Worst Banking App in your opinion?

Stuart_W

I agree with @jameseonline that I don't fully understand complaints of clunky or basic. Pretty much everyone who has commented here hates the Co-op app, but it seems fine to me. It does what it claims to, or at least it does for me, certainly better than log in experiences I have had with 118118 and PostOffice in the past which were significantly poorer than Co-op's app. Faster payments sometimes take 10 minutes to come in, but not always, pending transactions are now featured almost instantly which is admittedly an improvement, but I don't see any problems with it.

Perhaps it is my age. To withdraw cash I use to make a cheque payable to "cash" at the post office and it took 3 or 4 days to come out of my account. So, I have grown up and survived the majority of my adult life without instant notifications of everything and a balance that updates instantly, so maybe my expectations are lower.

RG2015

Slinky said:

I find NatWest's tiresome in that you can only look at account details month by month instead of being able to scroll back across the months

Do you mean viewing transactions?

If so, you can view and search 12 months at a time for the last 7 years.

Rawrzy

Stuart_W said:

I agree with @jameseonline that I don't fully understand complaints of clunky or basic. Pretty much everyone who has commented here hates the Co-op app, but it seems fine to me. It does what it claims to, or at least it does for me, certainly better than log in experiences I have had with 118118 and PostOffice in the past which were significantly poorer than Co-op's app. Faster payments sometimes take 10 minutes to come in, but not always, pending transactions are now featured almost instantly which is admittedly an improvement, but I don't see any problems with it.

Perhaps it is my age. To withdraw cash I use to make a cheque payable to "cash" at the post office and it took 3 or 4 days to come out of my account. So, I have grown up and survived the majority of my adult life without instant notifications of everything and a balance that updates instantly, so maybe my expectations are lower.

I mean most of these banks are shutting branches, which forces people into managing via a app or online. So I think it's fair enough people are going to judge the apps that they're pushing people towards.

Of course it's likely not going to be the only thing one judges a bank by when choosing which one they want to use though.

jameseonline

Rawrzy said:

jameseonline said:

Rawrzy said:

Having gone through a lot of switches this year I have experience with a lot of apps, lol. Most of my annoyance with apps comes from lack of features, as I can usually figure out weird UI locations.

My top contenders for worst ones:

Nationwide. This is a weird one really because they actually updated the app recently, but it was mostly just a design update. The new update allows you to finally juse use biometrics/your picture etc to confirm payments instead of using a card reader which is nice. Unfortunately it's still lacking in features like managing your card, and I still couldn't find a place to turn on transaction notifications from the app. It's also still kind of style over substance at this point too.

You can manage your card in app: turn off gambling, freeze card, view expiry date, report lost/stolen, see if it's added to Google Pay

You can't see the card details though, that's what particular features I missed with card management. At home I might not have my cards right next to me(infact since I have so many I tend to hide them away), but I always have my phone close and so I'd rather grab my phone to see the details instead when paying online for things.

What card details you after?, like the card number?, the number on back of card?, to be honest with things such as Google Pay etc you don't really need card number, maybe you might need the number on back of card to set things up &/or if doing an Iceland shop or something but then you also have approving payments via banking apps anyways.

And as for account details those are already in app.

I guess you could make a note of card details on your phone in a note app or something, does Google Pay etc display card details or just a virtual one?, hmm 🤔 

Rawrzy

jameseonline said:

Rawrzy said:

jameseonline said:

Rawrzy said:

Having gone through a lot of switches this year I have experience with a lot of apps, lol. Most of my annoyance with apps comes from lack of features, as I can usually figure out weird UI locations.

My top contenders for worst ones:

Nationwide. This is a weird one really because they actually updated the app recently, but it was mostly just a design update. The new update allows you to finally juse use biometrics/your picture etc to confirm payments instead of using a card reader which is nice. Unfortunately it's still lacking in features like managing your card, and I still couldn't find a place to turn on transaction notifications from the app. It's also still kind of style over substance at this point too.

You can manage your card in app: turn off gambling, freeze card, view expiry date, report lost/stolen, see if it's added to Google Pay

You can't see the card details though, that's what particular features I missed with card management. At home I might not have my cards right next to me(infact since I have so many I tend to hide them away), but I always have my phone close and so I'd rather grab my phone to see the details instead when paying online for things.

What card details you after?, like the card number?, the number on back of card?, to be honest with things such as Google Pay etc you don't really need card number, maybe you might need the number on back of card to set things up &/or if doing an Iceland shop or something but then you also have approving payments via banking apps anyways.

And as for account details those are already in app.

I guess you could make a note of card details on your phone in a note app or something, does Google Pay etc display card details or just a virtual one?, hmm 🤔 

Card number and other numbers, yeah. Google pay doesn't display anything no, and even the retailer doesn't get your actual card details, they actually generate a "fake" number for security reasons which gets sent to the retailer. But yeah, my solution indeed was to put those details in a secure area of my password manager.

