[Closed] Santander can stick it!

Co-operative are picking up customers in a big way at the moment, apparently.

Barclays, nothing at the moment changing my mind of that fine upstanding establishment

Boba yes they seem to be a trustworthy bunch 🙂

First Direct.
Never heard of anyone having problems with them.....yet 😆

Co-op +1

HSBC seem OK for me, never had any issues with them in the 8 years I've had an account with them - their on-line banking is really good (as a bonus, the key generator for on-line security is pretty small and flat and fits in your wallet, unlike some of the ones I've seen for other banks)

[b]wisepranker[/b] - Member
First Direct.
Never heard of anyone having problems with them.....yet

xcgb
Can't recommend anyone at the moment 'cos I'm in a similar situation.
Halifax customer for nearly 20 years, so they're all I really know, but that's going to change now after similar recent problems.
My only advice would be go somewhere else.

I've never heard anyone have a bad thing to say about First Direct. Well, up until now, anyway. They're the best of a bad bunch I reckon.

I had a credit card with Abbey, got some 0% intro offer or other. I managed to break some ephemeral term or other - I think they applied a charge to it I wasn't expecting which took me over the limit, or something. Started getting charged interest on it.

I rang Abbey who said, no worries, we'll put that back as it was. Then they were bought out by Santander, and I carried on getting charged. Rang up Santander who basically said "tough shit, matey."

My only advice would be go somewhere else

Yup i'm going into the branch to prove who I am as requested, when i have done that i'm flouncing! just checked out their customer service stats too, they are getting a bad reputation which i will be pointing out.

as its their fault I will try to get my costs back for a trip into town (pfft fat chance)

Hey ho I know its trivial but bad service really boils my proverbial!

I've never heard anyone have a bad thing to say about First Direct. Well, up until now, anyway. They're the best of a bad bunch I reckon.

I agree with the last part of that. I've been a customer of theirs for almost 20 years, in which time I've had a couple of falling-outs with them, but generally they're better than anyone else I've banked with (including a recent flirtation with Smile that was a disaster).

Santander are absolutely hopeless, but you've realised that now!

My worst experiences with FD have always been over unsolicited marketing. They actually changed their Terms and Conditions rather than concede defeat over one of our disgreements 🙂

I've never really had a problem withdrawing lump sums from FD via HSBC - yes you pre-arrange it over the phone, but that's the same for most banks. The only difficult part is when First Direct hand you over to the regular HSBC call centre numpties to confirm the details...

co-op or smile

First Direct have been fairly good for the year or so I have used them. Every other bank is on my list of companies to hate. That includes Smile, a money grabbing pile of putrid puss that is part of Co-Operative.
And LloydsTSB are a shameful pile of turd also.

Quite why someone like Richard Branson hasn't set up a non profit making ethically correct bank yet is beyond me. The banking sector is clearly in cahoots and deserves to be shown what sort of service customers deserve.

HSBC for me. No problems in 25 years. Never been given any reason to change. On line banking is good enough for me needs, but I have nothing to compare it against.

I always thought Abbey were at the lower end on service 20 years ago

Been with First direct since 1997. They provide a fantastic service!

I'm not even a customer of Santander and I hate them. Had to pop in to help sort out my mum's estate with my dad and all they were interested in was the fact [b]I[/b] didn't have an a/c with them and would I like one. In the end I had to tell him to shut it and just bank the bleedin' cheque.
We're still waiting on the result of the miss selling of an investment they sold to my mum too.
Their financial advisors are muppets.

First direct are good. Uk call centres and good customer service. Not the cheapest products, but for current account they are solid.

HSBC for me. No problems in 25 years. Never been given any reason to change.

I'm with HSBC. My experiences are that the local branch and everyone concerned there is utterly fantastic; unfortunately, any time you have to deal with the Megacorporation call centre side they're a complete shower.

