Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => OT Knowledge => Topic started by: CAMRAMan on 18 June, 2020, 10:03:16 am
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I am royally pissed off with TSB. Not only have they shut my local branch, but they are sending me round in circles when I try to contact them over the phone.
So, I think it;s time for a change. I first thought of First Direct, but they aren't taking any new customers at the moment, so does the panel have any other recommendations for a reliable online bank that has UK call centres?
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I bank with Nat West. Their online banking is excellent and, as far as I am aware, their call centres are UK based. I now they're not everyone's favourites but they're the best bank I;ve dealt with overall.
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Anyone but Barclays!
Whilst a conventional building society, Nationwide have reliable online services for individuals but probably not as innovative as some of the newcomers. Works for me, and I can see mortgage balance and my various accounts in one place in their app. It has some limitations (can't set up a new payee easily on the mobile) but basically works okay. UK call centre is at Swindon HQ I think, though some calls are currently being routed through to local branches to tackle the high workload due to people avoiding branches during lockdown.
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Another + for Nat West.
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Probably worth reading this https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts/
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Anyone but Barclays!
Whilst a conventional building society, Nationwide have reliable online services for individuals but probably not as innovative as some of the newcomers. Works for me, and I can see mortgage balance and my various accounts in one place in their app. It has some limitations (can't set up a new payee easily on the mobile) but basically works okay. UK call centre is at Swindon HQ I think, though some calls are currently being routed through to local branches to tackle the high workload due to people avoiding branches during lockdown.
I'm also with Nationwide and find them fine, website and app are good. Only problem I had recently was when my code doofer failed and I had to get someone else to pay a bill for me. Took a week to replace it. I hadn't been using it because they've switched log in to a text based system which suits my laziness so I dont' have to find the doofer or debit card.
Only issue I had was they got the years wrong on my account transferred from the Dunfermline so I got a slightly worse rate on one of my transient money accounts, think it was the Car money pit fund so not really a big deal.
Their Dundee branch were also willing to do normal branch banking for me despite my account supposedly being "online only".
Mum on the other hand hates them and their systems.
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I've been with RBS for 40 years and their online service, app and call centre have all been fine. I also have a Monzo account which is also good if you are happy with app-based banking.
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Probably worth reading this https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts/
Nationwide seem to come out very well.
I used to have a Nationwide account and I was very happy with them, but I stopped using it. Can't remember precisely why, but I have a feeling it might have been because they didn't have an online presence at the time, and there was no local branch. This was some years ago though.
I've been with Co-op/Smile since forever. Switched my personal account to Co-op for ethical reasons in the 90s. Then we got a joint account with Smile. I've been very happy with them, though they may not be the best bet for purely financial reasons, and probably aren't even the best bet for ethical reasons these days either. Co-op and Smile used to be quite distinct but they've aligned their operations in recent years so the only obvious difference now is the colours on the login page.
Their call centres are still based in Skem, as far as I know. Haven't had any need to call them for a while.
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Also happy with Nationwide. They seem to be one of the most ethical options for high street banks anyway.
Online banking works fine for me. I quite like the card reader thingy, works OK, maybe adds a bit more security.
The app is also fine, use fingerprint login on my phone. Only annoyance is can't pay in cheques with the app. Especially just now, when I am avoiding going into town.
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Ditto Nationwide - although I have been First Direct customer pretty much since they started . . . and have accounts with Smile & Halifax as well as a joint account with Lloyds.
If I had to choose just one it'd be FD, with NW in second place
Rob
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Like most things you'll get horror stories for all banks and recommendations for all banks.
I use Barclays and Lloyds. No problems with either. Website use for the last 15 years or do most of it on their apps on a phone now, very quick and painless. Never really have to ring them up. Only been into a branch once in the last 2 years and that was to pay in a cheque that was beyond what you can pay in with the app (a nice problem to have).
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I have been First Direct customer pretty much since they started . . .
I worked at FD in the early days (to top up my meagre ration of beer tokens when I was a penniless student oaf in Leeds), though not in the main call centre - so you wouldn't have spoken to me unless you'd tried to pay a dodgy cheque.
