Are you happy with your bank?

I think most people are saying that the banks are as bad as each other and there is no difference between them so in service or interest rates

My gripes -

1) Why does it take so long for payments to clear?

2)Why are savers interest rates so low, and why are they dropped the moment you open a new saving account? I opened a 3.5%-paying instant access account about 3 months ago and they've already dropped the rate twice.

Not sure who ordered or even conducted this survey because as a small saver I am definitely NOT happy with the banks,there is still no balance between interest paid for loans and interest paid to savers,until this is rectified our economy will continue to struggle and the banks will still be considered "vampires"by very many people,myself included.

I bank at Barclays and must say i'm happy with them i was proud they weren't one of the banks to go under and they turned a profit this year so good on them.

I bank with First Direct. They provide a really good service and I wouldn't consider changing to another bank.

My recent experience of banks has shown them to have inflexible, impossible systems that (usually willing and friendly staff) are unable to make work. It's poor management and centralised systems that are the norm.
People do not change banks often as: 1) any (even simple) changes evolve into Herculean tasks and seem to take months of phone calls and visits to resolve and 2) all banks treat their 'customers' with equal contempt, so their is usually no net advantage to counterbalance the trauma inevitably involved in getting banks to actually do anything beyond take your money.
They have a captive market (we all need a bank account) and seem to have developed a culture of poor customer service as a result.

This poll about customer satisfaction about banks was carried out for the BBC by the ICM - The Institute for Credit Management??!!!

Can we assume, from looking at the ICM website, that they may not be impartial? How were the questions phrased - in that the ICM are NOT a consumer-led organisation either?

I would be interested to know why the BBC commissioned the ICM to poll and how much it cost the BBC to do so? If the public-funded BBC have confidence in ICM's impartiality, then certainly the ICM should be required to publish it's methodology in the public domain on the BBC?

This whole area of collaboration of the BBC, with ICM, seems rather ... ... confusing at best and particularly 'misleading' at worst? Hmmm?

It is only simple inertia that keeps me with my Bank. Almost every time I have contact with their 'Services' I feel either disappointed or angry. In the last week I have received a letter telling me that I can no longer use the ATM for paying Bills. I must either go into the Branch, or go online. The Branch has inconvenient hours and the on-line service is not proven to be secure.
I recently wanted to transfer a moderate sum of money between Banks, I had the choice of 1. waiting for up to 10 days. 2. Paying £40 for an electronic transfer , or. 3. Withdrawing the sum in cash and walking it to the other Bank 30 mtrs. away. In 1968 when I worked for Lloyds Bank there was local clearing, with transactions in the same town being carried out in 24 hours. Such is progress.
The same day I purchased an item from a country 8000 miles away, paid electronically, at no extra charge, and received the goods in 2 days. Until Banking moves into the 20th Century (the 21st is too much to expect)I will use them less.
For the money transfer I took choice 3. but whilst I was at it I moved ALL of the money in the account to the other Bank, in cash, no fees, and permanently.

There's no way I'm happy with mine - HSBC.

The customer service is atrocious. You can never speak to someone who can sort out your problem, and the representatives never have the phone number of anyone else in the whole bank. They often have poor English, and usually call me Mr David, or occasionally Mr Nathaniel (middle name).

The bank also continually charges me for going over my limit. I haven't gone over by as much as twenty pounds, it's usually ten or so. TEN POUNDS and they charge you £27!

That's kicking when I'm down. Now, one of my colleagues wants to go into banking and I told him he ought to think about doing something more useful. He said that the banks aren't evil, so I retorted they most definitely are. He said, "you wouldn't say that if you saw the money you could earn". That's it isn't it?! The banks are run by pure greed - some of the worst examples of humanity.

Happy with my bank, no. Even if your income is only pension the government says you must have a bank account. The banks having talked the government into the present system but don't want customers who spend most of their money every week and make it fairly obvious we are not wanted if we do not invest in ISA's and use their insurance. The nearest cash machine charges to get MY money out of the bank. Could I please be paid in cash so I know what I have got and spend accordingly. I do not want to deal with banks.

I am happy with my current account because I do not do anything to attract any/extra charges. However, savings accounts are a pain in the proverbial these days, as it seems necessary to keep "account hopping" to get any interest at all.

Co-Op bank. Down to Earth bank, top marks every time!

No, they charge way too much and the services in the banks themselves are poor. I am not going to name banks because in truth they are all the same. Mine charged me £25 to pay off my mortgage. You what, this is my money, the transfer was digital and if I could have done it online I would have, but the number was too large you see so they wanted to charge me to come into a bank, wait in line to use MY MONEY... Money I might point out that they make a lot of money on every single day and they give me a pittance.

Just one example. I have read some of the posts here and I have to say that people are really blinkered to the charges that are made for you to bank and we have no choice but to bank. There was a time I was paid in cash and I paid my bills in cash and I incurred no cost for it. Happy with my bank NO, will I change? NO, why? Because they are all pinstriped muggers who reach into my pocket at every chance they get.

I have had my account with the same bank for 44 years and, beyond the occasional mistakes through human error, have been satisfied with the standards of service and care given.

Yes, the rate of interest applied is appallingly low, and it still takes cheques drawn by triple-A payers four or five days to clear, but the monthly statements usually arrive on time and are well presented and, having had a career in the same bank for more than 30 years, I know very well that none of the other banks can match it.

I strongly suspect that those who are critical of service and charges are the very people who cause banks most headaches, ie customers who go into the red or exceed their limit without prior arrangement. They are the very people who should not have a bank account until they can begin to understand basic finance.