Barclays security can be a bit over-zealous, may be a plus or minus for you. HSBC make international payments very easy (Barclays can be a bit over-zealous again & refuse perfectly legit requests).

Santander are beyond rubbish, I can personally vouch.

I think you might get £100 to join first direct ATM

We should start our own STW bank! Everyone send your money to me and i'll mange it for you

SamCooke - Member

We should start our own STW bank! Everyone send your money to me and i'll mange it for you

As long as you can get the goverement/taxpayer to bail you out like the last lot did if it all goes tits up then sure.Paypal gift ok?

I'm in the process of moving from HSBC to Nationwide. HSBC's charges are outrageous.And that stupid little online banking key generator is an annoying piece of crap. Also have a FirstDirect account and they're ok.

thats it I've been a customer of Abbey / Santander for 20+ years I have just lost it on the phone I used to defend them when people say they are bad at service but know i see i have been dumb to stick with them

Been a customer with them for 20 years (my whole life). Last summer they stuck me for £200 when they allowed a transaction on a cancelled card, something which should never have been allowed to go through.

Naturally, I had a go at the company that tried to take the money as well. Never got the £200 of fees back from either company, despite them both screwing up.

Santander let some scumbag spend over £9700 on my card while I was away in Iceland two years ago. It took about 50 phone calls and weeks (because of their own basic internal clerical ineptitude) to get the money back from what was a straightforward fraud case. When I kicked off (as you would given the circumstances) and asked for compensation for the stress, inconvenience and expense caused they asked for a detailed breakdown of all expenses incurred to the penny and asked for copies of all bills as evidence.

Do not bank with Santander or any of their subsidiaries. Let my experience at least serve as a warning to others. That amount of money should never be allowed to be spent on a card without proper checks (the actual transactions were two plane tickets to Dubai at £4700ish each and a train ticket somewhere in Sweden).

I have no doubt that STWbank would be a safer bet than any Santander group outfit.

I like my smile account very much. I don't see any reason to change and being able to use cooperative branches is lovely.

Have to +1 on all HSBC recommendations.
Good customer service, reasonable charges, great for charge-free ATM access worldwide (depending on the account type) and I have to admit to not finding their online security procedures too difficult to master as most banks use similar methods.

Quite why someone like Richard Branson hasn't set up a non profit making...

The answer is in the question.

...non profit making...

I fell out with Santander (no problems when it was Alliance & Leicester) and we moved to First Direct.

It was a bit of a shock to call them up and be talking to a human in three rings, and another shock to find it was me that ended up attempting to finish the call rather than being passed around the call centre before my 'difficult' query someone how got lost in a hidden hold queue and getting disconnected.
No complaints in the three years or so that we've used them.

Everyone here seems to think that banks provide a service to them. Surely you realise that they own you and the world and are gods amount men so they can do what they want!

As for the compo claim comment, you lose your card/details, cost them nearly £10k then get irate when they ask for a breakdown of your claim. Surely they should have just bunged you £5k for the inconvenience? I assume you'd do the same for any customers of yours? 😉

Thanks for the replies guys
I am going in today to prove who I am !!!! after THEIR cock up and telling them what I think 😡

I've been with RBS since 1993, and they've been excellent throughout. However, they are selling my account to Santander, which I'm not amazingly pleased about. I think I'll be going to the Co-Op, although the palaver of changing accounts really irks me.

Just like an LBS there are good branches and bad for person to person service
My local LLoydsTSB has nice cashiers that smile when I'm either making a deposit or withdrawing (oooh matron!) and that's enough for me.

For phone service you would have thought one of the online banks is geared up best.

Also if it's saving your after have you looked at cutting out the banks and doing peer to peer lending?
You can get a better rate if you take a few more risks.

NatWest seem pretty good.

OK, so the other week their computers all fell over and no-one could get any money, and their former chairman was a total psychopath who nearly brought the country to its knees, but for me personally as a customer they've been OK.

