Co-op Bank: Can They Really Be That Bad?

flaneurs_lobster

ZeroSum said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

jimjames said:

ZeroSum said:

Main downside to co-op is that faster payments take ages to arrive, and can't do am internal transfer to savings accounts via app, have to do by website. Oh, and payments to credit card take to days to leave your account even though it's internal transfer. Mind the issues I have with co-op are quite similar to what I have with first direct, but they score highly on ratings lists 

Not sure why you can't do transfers on the app, it works fine for me

And me, do it every month to fund the RS. I'm Android, not some weird iOS restriction is it?

I'm android also. Did you have to manually set it up first? As it'll let me do it if I set my RS up as a payee, but I shouldn't have to do that, it should just be there.

Nope, just checked. RS is not a payee. Taking 'Pay and Transfer' from 'Current Account' details gives screen where one of the options is 'Transfer to one of your Accounts'. RS appears on there.

eskbanker

Emily_Joy said:

eskbanker said:

Depends what you mean by 'that bad' - if you read threads about any bank (on here or Trustpilot reviews, etc) then you'll see a mix of positive and negative?  If you've been with all the other high street players and (implicitly) don't want to return then you presumably don't rate them either?

Edit: I should have added that a less subjective assessment of relative merits is available via the bi-annual surveys conducted by Ipsos on behalf of the CMA, which use proper surveying methods rather than being unduly swayed by 'who shouts loudest':


https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/en-uk/personal-banking-service-quality-great-britain-august-2024

Taking into account the top 4 are the banks without physical branches I wonder if this survey tells us more about people who comleted the survey rather than about the quality of the actual banking services... 

I don't know if you followed the link or not but there are separate categories that go into more detail beyond the overall customer service assessment, so, for example, this is the comparison for branch services across those who have them:

and likewise there's a comparison of the online and mobile facilities, which unsurprisingly favours those without branches:


I'm not blindly defending these surveys by any means but personally see them as somewhat more reliable than the attritional bickering seen on threads like this between those with axes to grind!

WillPS

eskbanker said:

I'm not blindly defending these surveys by any means but personally see them as somewhat more reliable than the attritional bickering seen on threads like this between those with axes to grind!

It's fine for people to share their views though.

'I think they're bad because they don't have xyz features others/everyone else has' and 'I find they do everything I need them to and I'm not bothered about the stuff they don't do'. Both valid views - neither is more correct or incorrect than the other.

The only incorrect response is to say the other's opinion is wrong merely because it is not equal to their own. I think there's only one voice on this thread doing that.

gsmh

WillPS said:

The only incorrect response is to say the other's opinion is wrong merely because it is not equal to their own. I think there's only one voice on this thread doing that.

I hope you don't think that's me! I'm merely highlighting the excellent experience I have with the Co-operative Bank and trying to understand why others see it differently. It is clear that the focus is on the individuals concerned (including me), and what motivates them, rather than the bank. It's interesting that the 'official' public evaluations rate the same bank differently in its various incarnations (RBS/NatWest, for example) .It's about perception and nobody can tell us how we should perceive something. That's why I made reference to paradigms, cars, checklists and so on.

eskbanker

WillPS said:

eskbanker said:
I'm not blindly defending these surveys by any means but personally see them as somewhat more reliable than the attritional bickering seen on threads like this between those with axes to grind!

It's fine for people to share their views though.

'I think they're bad because they don't have xyz features others/everyone else has' and 'I find they do everything I need them to and I'm not bothered about the stuff they don't do'. Both valid views - neither is more correct or incorrect than the other.

The only incorrect response is to say the other's opinion is wrong merely because it is not equal to their own. I think there's only one voice on this thread doing that.

Yes, of course it's fine for people to share views, this is a discussion forum after all!

My point is really that threads asking about a specific bank tend to be dominated by small numbers of people with (competing) strong opinions - maybe OP has found it useful but my opinion (!) is that independently-sourced and scientifically-structured evaluations, based on the experiences of many thousands of people, remove a lot of the heat from the comparison, even though they're still not perfect.  In particular they're not very granular, so only encapsulate a relative 'score' rather than detailed feature comparisons.