It appears that every Tom, Dick and Harry wants a bank account irrespective of their credit rating. There was a time when the branch manager would not countenance an application without two referees to support it; maybe we should return to those days, clear out the dross and begin afresh.

I bet I could find 896 "happy" customers too,you only asked 1000 people.
Not changing accounts is not an indication of satisfaction only the fact that most people realise the Banks are a cartel. There is little difference between them.
The hassle of moving accounts (as most banks have appalling admin)puts people off,so they may as well stay put.Try publicising the Complaints figures and the massive increase in recent years. it puts Lloydsa and bvarclays well in the lead.Only HSBC(the biggest) has a relatively low complaint rate.

Nationwide ran had a advertising campaign sometime ago claiming their current account paid 10x the interest than other banks. It wasn't long before they dropped interest on their current account, so I see that more of a gimmick and I'm not impressed with them one bit.

Customer facing bank employees are generally as courteous and professional as you would hope.
What I cannot understand is why there is the lack of genuine competition between banks - it's a private cartel - they all charge excessively for mortgages, loans and any 'admin' functions whilst paying abysmal rates on deposits.I am particularly confused as to why a bank such as The Nationwide is unable to set the pace given that it does not have the shareholder excuse.
Any seemingly competitive rates appear to be cynical short term marketing ploys to lure customers into changing accounts before reverting to 'standard' rates.This is money for old rope at the expense of long suffering customers - any muppet could run a business along these lines and make a handsome profit.
It's ironic that banks and financial institutions are in a position to judge the effectiveness of other businesses when they are so uncompetitive and still deploy such anachronistic processes for payment and fund clearing - a cynic might be tempted to think that it's suits them to do so.
High time for radical change in the structure of all aspects of banking
with far more emphasis being placed on the protection of customers and value for money - they have to sort out the rotten bonus culture.

Been with the same bank since 1992 so I guess that means I'm happy with them. I've looked at others but there's not much to choose from to be honest, they are all much of a muchness.

One thing I can't understand - and it seem's to apply to all banks - is that if I want to transfer some money to my account in Spain to pay my bills associated with my holiday home the transfer charge is huge, even wnen it's the same bank. It takes ages to get there as well. Bearing in mind it's simply an electronic transfer why is it so costly and take's so long?


The bank that cuts that cost and time is the only one I would consider changing to and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way.

I am rather surprised with the result of this survey. We have had constant problems with our Bank, due to human errors, loosing financial transfer documents for investments, refusing to honour a cheque when the account has more than 10 times the value of the cheque in the account.

Customer service of the Banks is currently terrible. It is virtually impossible to telephone your Bank. Even their own staff complain about the inability to communicate within the Bank structure.

Banks have become remote to their customers. They are wasteful; sending my wife and I copies of each part of of our account and investments in the Bank in separate envelopes each month when all the information could be placed on a single sheet and sent in a single envelope. This is wasting millions of pounds.

Retail and investment Banking need to be separated. Perhaps then Banks would provide a proper service and and work with and assist their customers, whose money is in their accounts.

The result of this survey is very misleading.

My bank (Lloyds) has served me well for 25 years and I have no need to change. Customer Service is good and, unlike some complainers on this blog, I am charged nothing for running my account because I have always ensured that I live within my means (I know, a rarity these days) and so do not get charged fees.

My only concern with Lloyds is their stupidity in buying HBOS, although I have a hunch it was done as a "favour" to the Government rather than as a rational business decision.

I have had accounts with various banks over the past 35 years and I have never experienced a problem with any of them but then I have never gone overdrawn.

I think the problems start when people believe they can spend more money than they have in their account and then take umbrage when they are quite rightly charged for doing so.

Online banking should only be used as an extra to how you access your money.

As our banks/credit card companies move their operations abroad to increase margins for shareholders - there is a security downside. Foreign call centres are based in countries not subject to strict data protection laws about you and your account as in UK?

Banking is global, but not all security is equal. The moral is - DO NOT put access to ALL YOUR money in an online banking basket - especially if your server goes down or there is a cyber criminal attack on your bank?

I am perfectly happy with my bank. I've been with it since 1980.

All honest interest rates are low thanks to the appallingly low base rate. If they aren't you're either on a hook rate or with a bank that charges exorbitant lending rates; or you have a longer term investment account (if you played your cards right a couple of years ago you might have had a capital protected investment account betting on the FTSE index. You'd have done well!)

The point is the banks cannot and do not give a free service. This is why I can't understand Brown's idea of "bank accounts for all". A little of your money will somehow go to providing this service, a middle-man if you like. Many of us are prepared to pay the small amount for the service: for most it will be indirect (eg in lower interest rates). It wasn't so long ago that banks charged quarterly to service your current account. But in those days you were rarely charged for a small overdraft. You received a letter along the lines of "In case you had anticipated credit, we would like to inform you....(etc)"

People in general are quite satisfied with their bank, as with the arrival of on line banking, there's no hassles with queues at counters and fewer issues with cheques. The biggest bug-bear is when the website goes down, something that I have experienced only extremely rarely with my bank - Nationwide.

Perhaps the 10% who are dis-satisfied are those that can't manage their accounts properly, and wind up paying heavy overdraft penalties - which frankly is their fault, not the banks.

Ask most people about "bankers" however, and their opinions would be much different. Their apologist, Angela Knight simply doesn't understand just how low their (the bankers) image actually is in public eyes.

Billythefirst

The banks are required by law to act as a cartel; if any of them break ranks the FSA comes down on them like the proverbial ton of bricks for "uncompetitive behaviour"! You really couldn't make it up.

We should have two banking sectors; one regulated as at present and charging high while paying low, and one unregulated but strictly at the customers' risk. You'll get a better rate but take more risks. The rule used to be that foreign banks were the unregulated sector, but Brown and Darling felt the need to control everything and did more harm than they understand yet.

