[Closed] totally Ot - Current bank accounts - who do you use and why ?

First Direct - no competition

First Direct - just works, great service all days every day, and when there have been issues they are looked into, resolved and followed up, often with a little cash gift 🙂

I use nationwide as i like a highstreet option if neccesary (how do you pay checks into first direct then?)
anyway the main reson i seem to stick with them is the fact they dont have a massive investment banking arm and I like their online accounts system interface

do folks still use cheques ?

ive used 4 cheques out my cheque book i got with my grown up account aged 18 - used them alot for races - before everything happened with debit cards !

NatWest here - mainly because I've had it for decades, but also because their online banking is pretty good:

- decent security: random letters from a double password + a physical card reader to secure transfers

- nice readable online statements

- ability to go paperless and save a tree.

- text alerts based on balance

- iPhone app for quick balance checks

titusrider - FirstDirect/HSBC are pretty much the same thing so you can pay cheques etc. in at the HSBC branches.

I'm currently with Halifax...purely as they gave me £100 to move to them. I like free cash. I was with Nationwide and FirstDirect before them to get the free cash too 🙂

First Direct here too.

One advantage to my mind is that they *don't* use silly cardreader things so I can use my online banking from wherever I like.

Have only used cheques recently for sending to the council for a parking permit and to get a large amount of cash out of an HSBC branch.

Natwest here because they treat me as a person and I can actually see a person if I need to.

'nother FDer here. Everything just works and you can phone them up and someone answers straight away and [i]fixes the problems[/i]. Amazing...

Intelligent Finance because they do a really good offsetting deal which allows me to offset my savings and ISA against my mortgage interest rate. Also the online system works well.

Halifax, I get £5 per month for free, never had any issues either.

NatWest, only because I've been with them since about 1968 (before they were NatWest) and I'm too idle to change.

One advantage to my mind is that they *don't* use silly cardreader things so I can use my online banking from wherever I like.

NatWest only require the card reader when you are making a payment to a new payee.
You don't need it for other online banking, inter-account transfers or payments to known payees.

So I think it adds a useful layer of protection - even if your main details were somehow compromised the hacker couldn't then transfer any money out.

NatWest only require the card reader when you are making a payment to a new payee.
You don't need it for other online banking, inter-account transfers or payments to known payees.

So I think it adds a useful layer of protection - even if your main details were somehow compromised the hacker couldn't then transfer any money out

To an extent, although making payments to new payees is fairly frequent for me as it's easier than dealing with cash or cheques. Just the other day I did a transfer to someone I've not set up before to pay for a stag do in a couple of months. Paying for secondhand bike bits and the like is easiest that way too, and rather unlikely I've either set them up before or would have the card thing on me.

hsbc. They're ok and I'm too lazy to change 🙂

First Direct for me too.

They've always been really friendly and helpful when I've had to call them and also quick to sort out any issues.

I've been with them for 15 years now and can't think of a single bad word to say about them.

Paying for secondhand bike bits and the like is easiest that way too, and rather unlikely I've either set them up before or would have the card thing on me.

Fair enough, I'm not in the habit of needing to make new bank transfers for secondhand bike bits etc while I'm out and about.

It's not exactly huge if you do need to carry it, about the size of a pocket calculator:
[img] [/img]

Smile. Good but the ****ing pocket calculator security bollocks is annoying.

HSBC through inertia as much as anything, that being said I really do like their online banking - haven't had to call or visit a branch for some time unless paying physical items in like cash or cheques. Also I love the coin counting machine in the branch where I can go in, enter the card, then just pour a hoegarden glasses worth of random coins into my account and they are instantly credited to my account. So actually they aren't that bad after all!

Barclays customer here since I was 13, my dads business account was with them so they just set me up with a savings account which then became my current account, so I've had the same account number for almost 20 years now. I'm also an ex-staff member so still get the staff perks on my account.

Currently with lloyds but getting stiffed by them and fed up with them wanting me to come into a branch under the pretense of a account review just so they can try and sell me house insurance and a pay for account, looking at moving to santander only because they are giving away £100 at the moment.