The truth is of course that any given bank will be considered atrocious by some people and fantastic by others (see numerous threads on here, or go to Trustpilot), so there's no 'right' or 'wrong' answers!

UKX69

DasTechniker said:

Good afternoon all,
Those of you who will have read my posts probably know that I bank with NatWest. I have two current accounts, main one joint with Mrs T and one sole. (A hangover from my share trading days). I’m looking about for an account with another bank for the purpose of emergencies in case I get frozen out of NW. I have been with probably every (Bricks & Mortar) bank in the country over the years except the Co-op. I’ve picked up on comments in other posts that some say they’re appalling and some say they’re no problem. I quite fancy switching my sole account to the Co-op, bung in a few quid, open the regular saver and let it self finance until needed. Can the Co-op bank surely be that bad?

I certainly opened up a variety of views with my question. I am grateful to everyone who has taken the time to contribute to this board and have looked at every post generated. It does answer some of the questions that have been floating around in the back of my mind. As ever, horses for courses.

eskbanker

DasTechniker said:

I certainly opened up a variety of views with my question. I am grateful to everyone who has taken the time to contribute to this board and have looked at every post generated. It does answer some of the questions that have been floating around in the back of my mind. As ever, horses for courses.

Just out of curiosity, which questions did you have that have been answered?

WillPS

eskbanker said:

WillPS said:

eskbanker said:
I'm not blindly defending these surveys by any means but personally see them as somewhat more reliable than the attritional bickering seen on threads like this between those with axes to grind!

It's fine for people to share their views though.

'I think they're bad because they don't have xyz features others/everyone else has' and 'I find they do everything I need them to and I'm not bothered about the stuff they don't do'. Both valid views - neither is more correct or incorrect than the other.

The only incorrect response is to say the other's opinion is wrong merely because it is not equal to their own. I think there's only one voice on this thread doing that.

Yes, of course it's fine for people to share views, this is a discussion forum after all!

My point is really that threads asking about a specific bank tend to be dominated by small numbers of people with (competing) strong opinions - maybe OP has found it useful but my opinion (!) is that independently-sourced and scientifically-structured evaluations, based on the experiences of many thousands of people, remove a lot of the heat from the comparison, even though they're still not perfect.  In particular they're not very granular, so only encapsulate a relative 'score' rather than detailed feature comparisons.

The truth is of course that any given bank will be considered atrocious by some people and fantastic by others (see numerous threads on here, or go to Trustpilot), so there's no 'right' or 'wrong' answers!

Yes, I agree with all of this - every business with hundreds of thousands/millions of past and present customers is going to have some who feel done over by them - but if you try to cut through that noise there are less anecdotal more concrete measures by which Co-operative Bank are less good than their rivals - and that no doubt plays a part in those surveys.

FWIW I don't see many/any(?) of the subjective service-related complaints in this thread - the discussion has mostly been on features missing from their online and app servicing; card management and cheque pay in particular.

The lack of those features isn't debatable, even if the impact of them not being there will depend very much from person to person.

Sometimes providers will have stuff which somewhat offsets other failings; for example Nationwide's app is similarly lacking (and their "internet bank" service is about as dated as its name; although arguably functionally superior to Co-op Bank's) but they've been handing out £100 to customers for the trouble of having them. Again, the impact of those payments is subjective but the fact they've awarded them (and are indicating they'll do it again) is not.

That leaves us in a situation where The Co-operative Bank has a lot of undisputed shortcomings (which, of course, will not affect all customers to the same extent) and not much in the way of stuff to recommend them for.

They have made in-roads as to some of these shortcomings - and that's great to see, but there's a long road ahead even to parity with the likes of Virgin Money at the back of the pack.