Banks in France generally rip you off, as in most countries I suppose but I have for many years been with LA BANQUE POSTALE which is the bank side of the post office - they are cheaper than the other banks for most run-of-the-mill transactions and the advantage is that you have post offices wherever you go which cannot be said for other banks - also, all correspondence with them is entirely free. On a general note where there is great room for improvement is sending money between different countries - this operation is FAR TOO EXPENSIVE in relation to the service rendered, and it is time that the customers using this type of service gave the banks a shake by the scruff of their necks. Would you believe that when you send money from England to France, part of it is nicked not only by your receiving bank but also by the Banque de France, which is totally inadmissible. My wife who is Mexican and has account in HBSC Mexico went into a HSBC in France and enquired about transferring money from one country to the other and not one employee could help us so we just gave up. So much for HSBC being the "local bank of the world" !

First Direct are THE best telephone banking ever. OUTSTANDING customer service - straight through to person - working in, and caring about THEIR jobs in Britain and paying British taxes. Amazing!

First Direct offer loads of services over the 'phone - from paying bills to buying shares right here in UK. Fully covered by the data protection act and available 24/7 and never try and flog you an insurance policy.

8. At 11:09am on 02 Apr 2010, barryp wrote:
It is only simple inertia that keeps me with my Bank. Almost every time I have contact with their 'Services' I feel either disappointed or angry. In the last week I have received a letter telling me that I can no longer use the ATM for paying Bills. I must either go into the Branch, or go online. The Branch has inconvenient hours and the on-line service is not proven to be secure.
I recently wanted to transfer a moderate sum of money between Banks, I had the choice of 1. waiting for up to 10 days. 2. Paying £40 for an electronic transfer , or. 3. Withdrawing the sum in cash and walking it to the other Bank 30 mtrs. away. In 1968 when I worked for Lloyds Bank there was local clearing, with transactions in the same town being carried out in 24 hours. Such is progress.
The same day I purchased an item from a country 8000 miles away, paid electronically, at no extra charge, and received the goods in 2 days. Until Banking moves into the 20th Century (the 21st is too much to expect)I will use them less.
For the money transfer I took choice 3. but whilst I was at it I moved ALL of the money in the account to the other Bank, in cash, no fees, and permanently.

Oh dear. Sorry to hear this. You must be with Auntie Kitty's Prosper and Loan Savings Bank or something. The fast on-line clearing service has been hooked between banks in the clearing system for some time. Some small banks aren't and "piggy-back" off a mejor bank whereon the clearing process takes several days.

If your bank's on-line system is insecure then write to their CEO with your suspicions and revert to cheques. Banks DO take this issue seriously. Cross border electronic payments are no more secure than most banks but I think you'll find a lot of fraud stems from the use of credit cards on line.

Hope you can find somewhere better to get the service you want.

Distinctly unhappy on 3 counts:

1) My personal bank, NatWest, want to provide less and less service whilst making huge margins on my savings

2) My business bank, Clydesdale, are hell bent on recalling business loans from all their customers to save themselves from administration

3) In the background the arrogant incompetents who purport to run the banks pay themselves huge bonuses whilst sneering at the rest of us with utter contempt (which I now reciprocate).

#4 JonD wrote:
I bank at Barclays and must say i'm happy with them i was proud they weren't one of the banks to go under and they turned a profit this year so good on them.


You're proud of your bank? SAD!

I not only quit my bank but I changed countries. I could complian for hours about this bank but it got to the point where I became faceless, nameless, just an account number. World's local bank - my eye.

I have had a current account with Lloyds ever since I was old enough to earn money, and have never had cause for complaint. The problem is my ISA, at present with a Building Society. It pays peanuts but there is no point moving it as I'll get no more elsewhere. The interest used to supplement my tiny pension but gone are those days.

I really think that banks are doing very little to improve themselves. I note that they are still ripping savers off on their ISAs and creating delays if you want to transfer. All in all if we were in the Euro them I could transfer my money to a bank on the Continent where I would get a better return. I llok forward to tyhe day when we are in the Euro.

Unlike the bank directors, I have worked hard all my life to save for my retirement. I have my savings in the bank and they are earning next to nothing and are in reality going down in value. At the same time the banks are making a fortune and none of this is shown in the interest on my savings. Just how is it that we put in the money that is needed on the international market for investments and the only people who seem to benefit are the greedy banks. Even the shares I have in the bank seem to be stagnant. The bankers are giving them selves millions in bonuses yet we get nothing. No I am not happy with any of the banks so that is why I don’t bother changing my bank.

17. At 11:29am on 02 Apr 2010, Billythefirst wrote:
It's ironic that banks and financial institutions are in a position to judge the effectiveness of other businesses when they are so uncompetitive and still deploy such anachronistic processes for payment and fund clearing - a cynic might be tempted to think that it's suits them to do so.

It's how the system evolved. Remember, interbank systems depend on absolute standardisation across banks, have to be intensely secure and 100% functional/accurate. The system has to deal with many types of payment and special instructions.
There's none of this present day sloppy "system testing" where a piece of gash software is put out known to be bug-ridden and dealing with patches as the need arises; turning the users into the real integration testers. Nope, it has to be perfect from day 1. And all data and transfers have to be backed up and logged. The recovery system alone would make your mind boggle!

Before all this, cheques were sent to the respective London clearing rooms and were taken on foot to the paying bank to clear: it was called the London Walks - with some banks the London Walks were still in use until about 1990!

I bank at a very famous Mutual. I hever have had any problems what so ever. I once had a bank account with a share holding Bank and got rid of it because of the number of errors they made and their call centre was applauing. If I ever get bad service from any big company then I change it very quickly.

