Been with my bank since i was a child but lately their sneaky charges have left me quite disgruntled - has anyone ever changed their bank lock stock and barrel after so long being with them. 30 odd years
you can change over in 7 days. I went from Lloyds to First Direct as the Lloyds on line banking thing is total shit.
was cool. they even sorted out my DDs
[quote=emsz said]you can change over in 7 days. I went from Lloyds to First Direct as the Lloyds on line banking thing is total shit.
Really ? I find Lloyds online banking much easier/better than First Direct 🙂
really? luv the FD guys they're always so scottish...luv that accent 😆
but the Lloyds payment thing drove me insane...maybe it was just me
[quote=emsz said]
but the Lloyds payment thing drove me insane...maybe it was just me
Quite possibly.
you wouldn't be the first to mention it, Hon
i also moved over to FD and couldnt be happier. its £125 in your pocket to swap, they do all the work, just sit back and take the money.
ive also been absolutely amazed at their customer service. it always comes out top in the reviews, but i wasnt prepared for just how good (see my turkey visa mistake thread)
Am about to change to Santander123 unless someone tells me it's rubbish of course 😐
I left Lloyds after 35 years because of the very poor service at the counter and attitude of the new manager at my local branch when I had the audacity to complain about it. I moved to another bank and it was completely painless.
@ART, Santander are pretty much the worst personal bank, imo. Dealing with them as a customer or professionally was always a nightmare, so glad to be gone.
Cheers for thoughts Northwind, but already a Santander customer - was with Abbey before they were bought & have never had a problem, so really just about getting better deal 3% interest on balances £3k + cash back etc ... If I were looking to change completely would be to First Direct having looked at the options.
Yes Santander are terrible. I'm tempted by the 123 thing but then I remember how bad the customer service was, I'll never go back to them.
Switching is easy, I've done it 3 times in the last 10 years.
they even sorted out my DDs
Boob job? 8O. All I got was a railcard
avoid santander, theyre crap, and TSB just got bought by the spanish.Hsbc, dont seem to know what is corrupt and wrong just what money is,
Surely that's what you want in a bank?
I'm just shocked at how often Lloyds keeps cutting interest rates. My saver account is now giving me a huge 0.25% interest. Hell, I thought 0.55% was bad enough.
If anyone has recommendations for a decent savings account, do tell.
Just joined Santander for the 123 account and I must say in contrast to some of the other posts the switch has been very easy,early days I know but so far so good,plus, the interest rates are better than most locked in isas.
Was with Santander before 123 account (and 7 day switch) but have the card. Total nightmare to deal with, liked to randomly freeze my account for 'suspicious' activity and not have anyone around to fix it till the next day (leaving me high and dry in Glasgow once). Swapping to them was a chore as well, had some bint in Bootle **** me around and passed from pillar to post until the poor sod at the card depot sent everything out anyway because he's heard it all before.
First Direct, who I moved to, on the other hand have been conspicuous in their absence. No ****ups, everything sent on time, and a pleasant enough experience that I wouldn't really consider it worth my while swapping even for another £125. Plus you get a 6% savings account and access to their better mortgages if that's any good to you.
Great advice there, thanks all. Goodbye Lloyds!
If first direct is Internet based, how do you pay money/cheques in?
Happy First Direct customer here too.
I have an offset mortgage with them so I do not pay interest on the part of my mortgage equivalent to the balances of my savings and current accounts which is very tax efficient.
I can also borrow back money I have paid off the mortgage if I need to. It is very flexible and as others have said the service is great.
I've been with FD for about 15yrs now and they've been great. My only gripe is that i use their credit card and I get absolutely nothing in terms of benefits from using it, no points scheme or benefits scheme, so i'll be moving away from their Credit Card, but other than that I've found them excellent. I know we should be moving banks more frequently to keep them on their toes and promote better products though competition, but i've really no reason to move away from them.
Jim25, you can pay cheques in and use normal bank branch services at HSBC branches (FD is part of HSBC).
Another happy FD swapper here too
Came from Barclays where I'd been for years but got pissed off with a few things with them.
Everything went smoothly no problems and £125 for the pleasure.
FD do a 6% savings account??? Tell me more.
I change my bank account about every 9 months to take advantage of the joining bribes. Had about £500 for free over the last three years for basically about 2 hours "work" (sitting at a computer).
No hassles with any of them, and they guarantee it will be painless and done in 7 days. They swap over direct debits and any money paid into your old account (like your salary) for a year gets put straight into your new account.