Also happy with Nationwide. They seem to be one of the most ethical options for high street banks anyway.
I know they offer regular banking services but they're still strictly a building society rather than a bank, aren't they? That's always been one of the biggest points in their favour as far as I'm concerned.
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I use Lloyds for business, NatWest for personal and have used NatWest for business in the past. The only thing that keeps me with NatWest is laziness. They closed every branch for miles around, Lloyds I have 3 near by branches. Lloyds online security feels secure, always has done. NatWest isn't as bad as it was 9 months ago but they only got their shit together when kicked by the EU. Lloyds send me proper business invoices, NatWest's were a joke. NatWest are constantly switching off paper statements, Lloyds leave my settings as I set them. Must get around to moving....
Can't comment on apps, don't trust 'em, trust the platform even less, won't use 'em.
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Another here for Smile, have stuck with them through all the Co-op's troubles. Main advantage is that they are relatively small and therefore lack the arrogance of the major banks, most of which I had used in the past for personal or business accounts.
I also have a Metro account, mainly started as a back-up in case the Co-op floundered. Haven't had any problems with them, with the advantage of a local branch (they operate mainly in and around London) for drawing larger amounts of cash.
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I recently switched to Starling and find it pretty good. You get a notification as soon as you get a payment or have a payment go out which is why I switched to it and it works well.
I won’t name names but I would personally avoid banks which use text messages, I have a friend who was frauded by a text message scam. It is easy for anybody to send a text from a web service which has a 'name' as the recipient and there is no authentication of that in the same way as there is with domain names and SSL certificates etc. He got it back, eventually, but was a worrying time for him in the meantime when he wasn’t sure whether he would.
would.
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I recently switched to Starling and find it pretty good. You get a notification as soon as you get a payment or have a payment go out which is why I switched to it and it works well.
I won’t name names but I would personally avoid banks which use text messages, I have a friend who was frauded by a text message scam. It is easy for anybody to send a text from a web service which has a 'name' as the recipient and there is no authentication of that in the same way as there is with domain names and SSL certificates etc. He got it back, eventually, but was a worrying time for him in the meantime when he wasn’t sure whether he would.
in fact sod it I will name names: TSB - avoid
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I have been with FD for years, and to start with, they seemed to have a policy of empowering the first person you spoke to, to be able to do everything and anything you wanted to do, which was why I liked them, but over the years they seem to have abandoned that - they pass you around between departments now just as much as any other big company.
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Today's final TSB straw was that my card was declined in a toothy comestibles emporium what I regularly use, your Honour. I phoned up and went through the security procedures then spoke to a human being who then put me through to a voicemail what cut me off. Rang again and the same thing happened, despite me asking not to be put through to a voicemail what cuts me off. Not the first time that sort of thing has happened. All in all it was 30 minutes wasted, and I still don't know why my card was declined. TSB also think it's fine that my nearest branch is now in Stratford-u-A, 10 miles away rather than 100 metres.
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Ditto Nationwide - although I have been First Direct customer pretty much since they started . . . and have accounts with Smile & Halifax as well as a joint account with Lloyds.
If I had to choose just one it'd be FD, with NW in second place
Rob
Ditto, I've been with First Direct almost since the word go. When I joined I couldn't believe they were actually there 24/7 so I purposely got up in the middle of the night and phoned, they were there! Shame they aren't taking new customers, I wonder why?
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When I joined I couldn't believe they were actually there 24/7 so I purposely got up in the middle of the night and phoned, they were there!
I remember being told when I started working there, that they would have people phoning up on Christmas Day just to check they really were there.
They were!
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When I joined I couldn't believe they were actually there 24/7 so I purposely got up in the middle of the night and phoned, they were there!
I remember being told when I started working there, that they would have people phoning up on Christmas Day just to check they really were there.
They were!
;D
I think of all the big companies I have dealt with over the years, financial sector, insurance, utilities etc , FD have consistently been the best. They have fooked up on one or two occasions, the last being so long ago I can't remember the details, but they have always sorted the problem quickly.