I've been with my bank for 45 years, apart from the odd slip up - not my fault - they've always put right and come good. I won't be changing banks just yet.

Well, I'd be happier if a National Giro Bank was re-launched, giving people the opportunity to bank with an organisation that wasn't interested in lining the pockets of private shareholders and was designed for the real benefit of its customers.

Im with Halifax and have only a cardcash card, cant get a debit card, i only have an account for one to have wages go in, and one direct debit, and then all the rest of the money comes right back out...I would love to be paid in cash,banks really do mean nothing to me...cant be bothered with them.

14. At 11:27am on 02 Apr 2010, milvusvestal wrote:
....I strongly suspect that those who are critical of service and charges are the very people who cause banks most headaches, ie customers who go into the red or exceed their limit without prior arrangement. They are the very people who should not have a bank account until they can begin to understand basic finance.

It appears that every Tom, Dick and Harry wants a bank account irrespective of their credit rating. There was a time when the branch manager would not countenance an application without two referees to support it; maybe we should return to those days, clear out the dross and begin afresh.

Agreed 100%. But I suppose it was the greed of the banks, dribbling at the thought of snaring all the "unbanked" in the country - there was this hoo-hah in the late 1980s about "think how much money we could make if we could join all these people up." So they must lie on the bed they made.

Before that, one needed an introduction to open a current account. Before the cheque guarantee card, a cheque-book was the nearest most people got to printing their own money. Banks were entitled to enquire into the respectability of their potential customers.

UK banking is the biggest cartel going. Our EU customers cannot understand why we tolerate their ways.

Yes, Banks generally do a good job. I agree with some other comments that it should take too long for money to be transferred between accounts, it often takes 3 to 5 days to transfer money from one bank to another, and in that time the money is in neither of my accounts. Given the electronic age we live in it should take hours not days to transfer the money.
Interest rates are too low, but that's because borrowers are paying ridiculously low rates on their borrowings.
I suspect the people who will think they get a bad deal from the banks are borrowers, but to be fair to the banks the borrowers don't have to borrow money. Some of the borrowers really should try and live within their means and save for items rather than buy on credit. I have no sympathy for people who moan about the credit card interest rates. If you use a credit card just pay back the full amount, and don't buy items youi can not afford. I don't.

i am not happy with ANY bank.

at a time when the public are being pushed into using them, wether we want to or not, the charges they are imposing on us are no reflection of what the individual has cost them

each bank charge is made up of an estimate of what money the bank will lose that year divided by its number of customers, which then equals the amount of money they will recover in bank charges.
this leaves an individual who may go overdrawn once all year without prior arrangement, paying a charge that does not reflect the actual cost.
this kind of profiteering is unenforceable under common law in england and wales.. what are the watchdogs doing about it? nothing!
its left to the individual to bring an action against them in a magistrates court. disgraceful!

then we have the blatent discrimination which each customer is facing.
two people living next door to each other - both want to borrow £5000 - person A is charged 5% interest rate on their loan, person B is charged 7.5% interest on their loan
all because of a credit rating system that discriminates against person B as they live with their parents whereas person A owns their own house.
a simple yes or no to the loan should be applicable to both people - if both are given the loan, it should be at the same interest rate/cost to the customer.

to be fair, its not just banks who are operating like this, it is the same in insurance, etc, once again the quangos in place to stop this happening are turning a blind eye to it all.

banks make vast profits, they only operate under the rules set by government, it is those rules that are failing or not being used to protect us.
when banks get it wrong, its the taxpayer/customer who has to pay - this is what happens when the government show bias towards the banks, taking away other options for managing money from the public, and the individuals are left with empty promises and no action to help them out.

One of the major issues with banking in general seems to be the paltry interest rates for savers (these tend to follow the interest rate increase/decrease).

The cost of mortgages and loans on the other hand has not come down with interest rate decreases. In fact on loans they have gone up recently despite the lower interest rate.

A case of hitting both borrowers and savers hard. And given the bailouts as well, no wonder there is deep dissatisfaction with banking in general, even if people are fine with their individual bank.

Despite some horrendous stories about my bank and their managers in the past few years,I'd have to say that the core thing they do,personal banking,in my experience is done very well and I am very satisfied with the service. Staff are very polite,cheerful and well organised. Even when a mistake was made [partly my fault],they got right on to it and sorted it out immediately. Less impressed with my credit card company which desperately needs some improvement from the continual obfuscation about charging though.

Actually pretty pleased with both Lloyds TSB and HSBC's (banks I use) customer service and facilities. Staff are typically friendly in my branches, online services are secure and easy-to-use, plenty of branches.

Really got nothing to complain about here.

We are forced to use the banks, so it is no wonder the level of service they provide is shocking. (Spot the similarities to your local councils & goverment)

Why don't we all cancel our direct debits, start withdrawing all our pay as soon as it clears leaving only the minimum amount in our current accounts? You can pay all bills etc at the post office or corner shop by cash.

Let's take control of OUR Money again..

"My bank was barclays they are worst than useless I was a customers for over 30 years, and because I was away on holiday my account when over drawed by £3.56 they charge me £24 the money to more than cover this amount was delay by a postel strike? But the person in the bank would not budge, So I closed my account !!! Now with a credit union the best move I ever made , Barclays my first branch {closed Down to increase profit some years ago was a good bank}, the staff were the best With my money on deposit. I was on first name terms with most of the staff. All Barclays care about now ,so people tell me ,is extra profit for share holders . They staff are treated like robots.Closed down any branch when they feel like? useless service to customers today.

