Bad experiences with Cynergy bank app

whostolemyname

This is just a heads-up to anyone considering opening a Cynergy bank account (currently featured in the top Savings Accounts listings), to say you might want to check other users' experiences before doing so. In my case it ended in a frustrating, bad experience and me abandoning my newly-created account in favour of a different bank.

When going to dowload the app I saw that it had 1.4 stars - yes, 1.4 stars, out of 5 - and a wealth of reviews telling of awful experiences and warning new users not to use the bank - ranging from people having trouble setting up their accounts, to customers spending 30 mins on the phone every time they wanted to check their balance, due to the app de-registering them each time. But by then I had already opened the account, and being tech-savvy and experienced enough (having used apps from several other banks) I thought I might as well try to get it set up.

The resulting experience did not fail to live up to the reviews. The app was initially difficult to set up (refusing its own passcodes), then failed to work, then stopped working altogether. Starting the setup process afresh (as instructed) resulted in my getting locked out of my account. This led to a long phone call trying to get my account unlocked, which was difficult, frustrating, and slightly bizarrely unsuccessful - and ultimately led me to decide I would rather simply open an account somewhere else.

To be clear, there are some reviews for the app from people who have no problems at all, and are wondering what all the fuss is about. But it is clear from the vast majority of reviews that I am far from the only one to have such an experience, and I have to say that this has been a worse and more unprofessional experience than I've ever had with a bank.

Re: MSE itself, it would be great some day to have a customer satisfaction rating next to the banks in the Money sections, like there is when browsing phone/broadband deals. It would help readers to know which banks are highly thought of and which are widely panned. In future I would happily take a 0.1% interest loss for a good, reliable bank, rather than a 0.1% interest boost trying to battle an atrocious bank app.

masonic

whostolemyname said:

To be clear, there are some reviews for the app from people who have no problems at all, and are wondering what all the fuss is about. But it is clear from the vast majority of reviews that I am far from the only one to have such an experience, and I have to say that this has been a worse and more unprofessional experience than I've ever had with a bank.

That tends to be the case with reviews. Most people aren't motivated to leave a review unless they had an extraordinary experience.

I find these sort of apps annoying, and banks should not be reinventing the wheel when we have the problem solved by TOTP authenticator apps that can work across websites. Cynergy's version hasn't caused me any particular problems and thankfully can be reset if moving between devices without having to call customer services (unlike say Oxbury). But I haven't left any reviews about these apps, good or bad.

Slinky

I didn't experience any problems with the app, but what eventually caused me to close the account was they would have new better rates available without telling their existing customers. If you found out about a new rate you had to then open a new account and transfer the existing money across, they didn't increase the rates on existing accounts. This got annoying as you have to keep checking, and also paying money into the new account meant updating new account bank details to the external account with your other bank, or keep the same details on the external account, and shifting the money across at the Cynergy end. It was all too much faff, so I closed the account and am unlikely to go back.

ToastLady

I mentioned on another thread that I had problems too and would have to phone them, and had intended to do that on Monday. I've already been having second thoughts about this account. I have never had a problem with registering and using banking websites and apps before. I think I may well just let this account die as they close it within 2 weeks it unfunded. 

Qyburn

Mine opened OK, although it's a bit silly of them to keep chasing for your initial deposit when it takes two days before payments can be sent. They said that initial delay was getting COP registered but thsts not correct, Lloyds didn't just warn like they do with a mismatch, the error said the account doesn't exist at all.

Although opened OK the login is so fiddly I can't see me wanting to use it for regular transactions, ie why you choose sn unrestricted easy access account in the first place.

Another oddity, COP doesn't use the full name, instead of giving my equivalents of "Fred Blogg" or "Frederick Bloggs" it has to be "Mr F. Bloggs".

