Are You Happy With Your Bank?

I'm a member of the 7% of Nationwide customers that are unhappy with this Building society. Last year before going abroad for a year I went in my branch for a debit card, was told I couldn't have one. When I asked the manager to elaborate as to why he told me that I could use it to guarantee 30 cheques in my possesion and take them for £3000.I had £38,000 in my account at the time. Needless to say the matter is now in the hands of my solicitor.

I'm another of the Nationwide 7%. I asked for a debit card on an account I have had for over 3 years. The girl looked up the account and basically said "computer says no". She told me that I had been credit checked when the account was opened and it isn't updated. She then advised me to apply for a new account as the credit may come out differently - to me that's "Brand new customers only". Lastly I couldn't even move account holding branch when I moved house. So much for Nationwide's "We're different" advertising.

I recently had an account opened with Cahoot- it took me about a year and four attempts to get accepted! I have an excellent credit rating etc, so am at a loss as to why. I haven't the confidence at this point to switch my DDs, standing orders etc given the level of procrastination. No doubt I will do it soon, but all that wasted interest in the mean time!

The Bank of Scotland was ruined when it amalgamated with the Halifax.In 1992 when I was divorced I went to the Halifax for a mortgage.I had started my own business but because I had not been trading for 3 years they turned me down flat. I may say that I was buying a house for £115,000, and putting £85,000 of my own money into it. The mortgage was only for £30,000, so in event of default they had plenty of equity in the property. In a panic I rang my bank, the Bank of Scotland. The manager looked up my financial history with the bank, and offered me the mortgage there and then!
From then on I had a great deal of loyalty to the bank until it merged with the Halifax. That's when the rot set in. I won't go into all the ghastly details, but suffice to say I was treated with utter contempt time after time, everything being blamed on 'the computer'.
I eventually changed to Smile and have never looked back. The service is excellent and their investments ethical.I can recommend them.

Ive had terrible trouble with both RBS and HBOS - the last six months has been sheer hell and no, I'm not in financial trouble - Im currently earning £300 more per month (new job). RBS had really messed up with several direct debits (hence transferring to HBOS who managed to mess up the transfer). So Ive been dealing with customer service numbers for over a dozen organisations at least 3 times a week over the six month period - and they are ALL bad. It boils down to (as someone here said earlier) an absolute dependance on what their computer system is telling them and the person on the phone (YOU, the customer) is either befuddled, lying or a criminal. I'm a PA and always speak to people politely so their attitude is not a reaction to how I'm speaking to them although this far down the line, I find I have to be very insistent to make any headway at all. It is VERY exhausting and VERY depressing. I watched the Tonight programme last week with great interest and ultimately sadness. The story of the 92 year old lady who just died, after all the stress of dealing with her energy supplier. As much as Im younger, trained to deal with people etc, I have worried about the effect my debacles would have on a less-able person.

We changed current accounts from Barclays to Nationwide a year or so ago and haven't looked back. I was sick of only earning 0.1% interest on the money we had in there, and was handsomely rewarded with an £83 interest payment on Dec 31 last year! And then another hefty interest payment on our savings accounts in March :-)

The only drawback with Nationwide is that the only way to pay in a cheques is to go to a branch, which is tricky if you live some distance away. Other than that, we've got no complaints.

I totally agree with penniesandpounds about First Direct. I moved to them about 12 years ago from Lloyds (before TSB came along) because they decided to start charging me £8 a month just for the privilege of having an account with them. I have always found FD staff courteous and helpful and admittedly I did have a hiccup with them a couple of months ago when requesting a copy of a 3-year old cheque but they were extremely apologetic and sorted the problem. I have no hesitation whatsover in recommending First Direct to anyone who is sick to the back teeth of their current bank.

Despite being part of HSBC, FirstDirect is vastly superior to HSBC branch accounts. I have been a happy customer for nearly 20 years durning which they have not made any mistakes whatsoever. BTW it was much reported that they stopped paying interest on current accounts some months ago, but since they make it extremely easy to automatically sweep idle money into a decent-interest savings account, I don't really care.