I am not happy with my Bank, I find having a Bank Account very inconvient, I never wanted a Bank Account, I was given an option by my Cowboy Employer back in the 80's - open one or be sacked.
I managed perfectly well for years with cash, why Thatcher took my right to paid in cash I don't know, it certainly hasn't benefited me, but then employees rights were never high on her agenda.
I dont use direct debits,and would advise anyone against using them. Pay bills in cash, gives greater control. I pay them when I want to not when they decide to help themselves.
Thanks to Thatcher every woking person must now hand over their wages to these parsites. It's a sad state of affairs.

I'm largely happy with my bank but I did change to a new one a couple of years ago. I had an account with a small bank (not a major high st name) which I opened 20 years ago, they've always served me well but they have closed several branches and cut their opening hours so if I actually had to go into a branch, it pretty much involved taking half a day off work.

I opened an account with a building society instead and that now handles my day-to-day banking. The disadvantage at the time was that the new bank doesn't provide a cheque book with the account, so I kept the old account open because that does provide cheques. I rarely use them, but just occasionally it's handy to pay something by cheque. My new bank opens on Saturday which is a life-saver for me as I can't easily get to a branch during the week.

My only gripe is the ridiculously low interest rate on savings, but that is the same everywhere so it wouldn't be a gripe aimed only at my bank.

My current account is now called "the product", and the guy whose personal assistant keeps ringing me is my "Relationship Manager". Do these people not realise how false this jargon sounds?
The last time I met a bank manager was 1995: within two minutes, I found myself alone with the oleaginous branch pension adviser. Twenty minutes later, I had committed £500 a month to a stock-market linked private pension scheme. Ten years later the scheme came to maturity - my £60,000 investment had become £31,000, thanks to those city gangsters in their rapacious red braces.

As Usual Lies, damn lies and statistics. Most people would switch if there was a decent alternative. But like all cartels it's a fix. The banks always win. They charge up to 29% interest on credit cards and only give .08% interest on the money We've lent to them by way of our savings. Talk about legalised loan sharks!! The so called high interest accounts ar fakes, by the time you've paid in a grand a month you only get the high rate on £2500 and nothing on the rest and you pay a fee for the privilage, which waters down the interest rate!

All the banks are bad group think cartel all the same experience fool them customers will never notice system and it is true most people do not notice they have been fooled. So why would any one switch, why complain

Britain is conditioned to see being fleeced as some sort of good deal - serf mentality.

looks like a helping hand "again" for poor old nu-Labour from the BBC to me! I ask this... What sort of people did you poll? It must have been Sir Fred Goodwin family! I know they did not ask me! Hows this, i asked my bank NATWEST and BT to stop a D/D last week and they both confirmed they had "Ha" Today that D/D has gone through my bank account - nice one eh! Did you also ask the public in this poll how much each TAX PAYING FAMILY in this country were paying for the "bank bail-out" per week?? I THINK NOT!!! One more thing - watch out some debit card transactions some are NOT debited to you account for up to 2/4 days after you buy something even though your told the cash has gone stright out of your account! So stay in the black or you will be hit for SIX by our be-loved banks "HA" "OH PLEASE" What sheep!

NO of course I am not happy about being ripped off!!! Disgusting interest rates so that the top men can have millions in bonus's.

Looked at the ICM website - The Institute for Credit Management. Why would the public-funded BBC commission a poll on banking customers' satisfaction from an organisation for bankers?

Perhaps the BBC should publish the methodology, paid for by us, from the ICM poll? If this poll is not biased and/or consumer-led - then there is NO commercial 'sensitivity' is there - BBC?

@49 Jack I could not agree with you more. I think there is an agenda to scrap cash.

By using cards and direct debit they know exactly what someone has bought, where and when. So we are not allowed privacy while we haven't a clue about the state of the bank's books. Never mind all the questions we get asked in order to open an account! Usery is a mild word for banks.

If they do try to scrap cash, banks will be drive people like us to use cash "underground", between ourselves. Or we could always trade oranges for apples and in my view we would end up with far more control over our lives.

Also agree with #51. my so called relation officer has actually lost me money. I am seriously looking to locking my money in a safe somewhere.

Until savings rates reflect bank profits then savings in banks will go further down, which, of course leads to more bank borrowing to compensate for loss of income. Vicious cycle? Well, every penny of your wages paid directly into your account has already been calculated as a 'spot' to be gambled on sophisticated market computer programs.

Therefore, no incentive for banks to offer decent savings - not enough commission. Another vicious cycle on UK economy as a whole?

Investment arms of all banks MUST be separated from consumer banking or this spiral will continue?

BBC, you missed out the important question on savings!

You will find the vast majority are unhappy and feel ripped off.

friendlyonewhocares wrote:
Not sure who ordered or even conducted this survey because as a small saver I am definitely NOT happy with the banks,there is still no balance between interest paid for loans and interest paid to savers,until this is rectified our economy will continue to struggle and the banks will still be considered "vampires"by very many people,myself included.

I have to agree in total with "Friendly". and because of this am NOT happy with any UK bank. Even the "new" ISA rates are abysmal.

I'm currently in a dispute with my bank because they mishandled an attempt to pay my credit card bill. Once that is resolved I will be very tempted to move my account. However, that means that I will potentially lose points in any credit check because I will not have been with my new bank for very long. I sometimes need a credit check for work so it's not a trivial matter.

Is this another April fools joke!

I no longer deal with the big banks, local building societies are the way to go until the Government force them to change.And for everyday living cash works fine.