My hot take on the answer to the OP's initial enquiry is:

• If you value the "ethics" of what a banking services provider does above the functionality they provide, Nationwide and Co-op Bank are basically the only games in town presently.
• If you're in the regular savings game, just having an account is a no-brainer (although you'll probably be better off actually using something else you will also have in these circumstances, like First Direct or Natwest).
• If you want a decent value PBA which you have no intention of actually using other than for the insurances, and you don't mind the fact those insurances cannot be easily administered without a phonecall, Everyday Extra is a good value option (particularly while they have 3 months free running).
• If you're up for a little bit of a faff for a switching bonus, theres one to be had (but it is definitely on the faffy end of these).
• I've read a fair bit that people with distressed credit records and CIFAS markers have been able to get a Cashminder account when other providers have rejected them even for basic accounts - and clearly this is going to be a much better option than the emoney predators who target this niche and charge for usage. (Also this is really commendable of The Co-op Bank, presuming this is true and deliberate/policy.)

So there we are - 5 niches of people for which a Co-op Bank account is a good option, worth considering.

Next, there's the easy to please - if you want a simple fee-free account which you can transfer money to and from using an app, with a debit card, including branch and Post Office access, Co-op Bank ticks all those boxes along with every other mainstream high street provider other than Nationwide. If you don't care about rewards, extra app functionality, speed of account setup or speed of payments you can legitimately pick any and be happy - including Co-op Bank.

Finally - there's the people who should be running at this point:

• If you want a simple/quick account opening process, Co-op Bank isn't for you.
• If you expect to be able to use your debit card online straight away without first calling your bank to go through a 'set up process', Co-op Bank isn't for you.
  
• If you want app functionality above simple monitoring and transferring, Co-op Bank isn't for you.
• If you want faster payments to happen immediately (i.e. not within a few minutes) as and when you send them reliably, Co-op Bank isn't for you

If you go ahead expecting any of the above (as you legitimately might if you've used other providers previously), you're going to have a bad time, and this is where their bad reputation comes in - IMHO.

I genuinely hope this changes, and CBS invest to fix the above points.

UKX69

eskbanker said:

DasTechniker said:

I certainly opened up a variety of views with my question. I am grateful to everyone who has taken the time to contribute to this board and have looked at every post generated. It does answer some of the questions that have been floating around in the back of my mind. As ever, horses for courses.

Just out of curiosity, which questions did you have that have been answered?

I think WillPS answered eskbanker’s question for me 😅

Next, there's the easy to please - if you want a simple fee-free account which you can transfer money to and from using an app, with a debit card, including branch and Post Office access, Co-op Bank ticks all those boxes along with every other mainstream high street provider other than Nationwide. If you don't care about rewards, extra app functionality, speed of account setup or speed of payments you can legitimately pick any and be happy - including Co-op Bank. 

I didn’t set out with any fixed questions per se, just my own personal thoughts of how I would like to see a bank account function. WillPS put it in a nutshell, many thanks. Co-op fits the bill. 👍

WillPS

DasTechniker said:

eskbanker said:

DasTechniker said:

I certainly opened up a variety of views with my question. I am grateful to everyone who has taken the time to contribute to this board and have looked at every post generated. It does answer some of the questions that have been floating around in the back of my mind. As ever, horses for courses.

Just out of curiosity, which questions did you have that have been answered?

I think WillPS answered eskbanker’s question for me 😅

Next, there's the easy to please - if you want a simple fee-free account which you can transfer money to and from using an app, with a debit card, including branch and Post Office access, Co-op Bank ticks all those boxes along with every other mainstream high street provider other than Nationwide. If you don't care about rewards, extra app functionality, speed of account setup or speed of payments you can legitimately pick any and be happy - including Co-op Bank. 

I didn’t set out with any fixed questions per se, just my own personal thoughts of how I would like to see a bank account function. WillPS put it in a nutshell, many thanks. Co-op fits the bill. 👍

Glad my essay length post was of use good luck, and do return to the thread to let us know how you find it (and restoke the fire!).