Best Customer Service???

crankup

First Direct for me.
I moved some cash into my FD current acct ready to withdraw in cash at HSBC (the done thing when FD customers want large amounts of their cash - car purchase). The daft girl at the HSBC denied all knowledge of this arrangement so I had to phone FD again. They gave her an instant b*llocking, couldnt apologise enough and sent me a bottle of wine.

It's only when it goes wrong do the banks show if they are any good. And with a couple of quid in their savings acct means there is no charge for the current acct.

Gambit

Fedz wrote: »

Some get #1 service and some get poor service but, weired how people like me only get what I'd call first class customer service and various others always get poor customer services

Suppose different branches also come into play here as perhaps some have more helpful staff then others...

masonic

Gambit wrote: »

Suppose different branches also come into play here as perhaps some have more helpful staff then others...

Also, different needs and expectations. For example, I haven't set foot in any bank I've held a current account with for a couple of years and I'd probably resent being forced to do so.

ShelfStacker_3

crankup wrote: »

It's only when it goes wrong do the banks show if they are any good.

That's true, but there are other points:

* If you tell them to do something, how quickly and accurately does it get done? And if it doesn't get done, how quickly do the problems get resolved, and was it to your satisfaction? (Barclays were excellent at this, if you needed something done in branch they'd do it in branch as quickly as possible)
* Do they always treat you with respect and try to do their best for you? (Lloyds TSB are terrible, they honestly couldn't give a monkey's whether I banked with them or not when I was with them.)
* Do you feel like you're considered an individual, rather than just an account? (HSBC, for example, greet me with my name if I call them, which is a very nice touch as far as I'm concerned.)
* Do their policies and procedures make what you want to do as easy as possible? For instance, do you have to go into a branch or phone up to carry out a simple function that you could easily accomplish with an online form? (Alliance and Leicester are excellent in this regard, you can order stationery and even replacement cards over their internet banking service; they easily have one of the most flexible IB services to boot)
* Does everything get done efficiently and quickly? (Again, HSBC had my debit card with me in two days flat and my PIN and cheque book in a week; A&L took two weeks for the debit card alone)
* Are they flexible and willing to compromise with you? (I'm sick of praising them, but HSBC were happy to upgrade my basic account to a full current account with debit card and cheque book after I said I'd pay my money into them if they did - fairly impressive considering I have no prior dealings with them and had never paid a penny into said basic account)

I mean, my point is that you can't just say "OK, so if they screw up how quick were they to say 'sorry'?" and take that answer as the be-all and end all of a bank's customer service. If you're going to judge in that regard, then all banks are equal unless something goes horribly wrong, and that's obviously not the case...

Fedz

masonic wrote: »

Also, different needs and expectations. For example, I haven't set foot in any bank I've held a current account with for a couple of years and I'd probably resent being forced to do so.

Yeah that could have some truth

Although when I do goto the branch NW seem a tad more depressed than Halifax, but, that could be my local NW have the more senior staff where-as Halifax have younger staff (maybe regional).

NW have queues a mile long and Halifax have smaller queues from what I've seen.

Also Halifax run their machines 24/7 where NW it's Mon/Fri

I dunno is 6 of one and half a dozen of the other with Halifax / NatWest.

I understand from Dispatches last night that NW put more into the American sub-prime than Halifax to the tune of billions in difference

Gambit

Martinslovechild wrote: »

But A&L are currently paying 8.5% on the first £2500 so that works out at £206.25 gross per annum (assuming a constant £2500 balance), or £165 net of interest for a basic-rate taxpayer.

Would you say that First Direct's customer service is worth £165 per year?

But who would keep the account with a constant balance of £2500? I dont know about you but I need to spend my wages every month... :rotfl:

Personally speaking, a good in credit rate on a current account is of no importance to me due to the way I bank. I get paid, set up all my DD to come out of a different account so transfer money into that and then put the rest against debts. When I eventually pay off my debts any spare cash will go into savings and I'll obviously a savings account then and trasfer the money into that money. So, except for a few hundred left in there for day to day expenses, my current account is pretty much empied within a week after I get paid. So from my point of view customer service is the most important thing when it comes to a current account... :think:

Gambit

crankup wrote: »

First Direct for me.
I moved some cash into my FD current acct ready to withdraw in cash at HSBC (the done thing when FD customers want large amounts of their cash - car purchase). The daft girl at the HSBC denied all knowledge of this arrangement so I had to phone FD again. They gave her an instant b*llocking, couldnt apologise enough and sent me a bottle of wine.

That's what confuses me about First Direct... how can they have great customer service when it seems HSBC have none? They are the same company right???

dzug

I've never dealt with a bank that has bad customer service - OK they've screwed up occasionally but it's always been put right - that's with maybe 8 or 9 in total over the years.

oldagetraveller

My vote went to smile. In spite of them recently dropping their rates.
I had fraudulent activity on my smile debit and credit cards last year which they spotted. They dealt with it quickly, efficiently, courteously and sympathetically. The full refunds back to my accounts took less than a week. Partial refunds within a day.
I use a Natwest account for branch convenience and get fed up with the attempts to "sell" me something EVERY time I visit. That in my opinion that is NOT customer service!

Martinslovechild

Gambit wrote: »

But who would keep the account with a constant balance of £2500? I dont know about you but I need to spend my wages every month... :rotfl:

Personally speaking, a good in credit rate on a current account is of no importance to me due to the way I bank. I get paid, set up all my DD to come out of a different account so transfer money into that and then put the rest against debts. When I eventually pay off my debts any spare cash will go into savings and I'll obviously a savings account then and trasfer the money into that money. So, except for a few hundred left in there for day to day expenses, my current account is pretty much empied within a week after I get paid. So from my point of view customer service is the most important thing when it comes to a current account... :think:

Sure, I can see that your needs are different to mine. From my perspective, I don't have any debts so it's important that any Current Account I operate offers a good interest rate, mainly because I rarely need to telephone Customer Services. I've been banking with Cahoot for about 7 or 8 years and during that time, I think I've called them 3 times. In all cases, they did what I wanted them to do with the minimum of fuss.

Recently, I've been considering opening a second current account with A&L simply because of the rate of interest offered, which is far higher than Cahoot's. If I do, it will be to simply maintain £2,500 in the account to attract the 8.5% rate. There's no point in me keeping a higher balance than this amount because deposits over-and-above the £2,500 receive a derisory interest rate of 0.1%. However, the downside with this account is that you need to deposit £500 (I think) per month as a minimum funding requirement. This means transferring £500 per month to A&L and then transferring it back out to a savings account elsewhere; this seems like a lot of hassle but with a high 8.5% rate on offer, that gives me £127 per annum net which, together with my annual £200 cashback from Egg, pays for my car insurance.