Do you want to make RBS quake ??? go down give them the required notice to close your accounts and ask for the balance in cash.They havent got it,they would be on their knees if enough people did it as would any of our major high street banks that have been allowed to gamble away there balance sheet (laughable name)

The competence of banks worries me - particularly the HBOS group. Banks used to treat people as individuals and base their lending on that. I have banks that are happy to bombard me with offers to save or buy their insurance but reluctant to lend me money - even to pay off one of their loans that is at a higher rate!

I have checked my Experion report. The traffic light ratings are as green as grass. I have quite a bit of outstanding credit but equally I have more than adequate funds that do not show on the report. The history shows in my lifetime I have had about 50 differnt credit arrangements, all cleared, yet my overall rating is low.
In practice, I have proved throughout my life to be a good customer who always pays their debts - but we all have choice...

Someone mentioned First Direct. I used to bank with them and rated their service highly. They refused me a mortgage to replace my existing one (no extra borrowing). I inherited a decent sum of money. When I paid the cheque in they asked if I wanted to talk to someone about investing the money. I said "No thank you. I'd like you to transfer that money to this other bank and close my account please". I can't tell you what a great feeling that was!

First, I'm skipping yopur querstions because I'm Canadian.
Regarding the UK 92% of bank account holders had not changed their banks in the past two years; 93% of those people were happy with their service.
How would the average person know the condition of his/her bank. As long as their little dealings are going through like clock-work, why would they be unhappy?
I repeat your own remark: “Half of those who had stayed thought all bank accounts were the same.”
Switching is not easy, and the customer would have to be extraordinarily dissasified to undertake the mission: There are cheques to consider, online banking accounts, direct deposit, line of credit and more. It’s a lot of work to change banks, and lots of room for error.
How do customers keep "properly informed” and “manage their accounts”? Does the OFT think most people have the proper financial background, or that they spend their idle hours analyzing banking performance?
The silent majority will be happy if and until their bank collapses; they are not likely to see the signs of collapse.
The OFT is mistaken. People will not switch and thereby make the banking industry competitive because they average person does not study the value for money of various banks. If the OFT wants banks to be competitive, they need to make switching the responsibility of the transferring-in bank, which would be expected to transfer in all the financial accounts currently being used by the new customer. This means the customer walks in to the new bank, signs a piece of paper authorizing transfer, and then the receiving bank takes over, accomplishes the transfering so expeditiously that not even a direct deposit gets delayed and the fee is competitive or free.

For me to be happy with a bank they would have to pay me interests. Thanks to Gordon, Mervyn and their banker cronies, there is no scope for happiness.

If I were the BBC I would change the firm that does the surveys.

I bank with Barclays and am happy with them - because on the one time I had a problem I was compensated to 50% of the deposited amount in question, as the screwup would have opened me up to OD and charges. Also their fast payment scheme is straightforward and I can pay in and get out, without a problem.

Nationwide on the other hand, I am waiting for Tuesday so I can see the ISA interest paid online and then go into the branch to close it down - they have had a campaign of consistently bad service aimed at their loyal customers since buying the other building societies in the credit crunch (unless it's just me) and now when they advertise their new ISA, their rate is lower than other people's yet they pretend it's still something good. So that finally moved my inertia on that score and "they're all the same" is just lack of research and getting hooked on a false promise without moving your money around.

There is one new bank out there but Metro Bank is sticking to city centres, a stupid decision which might put people off them. Tesco might have been renamed Tesco Bank but if it's branchless and you have to use their convoluted telephone system as it was, that's not going to be a great alternative either.

I'm still keeping the Nationwide current accounts just because I want the fallback of a chequebook before they get phased out, and I haven't ruled them out for insurance because RBS may be forced to flog Directline soon - and I don't want my premiums going up just to fund that. So when you talk about being happy with "a" bank, there are several different services for which they all compete and you will generally end up with a mixture.

49. At 12:57pm on 02 Apr 2010, father jack wrote:
I am not happy with my Bank, I find having a Bank Account very inconvient, I never wanted a Bank Account, I was given an option by my Cowboy Employer back in the 80's - open one or be sacked.
I managed perfectly well for years with cash, why Thatcher took my right to paid in cash I don't know, it certainly hasn't benefited me, but then employees rights were never high on her agenda.
I dont use direct debits,and would advise anyone against using them. Pay bills in cash, gives greater control. I pay them when I want to not when they decide to help themselves.
Thanks to Thatcher every woking person must now hand over their wages to these parsites. It's a sad state of affairs.


I can't believe the slanderous messages some people put up here.

Margaret Thatcher had nothing to do with this and I have news for you - you can still be paid in cash and you don't have to have a bank account. It's upto the employers how they pay you and not actually handling cash is the simplest way for them and to make sure the tax and NI gets recorded.

What probably hacks you off is that when you were paid in cash you could have ducked paying tax. Now it goes into a bank the HMRC gets to see what you money you have.

I agree with your thoughts on direct debits. They are a con and basically allows someone to dip into your account.

Hate banks and companies that insist on dd payments or charging you to pay your bills by other means but please keep the lefty Thatcher hating comments out.

The wrong question was asked about banks, The question should be asked are you happy saving money with your bank?(or building soc)the real truth about banks is that they con you into saving with them with some wonderful savings account scheme and then a year later drop the interest and pay nil or next to zero interest, banks must be holding millions and millions in accounts earning nothing, elderly people in particular are getting ripped off! and thats what is dishonest about banks.Everyone should check what they are getting for their savings, most will be horrified!!

I've been with the same bank, Nat West, for 25 years and although my view of bankers in general is about as low as it could be, I have to say that I have no complaints about my bank. They have always provided me with an efficient and courteous service so I would say that I am happy with the service they provide.

Who exactly did the survey ask? It is hard to believe it was a representative sample, particularly as we are told savers outnumber borrowers by a significant margin.

