSB makes it easy for the first but you might have some fun if you open additional as it tends to get into a mess with creating and merging new internet banking profiles.

Yes, I didn't say all banks. My father has also struggled to get an additional bank account with Santander, so some but not all. He gave up in the end. I already have an account with TSB; getting an additional one has been plain sailing.

That's strange, Santander is usually easy. Perhaps he failed some electronic identity or address check?

GeoffTF

wmb194 said:

GeoffTF said:

wmb194 said:

Middle_of_the_Road said:

wmb194 said:

LoobyLou1 said:

Thanks everyone. I have already gone ahead and opened an account with TSB. I just cannot fathom why a bank would do its utmost to put you off opening an account with them? 

Why TSB(!)? That's out from the frying pan and into the fire.

Hardly, all banks have their detractors, and TSB seem no worse than other traditional options. I suspect the OP also prefers an established name, rather than the likes of Tandem, Chase, Kroo, Starling, Monzo and the like.

We'll have to disagree. In my experience TSB is dreadful. Lloyds for instance is about a million times better. Santander's bad but I'd still rate it far ahead of TSB.

With Santander I can do Faster Payments up to £100K over the telephone, and debit card payments up to £50K online. With Lloyds I would have to go into a branch for Faster Payments over £25K, and would be limited to £25K for debit card transactions. I did a £46K debit card payment yesterday. It went straight through. I have a friend who has been scammed twice, and Santander compensated him on both occasions. Lloyds, no thanks.

You tell us repeatedly that Santander keeps blocking your payments, though. Lloyds doesn't block mine. You can use multiple Lloyds current accounts to circumvent those sorts of restrictions but you're an outlier. Most people won't find them a big issue.

Santander does not block my Faster Payments. I have posted on how to avoid that happening though. I recently had two large debit card payments blocked, but the block was removed when I phoned customer services, who put me through to security. I was then able to make the payments. Apart from those, my debit card payments have always gone straight through. I do not know why those two payments were flagged up. Their computer algorithm did not seem to like several large (£20K+) payments within a short period of time.

GeoffTF

penners324 said:

GeoffTF said:

wmb194 said:

Middle_of_the_Road said:

wmb194 said:

LoobyLou1 said:

Thanks everyone. I have already gone ahead and opened an account with TSB. I just cannot fathom why a bank would do its utmost to put you off opening an account with them? 

Why TSB(!)? That's out from the frying pan and into the fire.

Hardly, all banks have their detractors, and TSB seem no worse than other traditional options. I suspect the OP also prefers an established name, rather than the likes of Tandem, Chase, Kroo, Starling, Monzo and the like.

We'll have to disagree. In my experience TSB is dreadful. Lloyds for instance is about a million times better. Santander's bad but I'd still rate it far ahead of TSB.

With Santander I can do Faster Payments up to £100K over the telephone, and debit card payments up to £50K online. With Lloyds I would have to go into a branch for Faster Payments over £25K, and would be limited to £25K for debit card transactions. I did a £46K debit card payment yesterday. It went straight through. I have a friend who has been scammed twice, and Santander compensated him on both occasions. Lloyds, no thanks.

Try Starling. Payments upto £250k. And they don't randomly block your account 

Starling's Faster Payments limit is £1 million, but it says that limits apply to individual accounts. MasterCard has a daily limit of £50K, so Starling cannot make debit card payments above that. (Visa has a daily limit of £25K.) Santander has not blocked my account, but banks have been known to block accounts if they suspect a scam.