I vaguely remember something similar with TSB but only for internal transfers which had to be Mr F. Bloggs, or the transfer was bounced back to the originating account. Transfer Lloyds to TSB was happy and verified COP with Frederick Bloggs as you'd expect.

masonic

Qyburn said:

Mine opened OK, although it's a bit silly of them to keep chasing for your initial deposit when it takes two days before payments can be sent. They said that initial delay was getting COP registered but thsts not correct, Lloyds didn't just warn like they do with a mismatch, the error said the account doesn't exist at all.

How strange. I sent the usual £1 test payment on the day I opened my account and it turned up ok.

Angelica123

I haven't had any issues with Cynergy personally. The app is clunky but much easier now that I can choose to authenticate via notification on app (where I log in using biometrics). Withdrawals used to be slow but recently they have been almost immediate. 

allegro120

whostolemyname said:

This is just a heads-up to anyone considering opening a Cynergy bank account (currently featured in the top Savings Accounts listings), to say you might want to check other users' experiences before doing so. In my case it ended in a frustrating, bad experience and me abandoning my newly-created account in favour of a different bank.

When going to dowload the app I saw that it had 1.4 stars - yes, 1.4 stars, out of 5 - and a wealth of reviews telling of awful experiences and warning new users not to use the bank - ranging from people having trouble setting up their accounts, to customers spending 30 mins on the phone every time they wanted to check their balance, due to the app de-registering them each time. But by then I had already opened the account, and being tech-savvy and experienced enough (having used apps from several other banks) I thought I might as well try to get it set up.

The resulting experience did not fail to live up to the reviews. The app was initially difficult to set up (refusing its own passcodes), then failed to work, then stopped working altogether. Starting the setup process afresh (as instructed) resulted in my getting locked out of my account. This led to a long phone call trying to get my account unlocked, which was difficult, frustrating, and slightly bizarrely unsuccessful - and ultimately led me to decide I would rather simply open an account somewhere else.

To be clear, there are some reviews for the app from people who have no problems at all, and are wondering what all the fuss is about. But it is clear from the vast majority of reviews that I am far from the only one to have such an experience, and I have to say that this has been a worse and more unprofessional experience than I've ever had with a bank.

Re: MSE itself, it would be great some day to have a customer satisfaction rating next to the banks in the Money sections, like there is when browsing phone/broadband deals. It would help readers to know which banks are highly thought of and which are widely panned. In future I would happily take a 0.1% interest loss for a good, reliable bank, rather than a 0.1% interest boost trying to battle an atrocious bank app.

I've had problems with getting online access and my £1 deposit didn't show until I called and ask them to chase it.  My previous encounter with Cynergy about a year ago was smooth, but this time is was challenging and time consuming.  I thought deleting and downloading the app will solve the problem, but it didn't. They send endless number of codes by emails and texts, none of them worked until I called them. Calls take ages, the last one took about 30 minutes until I got to speak to someone.  I understand they might be short of CS staff, but if they modernised their system they wouldn't have too many calls from customers.  All has been sorted at the end, account is opened, I can view it and my £1 is credited, but all this hassle could have been avoided if they modernised their procedures.

On the positive side. I've got this account up and running. I don't need it at the moment because I have a handful of EAs paying batter rates, but it might become useful at some point in future. Other development I've noticed - I don't have to put my phone next to my computer monitor to scan QR code anymore, new option is an improvement.

UncleK

May be tempting fate but never had a problem using the app

friolento

Angelica123 said:

I haven't had any issues with Cynergy personally. The app is clunky but much easier now that I can choose to authenticate via notification on app (where I log in using biometrics). Withdrawals used to be slow but recently they have been almost immediate. 

This is my experience, too. 

Cynergy can’t touch the convenience of some other savings accounts but is perfectly good if it has a market leading rate. I am happy to use them then.

Qyburn

Angelica123 said:

I haven't had any issues with Cynergy personally. The app is clunky but much easier now that I can choose to authenticate via notification on app (where I log in using biometrics). Withdrawals used to be slow but recently they have been almost immediate. 

I found i had to disable notifications otherwise the app is an absolute battery hog, presumably talking to Cynergy 24/7 to see if it needs to pop up.