Having put savers' money at high risk by investing it in products they apparently didn't understand, the Banks now seem to treat us with complete contempt, exploiting us as a cheap source of funding. My recent experience of some 'State-controlled' ones suggests that they seem to have repudiated the idea of 'customer service' (although this may just be because of the way they have treated their staff). Forced mergers (actively encouraged by the Government, and made necessary due to lax regulation) have effectively removed any real competition and made the situation worse.

My guess is that many people have given up answering Bank surveys, since the Banks seem to have totally ignored our interests in the past.

Surprising result. I suspect it depended on the question. I find interest rates far too low given the borrowing rates and the lack of clarity over changes in intrest rates is a disgrace.

Incidentally someone tell me why building society rates (with no shareholders) tend to be LOWER than banks with shareholders? Something wrong there!

I've got a great "Bank" its a building society! It has branches where you can talk to individuals, and call centres that haven't been off shored!

Banks are appalling. It should be illegal ever to lower interest rates on any account with reference to a base line like the BofE interest rate. This cheating with opening offers, bonus rates etc, then dropping the rates forcing account churning by the active saver and cheating the passive saver.

Banking regulation so much needing replacing due to the total failure of Gorgon Brown's set up, that created the financial collapse, has to address this fly by night deliberate banking cheating of savers.

With so much emphasis on the need to keep switching accounts (in order to maintain a reasonable rate of interest), and the labour that must be involved in administering this, the Banks look like a pretty good job creation scheme, though not very efficient from the point of view of loyal customers ...

... oh, sorry, you thought savers were 'customers' ???

I am now... but only because I changed recently because my old bank was treating my money as if it were theirs and not mine. Conveniently messing up changes to direct debits, making double payments to my credit cards and charging me up to £1.50 for foreign transactions (in this day and age!) were not the best ways to keep my business and writing to say they wouldn't refund me any of the extra charges I'd incurred was the last straw!

I've banked with Smile (the Cooperative internet bank) for about 7 years now and I love them. They invest in ethical companies and hence haven't suffered under the recent economic crisis as some have.
I am also impressed with their fraud office which has contacted me on a number of occasions to question transactions which were 'outside my normal spending patterns' and they required my consent to allow them to go through. On one of these occasions, a transaction was indeed fraudulent and they saved me a lot of inconvenience by sending out a new card and PIN straight away.
My only complaint at the moment is that the savings rates are awful considering the price (interest) of loans doesn't seem to have dropped in line with the Bank of England base rates. This is not peculiar to Smile though, and they must compete with the others so I understand why they are towing the party line.
I don't really feel we'll be truly out of recession until the banks begin to give bank some rewards to savers.

9. At 11:09am on 02 Apr 2010, David Hanneman wrote:
The bank also continually charges me for going over my limit. I haven't gone over by as much as twenty pounds, it's usually ten or so. TEN POUNDS and they charge you £27!
That's kicking when I'm down. ...The banks are run by pure greed - some of the worst examples of humanity.
---------------------
"Continually?" ...sounds like you need a lesson in balancing your money!! If you pay £27 every time, then you only have to cut back one time and you have that £20 saved in charges ready for every other month.

Always people with money problems blame the banks. If you didn't have a bank account, where would you get that overdraft from?

My personal bank account and credit cards with Lloyds are fine, my business credit cards are a disgrace which I presume are designed to confuse and gain substantial earnings for the bank.

I can view any of my various bank accounts online, or my credit cards and keep track & use them to full potential.

My Lloyds business credit card isnt even available online.

If I make a payment it doesnt show up on my cashpoint balance for 2 to 3 weeks, IF i'm lucky. Generally I have to phone up or go into the bank to enquire because the account information is just so useless and NOT fit for purpose. Unless I keep and maintain records which I then have to carry everywhere I go, it is extremely hard to keep track of what I owe & my balance available to spend. I am told online banking is supposed to be implemented later this year, but HOW hard is it to implement something that is ALREADY provided for the great majority of private accounts.

On my personal account every month I can max out on the account as many times as I want as long as I keep paying the balance back and can then re-spend upto my limit again & again.

My business account I can ONLY spend the maximum amount ONCE per month. If I pay, which I do, ALL the outstanding balance within a week of maxing it or within the month then I CANNOT even use the card, because I have used its limit ONCE, even though I have paid EVERY penny back.

HOW is this helping UK businesses???

As a business I & others pay substantial charges and fees and set up costs, yet businesses receive the POOREST standards in comparison to private accounts.

If this pathetic government got off their backsides and actually made the banks improve their services then this would go a LONG way to improving conditions & cash flow for businesses, especially smaller ones.

It would be just so simple to bring in statutory levels of service provision instead of pathetically letting banks & other businesses dictate their own poor services while cynically and deceitfully delaying improvements to enable bleeding the maximum profits from business customers.
Its a national disgrace.

One day the BBC will learn what the majority of the real world already knows:
1. people prefer to say yes than no in surveys,
2. changing banks is a nightmare of traps and inconveniences laid by the bankers!

0. At 2:24pm on 02 Apr 2010, Mark wrote:
49. At 12:57pm on 02 Apr 2010, father jack wrote:
I am not happy with my Bank, I find having a Bank Account very inconvient, I never wanted a Bank Account, I was given an option by my Cowboy Employer back in the 80's - open one or be sacked.
I managed perfectly well for years with cash, why Thatcher took my right to paid in cash I don't know, it certainly hasn't benefited me, but then employees rights were never high on her agenda.
I dont use direct debits,and would advise anyone against using them. Pay bills in cash, gives greater control. I pay them when I want to not when they decide to help themselves.
Thanks to Thatcher every woking person must now hand over their wages to these parsites. It's a sad state of affairs.