My Mum had a FD account and they were really good when she died and we had to close her account. Not all the companies my sister and I dealt with a executors of Mum's will were quite so helpful.
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I've gone for Nationwide. Easy online process and i can even transfer my balance over. The one bugbear is that the nearest branch is in Leamington 2.5 miles away, but easily reached. There are very few financials left in Warwick now.
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I had an account with FD in the days when every penny was a prisoner. When I found out that my pay didn't go into my account until midnight of the day after I actually got paid, I saw red and took my business to RBS in a fit of pique.
(I subsequently moved from RBS to Santander, or A&L as they were then, purely on the basis of a free £100. ICBA doing that sort of shit anymore.)
Most of our other accounts are with Nationwide. I like them except:
a) their credit card is not very good at alerting you when there's a problem. (I.e. you don't get a heads up they've stopped your account)
b) again with their credit card, when I want to look at my statement often it pops up that there is a problem going to that page. It usually works eventually, it just never seems to do so first time.
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HSBC. I think I shouldn't like them, but I've never really had cause for complaint, which may or may be a recommendation (probably not, but they're banks, you're not supposed to like them). We also have accounts with Natwest and Santander (a hang-over from Alliance & Leicester). Hmm, and credit cards with Barclays and MBNA.
I can't say I've ever called them. The phone apps are my only point of contact.
It validates their strategy of grabbing students though, umpteen years and several hundred thousands of pounds later, that free £50 that the Midland Bank gave a thirsty student (me) has probably been a good investment.
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I've gone for Nationwide. Easy online process and i can even transfer my balance over. The one bugbear is that the nearest branch is in Leamington 2.5 miles away, but easily reached. There are very few financials left in Warwick now.
... I believe that one of the, shall we say "prominent"?, members of this forum will be pleased . . . . . :thumbsup:
Note: If you get a regular payment in, say salary, I think they include quite good travel insurance for free.
Rob
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I've gone for Nationwide. Easy online process and i can even transfer my balance over. The one bugbear is that the nearest branch is in Leamington 2.5 miles away, but easily reached. There are very few financials left in Warwick now.
... I believe that one of the, shall we say "prominent"?, members of this forum will be pleased . . . . . :thumbsup:
Note: If you get a regular payment in, say salary, I think they include quite good travel insurance for free.
Rob
Not free, you have to pay £13 a month for insurance. And it has rules about wearing helmets...
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We abandoned the Co-op/Smile when the hedge fund managers took over and have been with Nationwide ever since.
I have never had an issue with them on my own account (ha!) but I was going to go to town on them quite royally over their treatment of my Aunt Phyllis when I had power of attorney over her affairs. She was still perfectly capable of doing a lot of stuff for herself: ordering ready meals and the like, but when she enacted the PoA and they send me a debit card for her current account, they automatically stopped hers. I did a lot of research and discovered that they had already been hauled over the coals by the Ombudsman for this discriminatory behaviour (reports in the Telegraph).
The dispute was just hotting up when Phyllis fell over her coffee table, broke her leg, and never again set foot in her bungalow, instead coming to live with us. So the reason or the dispute disappeared and I was too busy dealing with her affairs and selling her bungalow that it became low priority.
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HSBC. I think I shouldn't like them...
Let’s not forget that First Direct are HSBC by another name.
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I've been with FD since Adam was a lad and never had a problem, but for reasons lost in the mists of time I now do most of my banking with Nationwide.
Both 'just work' although I prefer the NW interface overall.
When Mrs M's mother died some years ago dealing with NW was the easiest and most compassionate organisation of all of them.
Branches are a dying thing. As soon as we're all able to photograph a cheque to pay it in, then yet more branches will close. Then they'll discontinue cheques altogether.
I can't remember when I last wrote or received a cheque or went into a bank branch - although Mrs M gets cheques from an elderly friend for her shopping which she pays into her Smile account at the local Post Office.
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HSBC. I think I shouldn't like them...
Let’s not forget that First Direct are HSBC by another name.
Ha, I never knew in the first place.