Recently changed from HSBC to Halifax.

Nothing wrong with HSBC except the rates of interest on current accounts were low.

RBS, 'cos I worked for them many years ago and they've always been okay. Will wait to see what happens with the Santander take over of the branches and accounts. May go FD then.

NatWest - they seem to treat me well.

Barclays: Because their online banking is excellent and we have half a dozen accounts we can use for free. I also have a free £1k overdraft on each of the current accounts which is handy because I keep balances as low as possible so that they dont make any money out of me. It costs them money to run current accounts with virtually no money in them, but they screwed me over on a mortgage smallprint issue so I now keep my savings, ISAs etc somewhere else and just leave them with the expensive products to manage.

Nationwide Flex Account - I switched to NW as it offered free cash from ATMs anywhere in the world and I was heading off on a RTW trip. They don't do that anymore, but NW have always been helpful and easy to use so I've stuck with them. I do get free travel insuarance with the account, owt for nowt makes me happy 🙂

hsbc. They're ok and I'm too lazy to change

That. Plus their on-line stuff is way better than others I've tried. We've got the joint with Natwest and their on-line banking is too fiddly

Banesto coz they used to sponsor a cycling team and currently use Rafa Nadal in their advertising, if it's good enough for Rafa, it's good enough for me.

Lloyds - their "vantage" account pays 4% (gross) interest if you've got > £5K and is instant access. Lovely jubbly.

Smile here too. Because I can't be bothered finding a branch these days with most closing near me.

Natwest - Worse than useless for me. Threatened to sue them when they screwed up my overdraft... TWICE! They coughed up all consequential costs... including my £9 per letter/phone call "administrative costs".

Refuse to accept my letters for change of address "because it's an overseas address" and "they don't have my signature on file" WTF!? 🙄 (the address on file is another overseas address and they had no issue when I moved there!!!). So I emptied the a/c and put a block on mail being sent.

A+L/Santander - No issues.

Dutch and German a/c - No issues.

RBS. Mainly because my parents used them so I opened my first account there about 15 years ago.

And I cannot change at the moment as I have interest free graduate overdraft for another year and a half. (Mind you, I don't actually use it)

But what I like about them is summed up by GrahamS. Their online banking is streets ahead of Santander or BOS which I've also used.
The card reader can be a bit inconvenient mind you.

HSBC all the way, excellent web interface, no stupid calculator thing for entering your pin. cash transfers in 2hrs not 3/4 days - streets ahead of Abbey National who are awful.

If HSBC leave the UK I will move to Barclays

After many hassle free years with Barclays I switched to A&L/Santander on the advice of my beloved (and with a little cash incentive).

Who promptly **** up everything they do, everytime without fail.

I'm a Scottish Natwest customer about to be offloaded to Santander (Natwest have to sell all their branches in England).

I've heard bad things about Santander 🙁

I've never had a problem with Natwest (well not ones that weren't self inflicted student stupidity) and I'm toying with the idea of having my branch relocated to somewhere in England so that I can stay with them. I have a RBS business account which is OK.

I'm a Scottish Natwest customer about to be offloaded to Santander (Natwest have to sell all their branches in England).

Wassat? Not heard anything about this (for historical reasons I have my personal NatWest account at a branch in Glasgow and our joint account at a branch near Manchester)

btw, you'll notice people are very reluctant to change their banks. this is why they were always so keen to throw cash and HMV vouchers at students to get them to open accounts - people open them at 19 and then keep them for the next sixty years until they die.

interestingly (!) in Australia there's been a proposal that people's bank account numbers etc should "port" in the same way as phone numbers so that switching is easier. Not sure how that would work with bank/sort codes, come to think of it...

PS RBS International in Jersey? Utter, utter morons. Avoid at all costs. Incapable of correctly executing simple instructions even when provided in writing to them months in advance, just like they ask.