Changed a few times , presently with the coop who are quite good, my wife's just moved to the Nationwide who appear culturally good but use those little calculator things for online banking which I hate.
Virgin money are also getting into the retail banking sector so could be worth a look.
Changing bank is easy if your organised with your bills and have account numbers etc to hand.
Physical tokens make a lot of sense in this case.
If someone finds out your password and transfers all your money, then either you gave them the password, or it wasn't very good*, right? That's not counting the computer malware angle, 'cos you all have up to date AV on your PCs right? If not then your bank may have a clause that removes their liability.
Those two factor tokens make internet banking a lot safer than just having passwords. It raises the fraud bar from brute forcing your password to having to obtain the "something you have" as well as the "something you know". Malware can't re-use the tokencode (unless the server back end is not configured correctly), so even knowing the password should keep your account safe. Should.
However, even with that, I would not use internet banking. Maybe on an unrooted iPad, but not on a PC or an Android tablet.
Yes, paranoid.
Yes, paranoid.
Completely! Internet banking is very secure. I wouldn't worry about the device you use more about the WiFi connection you were using. Dont do banking at the local cafe. But apart from that I recon you have nothing to worry about Willard
Silly post. Removed
I went from Lloyds to First Direct as the Lloyds on line banking thing is total shit.
That's weird because I have found that FD's online banking is absolutely crap - you can't make international transfers, you can't download transactions older than 90 days, you can't get old statements without a LOT of faffing about(*). It just seems to be stuck in a previous decade.
(*) in the end I requested paper statements and at the end of the year I take them in to work and can them in a batch - easier than pressing endless buttons and downloading a pdf.
Changed a few times , presently with the coop who are quite good, my wife's just moved to the Nationwide who appear culturally good but use those little calculator things for online banking which I hate.
Coop use this as well… have they not sent you yours yet?
The business case I saw for introducing tokens outwith high value services used the term "improving perceived security" about 500 times but didn't consider actually adding security to be critical. Similiar to chip and pin in that regard. Standard internet banking is secure enough as long as you've got a moderately well defended PC, but the tokens do take away some of that outside risk. OTOH they also increase the chance that you can't access your own internet banking.
Personally I'd prefer no tokens, your protection from fraud isn't just from prevention, it's also part of the banking service you receive- same as credit card fraud etc. My bank came down on the same side- they added a bunch of dropdowns and click-to-selects to try and outmaneuvre keyloggers but mostly they just decided that the cost of preventing fraud is too high to justify the cost.
Another First Direct irritation is their cumbersome security app
2 factor authentication is a nice thing to have. Though I favour 'soft' tokens over SecurIDs just because there's less to carry around. Not with the soft token on the device that I'm logging in from.
'fast' bank switching has been around for a [url= http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/banking/2013/09/you-can-now-switch-bank-in-seven-days-time-to-ditch-and-switch ]while[/url]
they just decided that the cost of preventing fraud is too high to justify the cost.
I don't know if you'll have ever seen this NW but it will probably make you giggle
Bank heist as a result of poorly written brief to test bank internet security
That's class- I love the description of the teller, rings so true, if my branch had been raided I think my first response would have been ZOMFG UPDATE FACEBOOK STATUS
I worked with a woman who'd been in a raided branch twice, she told it "the first time, I was really upset, I was off work for ages with stress. The second time, I figured he was just another customer". Which knowing her, meant she treated him with total contempt and was completely unhelpful. I can imagine a furious bank robber with a gun while she went "What's the hurry son? Have some bloody patience, I'm not as young as I was... Where are the keys? I had them here a minute ago..."
The First Direct app is far better that the silly key fob thing my wife has to carry around and has lost a couple of times (HSBC). I think the FD app is quite good, seems secure due to the hoops you have to jump through to log in, but i don't mind trading in some convenience for security.
I don't think you have to use the fob thing any more for HSBC.
Coop use this as well… have they not sent you yours yet?
Nope , been with em 2+ years not needed one but I do use web banking make transfers payments etc.
Internet banking is very secure.
To be clear up front, I internet bank and I am not an expert in this field, but a great number of IT bods* I have spoken in a work capacity, do not.
*Not old fogies, but young, clever, articulate coders and architecture folk that build systems that look after [b]your[/b] personal details.
I'd ask them more, but they know they would have lost me after a few seconds of technical discussion 🙂
Internet banking is about as secure as your passwording.
Follow the rules and you'll be fine*.
https://howsecureismypassword.net
*or at least more secure and more hassle than it's worth when some fool has a password that can be cracked in <10s and yours is >10 years.