On-line banking is reasonably painless, fraud protection very good (sometimes a bit too good - they declined a payment in a cafe in San Francisco when I could really have done with a cold drink but on balance I prefer it that way), call centre is responsive, and I don't get hit with silly random charges, and yet can go overdrawn if I need to.

Yet another vote for Smile/Co-operative (current account with them for donkey's years) and First Direct - joint account switched recently to them from, you guessed it, SANTANDER. The hardest bit was anything Santander had to do during the switch. My partner has multiple accounts with them - they closed the WRONG ONE despite written instruction (with acc number/sort code) to close the joint account. Utter muppets.

First Direct have been brilliant, mega helpful during the switch.

It was a bit of a shock to call them up and be talking to a human in three rings

This still astonishes me. If they can do it, why can't everyone else? Higher staffing levels needed for sure, but that's a drop in the ocean compared to fines running into hundreds of millions for sharp practices 😉

I was one of the first First Direct customers right back when they started. Since then they have made one (relatively minor) mistake for which they apologised profusely and sorted out very efficiently. That aside, I can't think of a single thing to grumble about - very happy.

I switched to Santander after a myriad of problems with Lloyds. However, I will be switching to my local credit union when they get their internet banking up and running - I already save with them and you can't get a better place for service plus this is more ethical banking.

Another one for HSBC. Have been with them since late 70's when they were Midland Bank. Always very helpful.
Fraudulent activity on my account reported, card stopped immediately, new one received in two days and account reimbursed for the fraudulent amount the next day. Can't fault them.

Another vote for the Co-op here, they even give ME a bonus every year, albeit only £3.26 this year, but i'd rather see every customer get £3 than one CEO get £3 million.

6 years ago, I got done by a fraud on my Barclays account. I was in the UK, the fraud was in Brazil. Took Barclays 6 weeks to sort it out, leaving me with no cash in the meantime.

So, I opened a Co-op account. And promptly failed to do anything with it.

A quick call yesterday tells me the account is empty, but still available to use.

Bye bye Barclays.

As for the compo claim comment, you lose your card/details, cost them nearly £10k then get irate when they ask for a breakdown of your claim. Surely they should have just bunged you £5k for the inconvenience? I assume you'd do the same for any customers of yours?

Apart from the fact I [i]know[/i] I didn't lose my card or details, my card had never left my sight and I never used it in a petrol station / restaurant or any cash machine other than inside a bank; from their general ineptitude and lax security I wouldn't be surprised if it was their end where any breach occurred - yeah why not...

When the money was returned obviously I shifted it to somewhere more credible, not least for the fact that I'd had to make so many phone calls to them that certain members of their call centre probably knew my security info off by heart.

To see if they'd improved their security I later returned a couple of grand to the account and attempted a large (bike related) purchase abroad. No questions asked, transaction went through first time.

When asked later if there was any outcome to the investigation or how it came about they refused to divulge any information, giving a stock reply that 'we can confirm funds were returned to your account on 9th Sept 2010' - they couldn't even get that right, that was the date the money was taken. They eventually refunded my account in the October.

Yep, agree about Santander. Had no end of grief with them after they changed from Abbey National where I had been for around 20 years too. I moved two current accounts, two savings account and our mortgage to other banks/lenders and Santander never even bothered to ask why.
They're going daaahhhhnnn and they deserve every inch of it. Moved to Nationwide actually and have been happy with them, as it goes.
As I'm typing this I'm looking at an ad for Santander over here on the right ===>
How ironic !

+1 - I for one will do a little jig outside their last branch when they do go pop.

Branson did do a bank - the Virgin One Account... mortgage and current account roled into one (now part of RBS). Mine has been beyond excellent for the last 15 years... unfortunatly I had to move it due to a house move and I already miss it.

Clydesdale have been great with the new mortgage but banking with them is an arse due to the person I have to speak to at the branch knowing less about the products they offer than I do... which is scary!

I will consider moving back to the Virgin One Account when I can.