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

Stuart_W · 20 November 2024 at 10:52PM

..another feature possibly to mention that a very small minority may like is they still have their 1990s style automated telephone banking system set up. On 03457 212212 you can check balances and transfer between accounts, or pay a co-op bank or smile credit card.
Great for any non-smartphone users! It's 24hrs a day and works by entering numbers. It used to be staffed 24hrs a day for all other queries too, but opening times have been nobbled down now.

WillPS · 21 November 2024 at 12:07AM

Stuart_W said:

..another feature possibly to mention that a very small minority may like is they still have their 1990s style automated telephone banking system set up. On 03457 212212 you can check balances and transfer between accounts, or pay a co-op bank or smile credit card.
Great for any non-smartphone users! It's 24hrs a day and works by entering numbers. It used to be staffed 24hrs a day for all other queries too, but opening times have been nobbled down now.

I think most* non-app based current account providers have some sort of telephone banking setup where they will tell you your balance, although I couldn't tell you which will need you to talk to an agent to complete a transfer/card payment.

*First Direct being the obvious exception that springs to mind!

d6fs1l · 23 November 2024 at 10:47AM

The issue for me is the general decline in their standard of service both absolutely and relatively. Two decades ago smile was absolutely first-rate (particularly customer service by phone) and the online technology (then a novelty) was ahead of others. The telephone service now is worse and the online interface is lacking. The mobile app is well behind most of the big High Street banks, never mind Monzo and Starling etc.

It's easy to think that this doesn't matter very much, provided the basic functionality works OK. And that's the view I've taken for a long time. But latterly it's been irritating that incoming faster payments take an hour to show up (this has improved recently -- but it is still not immediate), and having to spend an age on the phone to arrange a time-sensitive transfer is also disappointing. I can't even see my card details in the app, if I don't have my card to hand.

As I say, it's not that the basics don't work -- they do. But others do it quicker and better nowadays, and I'd rather be with a bank that's getting better than one getting worse.

gsmh · 23 November 2024 at 12:57PM

d6fs1l said:

The issue for me is the general decline in their standard of service both absolutely and relatively.

Very strange. I've had accounts sporadically over the past few years. Up until a year or so ago I would have agreed with you. I closed my account because of this. A few months ago I opened a new account and was shocked at how much the bank had improved. Faster payments are received in both directions pretty quickly, in many cases instantly. The online and app banking is like night and day - the UI and the functionality has improved hugely. I think it may be something to do with the impending CBS take-over. It is unfair to suggest there is a linear decline in service - this is absolutely not the case. I agree back in the day when smile was launched and I opened a smile account times were exciting. The current proposition is a very different beast. The decline in the Co-operative Bank has been halted and indeed reversed.

UKX69 · 31 January at 1:14PM

WillPS said:

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!).

First of all, I’d like to thank WillPS and eskbanker et al for their contributions to my thread. In the end, I decided not to go ahead with opening a Co-op account mainly because I thought the negative comments about the bank, not only here but on other threads, outweigh the positives. I have decided to keep my spare NatWest account to use as a feeder for other accounts.

Cheers,

Tech.

WillPS · 1 February at 10:52AM

Glad to be of assistance

I've used them for 2 decades on and off (currently on but probably not for long with how awkward they've been, even with an account I don't really intend to do anything transactional with!). They're a very hard bank to recommend, unfortunately. Hopefully things will change in the years to come.

gsmh · 2 February at 4:52PM

There are some clearly incorrect and false accusations about the Co-operative Bank flying around that I would have agreed with, were we back in 2023. There is also a very vocal anti-ethical group which likes to disparage banks which are trying to 'do the right thing'. It's a shame - I think you have been duped - NOT by any member on here, of course, this forum is absolutely lovely. Maybe you could open a Co-operative Bank account just to see for yourself?

Petriix · 2 February at 6:25PM

I'm all for ethical banking and have banked with Smile for two decades. But the Coop are definitely a bit useless and stuck in the past. I have many bank accounts and no other company has caused the same issues with delayed payments wrongly flagged as potential fraud. The bonkers thing of having to phone up and queue on the general banking line to authorise the card was the cream on the cake for me.

I've happily accepted the free £150 and the 7% regular saver, but they definitely won't become my main bank.

gsmh · 2 February at 6:33PM

My first payment to one of my credit cards was flagged and it happened just that once so they could take me through the various risks. Since then I've made several payments of varying amounts to other cards with different banks and to my own accounts elsewhere and not once was anything flagged - even when money was transferred in and straight out again. All I'm saying is they used to be very much as you describe and I've closed Co-operative Bank accounts in the past for that and other reasons. My experience is that they are now very much improved. I'm concerned that many people are commenting on their experiences from some time ago.

Alexland · 2 February at 6:33PM

Yeah my experience in the past 3 months is that the switch team, complaints team and around 2/3rds of the customer service agents I talked to were not good. Basic stuff like not bothering to investigate what you are saying or to return calls. Not a bank I would trust with anything important because of competence issues.