Rob5342

Rawrzy said:

Stuart_W said:

I agree with @jameseonline that I don't fully understand complaints of clunky or basic. Pretty much everyone who has commented here hates the Co-op app, but it seems fine to me. It does what it claims to, or at least it does for me, certainly better than log in experiences I have had with 118118 and PostOffice in the past which were significantly poorer than Co-op's app. Faster payments sometimes take 10 minutes to come in, but not always, pending transactions are now featured almost instantly which is admittedly an improvement, but I don't see any problems with it.

Perhaps it is my age. To withdraw cash I use to make a cheque payable to "cash" at the post office and it took 3 or 4 days to come out of my account. So, I have grown up and survived the majority of my adult life without instant notifications of everything and a balance that updates instantly, so maybe my expectations are lower.

I mean most of these banks are shutting branches, which forces people into managing via a app or online. So I think it's fair enough people are going to judge the apps that they're pushing people towards.

I'd have thought most people would choose app or online banking as it's much more convenient than having all the hassle of going to a branch. Why would anyone want to spend 3 hours of their time and the have the cost of the bus or car park going to a branch when they could do the same thing in 30 seconds at home? I started banking online with Lloyds in 1999 which was completely my own choice.

Nasqueron

Co-Op for me primarily because it can take 20-30s on some occasions just to bring up the biometric prompt when every other bank it's pretty much instant. The slow transfers / security checks are a pain but that's Co-Op themselves 

Rawrzy

Rob5342 said:

Rawrzy said:

Stuart_W said:

I agree with @jameseonline that I don't fully understand complaints of clunky or basic. Pretty much everyone who has commented here hates the Co-op app, but it seems fine to me. It does what it claims to, or at least it does for me, certainly better than log in experiences I have had with 118118 and PostOffice in the past which were significantly poorer than Co-op's app. Faster payments sometimes take 10 minutes to come in, but not always, pending transactions are now featured almost instantly which is admittedly an improvement, but I don't see any problems with it.

Perhaps it is my age. To withdraw cash I use to make a cheque payable to "cash" at the post office and it took 3 or 4 days to come out of my account. So, I have grown up and survived the majority of my adult life without instant notifications of everything and a balance that updates instantly, so maybe my expectations are lower.

I mean most of these banks are shutting branches, which forces people into managing via a app or online. So I think it's fair enough people are going to judge the apps that they're pushing people towards.

I'd have thought most people would choose app or online banking as it's much more convenient than having all the hassle of going to a branch. Why would anyone want to spend 3 hours of their time and the have the cost of the bus or car park going to a branch when they could do the same thing in 30 seconds at home? I started banking online with Lloyds in 1999 which was completely my own choice.

Yeah I don't personally disagree. I'm young enough that I've online banked all my life lol. That said not everyone wants to. I've relatives who won't use a computer/smartphone for whatever reason.

penners324

Most of the legacy banks have pretty woeful apps.

steven141

jameseonline said:

steven141 said:

The worst I have used is The co-operative bank you can’t do everything on their app and it is far too basic. 

After that I’d say first direct it is also very basic with not as many features. I think you also have to message to make changes to some things. 

TSB is the one after those 2 which is very clunky and the bank just doesn’t seem stable. 

Nationwide although I like them their banking app looks good but I just find it very clunky and especially the direct debit list, the dates are sometimes showing incorrectly. There is also no option for open banking accounts to show and it still has a long way to go. 

For Santander (I haven’t used the new app that is reported to have been launched) it is ok nothing fancy but does what you need it to do. 

Lloyds Bank/Bank of Scotland/Halifax I find is the best of the traditional banks, being able to view upcoming payments and everything is just easy to use no faffing about with card readers or biometrics etc when trying to set up payees or to log in. The only thing is that the layout could be improved there is usually too much information but nice that you can see upcoming payment

Basic?, clunky?, not many features?

I don't tend to understand/fully understand when people say things like that.

Nothing wrong with basic look as long as you can do what you need to do what's the problem. 

Clunky?, I don't find TSB/Nationwide apps clunky. Nationwide recently added options to their app allowing you to view more on home screen.

Not many features?, what specific features do you want/need from CO Operative, First Direct etc that you haven't mentioned?. First Direct recently launched notifications.

The new look Santander app looks more complicated to me & is taking more time to get used too, they have separate big boxes containing nothing more than a link for card details which could just be an option in the existing account boxes.

I just feel if you have a banking app you should be able to view all of your card details, view your pin if you forget, it shouldn’t feel slow, the Nationwide app doesn’t feel very secure, you go back into it if you didn’t log out and it briefly shows your account and balance before saying the app needs restarted, if it wasn’t me using my device there someone else would be able to see my account for a few seconds, the co-operative bank app was slow at receiving faster payments, also there was something that I wanted to do like check direct debits I think it was but I couldn’t or not being able to view bank statements or transfer to a new person. I can’t remember I just know that it wasn’t great.

If banks are closing branches they need to provide the same service lost in a branch and I feel like a lot don’t provide this. Even the telephone support is being reduced so much nowadays. I remember being able to call the back 24/7 now You’re lucky to get anyone on the phone after 6pm.