From memory, PeterJ42, the Nationwide have always been the same when it comes to moving you account holding branch; certainly I found that out some sixteen or more years ago. These days HSBC at least are the same. I opened accounts for my children in the Eastbourne area recently, not all at the same time, and one of those was allocated to the Seaford branch. My own account is still based in Brighton, and I have not worked there for some nine years or more. They said that so much is done by computer these days, that any branch can offer all the same facilities as the account-holding branch, such as producing forms for signature, which certainly seems to be the case from my oown experience. What I am not sure of is, is this a good thing or not?

Alliance & Leicester may pay good interest but their customer service is awful. I have had cause to complain several times over the years and I have always won my point but why should I waste my time sorting out problems created by them? It takes them months to sort things out and I really have better things to do with my time. The latest (and final straw) is that I moved money from my savings account, then paid a credit card bill on the same day. When I printed the statement out at the end of the month, this was the order the items appeared however later I received fee for the use of my overdraft. When I checked the statement again, the order of the payment had mysteriously reversed itself, triggering the fee. I consider this to be nothing short of fraud and am currently in the process of moving all of my accounts to another bank. Bye bye A&L.

I had the same experience as Denham36, and was contacted by FirstDirect to say I would be better off moving some of my funds to one of their higher interest accounts. I have had accounts with most of the 'big banks' over the years and would thoroughly recommend FD for their customer service and professionalism. Nationwide on the other hand... I had an account with them when I was a kid and they were Anglia BS. (pre Anglia, Hastings, and thanet, Nationwide Anglia and then Nationwide) and was always happy with them. Last December I applied for a nationwide credit card. The whole experience has been a farce. I was told it was 'policy' to apply in branch even though they gave me the application form, and so made an appointment to go back in a couple of days later. The adviser filled in most of the computer screens then said that Ineeded to enter some security data so she would leave the room while i did! I told them to setup a direct debit, which 6 months later they still haven't done. The first month they charged me a £12 late fee, which was refunded when I told them it was their fault for not taking the dd. They assured me that it would be corrected the next month, but wasn't. I have had 'projected interest' appear on my bills even though I'm still in the 0% balance transfer period. When I queried it I was told by someone in India 'Yes, it says that but you wont be charged it'. And their latest trick was a 'merchandise interest' fee, on an account that has had no transactions for 3 months.

I was with Nat West for years but moved as i found them absolutely bloody awful with customer service!

I moved to nationwide & have not looked back. Yes there are many poor things about them, but I'd not had anywhere near the problems I had with Nat west. They are not the best but my account runs very well & I do not incur the charges I did with nat west.

Same old rant here...

Banked with Halifax for 5 years and went over my agreed OD once. Asked for a credit card online (after online sign in), was rejected. 2 weeks later went into a branch for a account query and they told me I was "pre-approved" for a credit card. Work that one out.
Otherwise my relationship with Halifax was "indifferent": Not especially good, but they also never messed up big time (unlike some other stories on here).

Another bank, another story: RBS! They said I needed to have a meeting set up to increase my OD and ask for an "upgrade" to a debit card, and then next time they said I didn't. They also asked me about 5x for my diploma to proove that I am not a student anymore, but a graduate.

I guess I can consider myself lucky that I was not financially disadvantaged by any of my troubles.

I bank with First direct. When I telephoned them to change the name (only) on a joint account, from which all my bills were paid - because my wife had died - I was assured it was 'no problem'. It resulted in all my DDM's being cancelled, demands for 'payment in full' and a lot of hassle. I called Fd 5(FIVE) times before the problem was sorted out and insisted that they paid for all the mistakes under the DDM code. On another occassion I was buying a new (to me) car and called the bank to make sure that I could use my debit card. The funds were in my account and the answer was 'Yes'. After 45 mins at the Car dealership, confirming who I was and everything else, Fd finally admitted that "The person who took the call and agreed to the debit card transaction did not 'tick' the box to allow it to proceed".
Fd=Forever Dipsticks.........