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.