I can't remember the last time I went to a branch of any bank or saw a cheque. That said, trying to close my Santander account, the easiest solution seems to be to go to a branch. I'm not clear why I can't just close it online and, of course, as it's a defunct savings account running about 0.000000000000000000001% interest, I don't have telephone banking set up (assuming that let's me close an account).
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...Most of our other accounts are with Nationwide. I like them except:
a) their credit card is not very good at alerting you when there's a problem. (I.e. you don't get a heads up they've stopped your account)
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I had a Nationwide credit card issue 18 months ago, some website which I had used to purchase had been hacked and scammers got busy, got an alert, found Nwide fraud team spot on, efficient, helpful. Stopped the bad 'uns, got a new card within 48 hours. Tick. Also been a 1stD customer for decades, all fine.
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As someone who has fallen into working in this field totally by accident I have one piece of advice for right now. That is: Avoid all of the incumbents. They are not in the slightest bit interested in looking after your money right now, but trying to keep up with the Joneses in the shape of the new challenger banks (Monzo, Starling etc). That is not to say that you should trust those either (a good number have significant investment by domestic and foreign banks so lack true independence).
Personally, unless you are forced to change (work or other reasons) stick with the devil you know.
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HSBC. I think I shouldn't like them...
Let’s not forget that First Direct are HSBC by another name.
Ha, I never knew in the first place.
I can't remember the last time I went to a branch of any bank or saw a cheque. That said, trying to close my Santander account, the easiest solution seems to be to go to a branch. I'm not clear why I can't just close it online and, of course, as it's a defunct savings account running about 0.000000000000000000001% interest, I don't have telephone banking set up (assuming that let's me close an account).
Presumably KYC is easiest by verifying photo ID.
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Having worked in a large UK banking organisation for 16 years primarily on fraud protection and detection systems and still having many friends there 18 years later, I remain unconvinced as to the absolute security and protection of online banking. Ever since the internet happened banks have been looking for ways to reduce both costs by closing down high street branches and paper statements but also keep lobbying for the "rules" on liability to be relaxed so that if people get plundered online the onus is on the customer to prove that it's not their fault and to take the loss as if somebody had nicked their wallet or handbag.
Online fraud and scams get ever more complex so until the banks change their mentality I will remain a regular visitor to the high street branch.
As for online spending: I have one credit card which I use exclusively online. I am protected to a degree by the CCA but also by the fact that it is the bank's money that goes tits up if a fraud happens in the first instance rather than my current account. I made a purchase using a debit card once from a cycle retailer who didn't take credit cards. A few days later my account had been fraudulently used. It took quite a fight to resolve that and I'm not going there again willingly or soon.
My view is that online banking is convenient for you, for your bank and for fraudsters.
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HSBC. I think I shouldn't like them...
Let’s not forget that First Direct are HSBC by another name.
Ha, I never knew in the first place.
I can't remember the last time I went to a branch of any bank or saw a cheque. That said, trying to close my Santander account, the easiest solution seems to be to go to a branch. I'm not clear why I can't just close it online and, of course, as it's a defunct savings account running about 0.000000000000000000001% interest, I don't have telephone banking set up (assuming that let's me close an account).
You can't close a Barclays online-only account online, no, you have to fill in a mahoosive form and post it to them. And then they still won't let you close it because they don't have your signature on file because the account in question only became Barclays when they borged ING's online banking so you have to go to a branch to prove who you are and sign more paper.
I gave up.
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the account in question only became Barclays when they borged ING's online banking so you have to go to a branch to prove who you are and sign more paper.
I gave up.
I've got one of those - it's got a zero balance and I'd completely forgotten about it until it appeared completely out of the blue on my Barclaycard app.
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I recently switched to Starling and find it pretty good. You get a notification as soon as you get a payment or have a payment go out which is why I switched to it and it works well.
I haven't switched entirely to Starling, but I've had an account with them pretty much since they started and I've always been very happy with them. Especially when travelling around the rest of Europe.
The only time that my Starling card hasn't worked is in the French motorway tolls (it works fine in the motorway services), where it thinks I'm somewhere else. I keep meaning to contact them about it, but invariably forget when I get home.
