What things annoy you about your bank?

SparciaM

I bank with First Direct and there are 4 things that annoy me. They are small things, but still annoying.

1) Transfers from a First Direct account to another bank account take 4 working days and not the normal 3 working days.

2) You can't delete any transfers from the internet banking. So if you do a one off transfer, that name and details stays in your transfers drop down list until 13 months of in-activity and then drops off.

3) You cannot see previous secure messages, or replies/sent messages online and have to 'hope' that First Direct keep a record of all these messages (as I'm sure they have to for 6 years).

4) When you get transferred to another department they don't tell you. Eg, I called up asking a technical query of downloading statements and the adviser said he would speak with the tech guys. Next thing I know I'm transferred to them and no idea whom I'm speaking with. Then that tech guy said he would speak to a colleague, and low and behold I was transferred to that guy. No 'I need to transfer you to my colleague' or anything, just a blind transfer a different person/department. - Not good.

sparrabeth

I used to bank with Natwest, and after every call to their customer service centre, they'd say "there's a note on your file that you are due for a review of your account. I'm just going to transfer you so that someone can make sure that your account is working for you". Which is code for "we're going to try and sell you something now".

After a couple of times, I used to hang up at the hold music, as they never listened when I said that I was happy as I was.

Now with the Co-op who are brilliant. No complaints so far!

PROLIANT

A&L no probs yet, Halifax I would p**s on them if they were on fire, infact I would pour petrol on them to speed up the process!

ffacoffipawb

SparciaM wrote: »

I bank with First Direct and there are 4 things that annoy me. They are small things, but still annoying.

SparciaM wrote: »

1) Transfers from a First Direct account to another bank account take 4 working days and not the normal 3 working days.

Been with them since 1990, never had this problem. Always 3 days, or instant to any other FD or HSBC account.

SparciaM wrote: »

2) You can't delete any transfers from the internet banking. So if you do a one off transfer, that name and details stays in your transfers drop down list until 13 months of in-activity and then drops off.

Agreed, that is a complete pain.

SparciaM wrote: »

3) You cannot see previous secure messages, or replies/sent messages online and have to 'hope' that First Direct keep a record of all these messages (as I'm sure they have to for 6 years).

Agreed, but don't get many only ones touting for business, so no loss.

SparciaM wrote: »

4) When you get transferred to another department they don't tell you. Eg, I called up asking a technical query of downloading statements and the adviser said he would speak with the tech guys. Next thing I know I'm transferred to them and no idea whom I'm speaking with. Then that tech guy said he would speak to a colleague, and low and behold I was transferred to that guy. No 'I need to transfer you to my colleague' or anything, just a blind transfer a different person/department. - Not good.

Not aware of that as an issue. Always excellent telephone service.

And regarding the £15 monthly fee, where charged. I think this fee is far too low. I would willingly sell my house and all it's contents to pay for my first direct account. (Showing my age there).

hustle90

Was with Barclays up until a few months ago.

Barclays bad points

1) There staff in their branches seem like they need some prozak and a good kick up the !!!.
2) When you phone them, god help you if you are looking to get anything done.
3) Their security in their bank is terrible. You only need to display the card and they'll ask how much and would you like it in £50 notes.

One thing I will give them, is their internet banking is great and if you go overdrawn under £10, they wont charge you and if you pay for something and don't have the money, they'll let it go through (up to about £20/£30).

I'm now with Lloyds. I think they're great.

Good points are
1) Offer txt services, so i get a weekly txt with my ballance
2) Staff are always kind and friendly

Bad points are they charge you even if you go 1p overdrawn without an overdraft, and the charges are rediculous.

cifpower

I'm with the Halifax and I can't fault them really. Their customer service in branch and on the telephone has been excellent. They gave me an overdraft when I wasn't expecting one and when I asked for a £50 increase they were happy to do so. Their online service is one of the best I have used IMHO; it is very user friendly and you can do nearly everything you need to in order to operate a bank account.

SparciaM

ffacoffipawb - you say you've been with them since 1990 and never noticed that all your transfers from FD to any other UK bank (excluding HSBC) take 4 working days.

Next time you do a transfer or set one up have a look at when they say it'll arrive and it'll be 4 working days. I called them up and they said it's always been 4 working days and will never change.

You also mention that you couldn't delete transfers back in 1990 and you still can't - that is just awful. They obviously aren't looking to customers. AND I know they CAN delete transfers, as I had 6 savings account open and in my list of transfers but when I closed them, they were 'deleted' from my list of transfers!

YorkshireBoy

SparciaM wrote: »

Next time you do a transfer or set one up have a look at when they say it'll arrive and it'll be 4 working days. I called them up and they said it's always been 4 working days and will never change.

I've only been with them a short while, but I've found what they say and what happens in practice are two different things.

All my transfers have taken the standard 3 days so far.

flowerofscotland

Online transfers from my A&L savings account to my A&L current account are not taken into account before payments are taken out of the current account. So a direct debit was bounced in spite of the fact that I had pre arranged a transfer of funds from my savings account to more than compensate for the dd. This doesn't happen with NatWest - transactions are shown in advance on your online statement.

I have been with NatWest for zillions of years and although they don't pay decent interest I have found them to be the most efficient bankers - I have or have had accounts with A&L, Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Smile, Lloyds and Citibank and rate NatWest higher than any of these.

PROLIANT

flowerofscotland wrote: »

This doesn't happen with NatWest - transactions are shown in advance on your online statement.

Well I can assure you that A&L give you advanced notice on DD's etc coming out of your account, 48 Hours to be exact.

natweststaffmember

Please don't tell me this is a saturday thingy re 48 hours notice? I hope you tell me that that is not the case and that on tuesday you can see that a DD is going out on thursday.