GrahamS - http://natwestbranchinformation.com/?DCMP=ILC-PersHPDivestTxt

Although I've just remembered that some of the Edinburgh branch staff are morons. They set me up with an appointment for their business manager. When I turned up, a week after I'd made the appointment, they informed me that the chap had left the bank 2 months previously!

RBS is Natwest to all intents and purposes though, so if I don't keep my branch in Englandshire, I'll move to RBS.

I'm looking to change from Santander...changed to them about five years and managed to get about £200 out of them by opening an account, then referring my other half, and then referring the joint account 🙂 But once the honeymoon period finished, the interest rates don't seem that good, and they hit you with the 50p flat overdraft rate per day which adds up fast. Final straw was after making a large purchase, an anti fraud computer started calling all our numbers on file for several hours into the evening, prompting us to enter various security details. In the end they threatened to block the account until we phoned them.

I was with Cahoot (Abbey National), who were then bought by Santander. The service went from good to awful, as soon as they moved my account to the Santander systems. An online only account where the website is down 50% of the times you try to log on is pants.
I'm with First Direct now, good service and no "press 1 for xxx, 2 for yyy, ..." nonsense.

+1 for First Direct. I've been with them since 1995 and I can't recall them having ever made a mistake or levying unfair charges on me in the whole of that time.

im with lloyds and i hate them, im just too lazy to change, which is what they want i guess
reasons
always trying to sell me 'upgrades' to my account

going abroad is a nightmare even if i notify them sometimes they block my card

try to arrange change of date of their charges about 5 times, ie instead of levvying them at the end of the month at the beginning, every time i ask they say sure and everytime it never happens?!?

when we got a mortgage with someone else they were as infuriatingly unhelpfull

infact im off to the 1st direct website if people like them that much

Halifax; as someone mentioned earlier they give you a fiver a month. Also have a Halifax Mastercard as it also pays a fiver a month if you put £300/month on it - I spend that on fuel alone.

But this will all change when I pick up my P45 when the school summer holidays start and I join the ranks of jobless Scottish teachers.

Used to be with Coutts... but it just got too costly and they only wanted very rich people.
Now Lloyds TSB (adequate) and Nationwide (quite good)

For work we use HSBC (quite good) because Barclays were awful 👿

Barclays, been with then for 20 odd years and never had a problem with them. Online service is excellent, account is free, have a free £2k overdraft with them (not that I ever use it).

If anyone changes then go via a cashback site - £££ to be had as banks want your custom.

HSBC - I have been with them for 20 plus years. I have never had any problems whatsoever, their staff are helpful, respectful and I trust them. They have provided me very competitive "off tariff" personal loans, to the point I could have simply put the money in a savings account and made money.

I see no reason to change for quick incentive, knowing I then have no relationship history with my new bank. The branch staff do not know me personally, but once I provide my account details then their customer segmentation kicks in and I am made to feel like a highly valued customer.

Compare this with Nationwide whom I have had my Mortgage with for 10 years continuously, never defaulted etc etc and every time I go into my local branch I am treated like a leper. They are also difficult to do business with - you need to write to head office, I need all your details again to open that account, the next time you can see a mortgage advisor on a Saturday is in 6 weeks time, but you keep writing to me telling me to come in and speak to someone at my local branch. 20 years behind in CRM IMO.

Barclays. Natwest made one annoying mistake too many, and Lloyds weren't very helpful when I went back to being a student for a year. Barclays haven't messed anything up yet.

right - paperwork came through for first direct yesterday

reading the T&Cs and whatnots ...

seems they charge for transferring money. 25 quid - even for an internet transaction .... paperwork makes no referance to any different kind of transfer (bacs , chaps , faster payment) just says transfers ....

my current ISA is with nationwide - thus id be wanting to transfer money ....

charging to transfer just seems like a way of keeping your money there.

if thats the case i wont be moving to them !

I believe it's just for CHAPS (ie. guaranteed same day) transfers, which are quite labour-intensive.

I've never been charged for regular BACS transfers, and these days with the faster payments system, I find most go through same day anyway.