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For some strange reason, my dentist insists on payments either by cheque or by cash. It's the only time I ever write a cheque these days, but until they discover the 20th century, let alone the 21st, I'll pay them by cheque.
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I haven't even got a chequebook for my HSBC account.
Fleet send me one for my US account (I think the balance is about $137, yes, you guessed how I can close that. Pop into a branch, sir).
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On the subject of foreign bank accounts, I never closed my Credit Lyonnais account after I left France. No idea if it is still open. I've not used it for over 20 years.
I had a pleasant surprise when I went over for a holiday a couple of years after I'd left - checked my balance with the intention of withdrawing whatever cash was left in there to spend on booze, expecting to find enough for maybe a couple of bottles of middling wine at best, and discovered I had over £800 worth of francs. I must have been paid another month's salary after what I thought had been my final payment. That was a nice bonus. Lucky my bank card was still valid so I could get at it.
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I left a few hundred rupees making an Indian bank richer. I think they might have auto-closed it now, ie used it pay some fat Mumbaikar a greasy bonus.
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That said, trying to close my Santander account, the easiest solution seems to be to go to a branch. I'm not clear why I can't just close it online
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I closed a Santander acc online recently, used the chat facility.
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I didn't try that. I figured I'd just go to a branch near the mothership but then some kind of plague thing happened and no one was allowed to go outside without an excuse note. Plus it turned out to be a lot more money than I remembered (which was nice and showed I am demonstrable not on top of my financial affairs) so I have to think of something interesting to do with it. Legal, says my wife, legal!
Yeah, I got #firstworldproblems.
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I haven't even got a chequebook for my HSBC account.
Fleet send me one for my US account (I think the balance is about $137, yes, you guessed how I can close that. Pop into a branch, sir).
You can ask for one if you want one. Just not a default to send out.
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I read somewhere that you could write a cheque on the side of a cow. So, if needed, I'm going to do just that.
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I read somewhere that you could write a cheque on the side of a cow. So, if needed, I'm going to do just that.
It'd be more fun to write it on the side of a BEAR.
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The only time that my Starling card hasn't worked is in the French motorway tolls (it works fine in the motorway services), where it thinks I'm somewhere else. I keep meaning to contact them about it, but invariably forget when I get home.
Starling disables magstripe transactions by default so you need to enable them in the app (and then it turns them off again a fairly short time - 48 hours according to its Twitter - after last use). Guess what the toll machines use ...
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I’m with Bank of Scotland. Which got ruined by Halifax, but I find the online stuff to be ok. I used to post cheques to my branch 321 miles away, but now scan them in the app.
Was with Midland and they made me cross, so I moved to BoS and left £1 in the Midland account. They posted me statements every month for 5 years before eventually I closed the account. That showed ‘em.
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I read somewhere that you could write a cheque on the side of a cow. So, if needed, I'm going to do just that.
It'd be more fun to write it on the side of a BEAR.
Yes, but for the marker pen to show up, you need polar bear. And they're not the ones that live in Surrey. We have the wrong sort of bear for financial transactions.
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I read somewhere that you could write a cheque on the side of a cow. So, if needed, I'm going to do just that.
It'd be more fun to write it on the side of a BEAR.
Yes, but for the marker pen to show up, you need polar bear. And they're not the ones that live in Surrey. We have the wrong sort of bear for financial transactions.
I'm sure you could use Tippex or appropriately-hued paint or something. Use your imagination, man!
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The only time that my Starling card hasn't worked is in the French motorway tolls (it works fine in the motorway services), where it thinks I'm somewhere else. I keep meaning to contact them about it, but invariably forget when I get home.
Starling disables magstripe transactions by default so you need to enable them in the app (and then it turns them off again a fairly short time - 48 hours according to its Twitter - after last use). Guess what the toll machines use ...
Thank you, that's worth knowing - although I don't know when I'll next need that knowledge (next years odyssey was already planned not to use motorways in any of the 5 mainland European countries through which it will pass). I'll go and have a play now though, then when I do need to know I should be able to remember.