I can't believe the slanderous messages some people put up here.

Margaret Thatcher had nothing to do with this and I have news for you - you can still be paid in cash and you don't have to have a bank account. It's upto the employers how they pay you and not actually handling cash is the simplest way for them and to make sure the tax and NI gets recorded.

What probably hacks you off is that when you were paid in cash you could have ducked paying tax. Now it goes into a bank the HMRC gets to see what you money you have.

I agree with your thoughts on direct debits. They are a con and basically allows someone to dip into your account.

Hate banks and companies that insist on dd payments or charging you to pay your bills by other means but please keep the lefty Thatcher hating comments out.

To say Thatcher had nothing to do with it is just plain daft. Who repealed the Truck Acts with no consultation with employees MARGARET THATCHER, I was never asked if I wanted a Bank account, just told get one or be sacked. I'm amazed people think that was acceptable. When it clearly wasn't

Am I happy with my bank (HSBC)? Good god no, it's ruddy awful. I knew that already but since moving to the Netherlands and opening an account with Rabobank and seeing how well their customers are treated it seems criminal what UK banks get away with. Aside from the ease with which I can do anything with my account, the staff are genuinely friendly and helpful and especially accomodating to me as a non-native and non-Dutch speaker.

I am not happy on several point with my Bank.
1 They never have UK call centre staff making it very difficult to deal with problems.
2 They move my account from the bank I opened my account with, even though I ask them to stop this I now have my account held by a branch 7 miles away when my own initial branch was and still is only 5 mins walk away. When I ask why they move my account they say because of the type of account, apparently i am a good customer so they feel i need a more personal service!! Well that's a lie as i am not getting a service because i can not get to the branch easily.
3 Someone in the Bank applied a PPI to a loan costing me over £2.500 in extra charges, I got the money back but it was a long process.
4 They have so far not paid back bank charges after the above issue!
Since the banks put my name in capital letter's on all statements they class me as a business so as a business
i am going to apply my own T&C's to all my future dealing with the bank and I will get my charges back with interest.
Unless we stand up to these institutions they will carry on in much the same way, I for one will not allow them to.

47. At 12:57pm on 02 Apr 2010, the6fitmoose wrote:
Why don't we all cancel our direct debits, start withdrawing all our pay as soon as it clears leaving only the minimum amount in our current accounts? You can pay all bills etc at the post office or corner shop by cash.

Let's take control of OUR Money again..

Couldn't agree more. Recommended!

Direct debits were the worst thing ever invented. They have insidiously made their way into most people's lives. People don't realise they are handing over control of their accounts to any company who insists on direct debit.

I know of people with masses of direct debit mandates against their accounts. They barely control their accounts at all. Many don't even reconcile their accounts with what's allegedly debited. It's in this realm that things go wrong and people blame the banks.

A direct debit is authorising someone to get their hands in your wallet. And the fact that there is now a direct debit guarantee simply shows how easily the system was abused.

I mean, would you leave your wallet on the table and say "Ok, take what I apparently owe you," to all and sundry. I bet not. But that's what direct debits are.

And that's why utility companies like your direct debit mandates: they get control of your money without your intervention.

Whenever anyone asks me if I'll sign a direct debit mandate I reply that I will as long as they'll authorise me to directly debit one of their accounts in the event of a mistake. Needless to say no one takes me up.

Banks are no different to politics and pretty much all services in the UK. You get a choice of which flavour of bad service you want and the only thing you're guaranteed is bad service. All the good service go to the rich and ends there.

Again, the media interprets statistics in a manner that allows them to make a meaningless headline. Why do we have to pay our TV license for this rubbish.

I can't say I'm at all pleased with the service I get, and its probably only inertia that keeps me with them.

Some examples: We needed to borrow some money since our old boiler broke down so we *had* to buy a new one. The rate they offered on a loan for this was sky high - 18.9% when the bank rate was 0.5%. Unlike even a credit card all the interest would be charged upfront so you'd pay it even if you paid the loan off early. Then they blocked my debit card over Christmas so I could not spend any money - it could not be sorted out till the Christmas break was over. My wife has never been able to use their online banking service for what they claim are security reasons.

I do not ask much of my Bank, but I get what I ask for. There has been the odd 'cock up', when, without consulting me, they closed my deposit account and transferred the balance into another account. I suppose by and large that I am satisfied, but I have avoided dealing with them on anything that might be called complex or adventurous. I monitor my statements of account very closely as less and less people in the Bank become involved in checking them, because I do not wholly trust 'technology'. I have always believed in retaining a 'man in the loop' where my money is concerned!

I believe if you spoke to people individually you would find that people may say they are satisifed with banks but not happy with them as used to be the case when the managers knew your name and you theirs and meeting them was a pleasure. I a satisfied with the servcie I get from the ordinary staff in Barclays Bank but as far as management goes I have had many problems with them and they still owe me over £8,000 which is a very large amount and it ran out of time due to the local and their senior management messing me about just before I was very ill. None of the banks have any loyalty to their customers it is all how much profit can be made and the ordinary staff are forced to meet tough targets.

I've been with my bank since 1983 because I've had no reason to change, so yes, I ma happy with their service.

I´m happier in a restaurant where at least I can enjoy what is costing me money.

#14.

I found your post offensive and patronising but then, having read on with incredulity, I note you've worked at the same bank for over thirty years!

May I suggest that you get out a little more and see the world of perfectly respectable people who don't have a job for life in the little cocooned world of finance? It's the people that are forced to sometimes use a little more overdraft than permitted whose bank charges are excessively punitive and unfair. A £30 charge plus interest for overdrawing by £5 for 7 days is the equivalent of two years in jail for a minor misdemeanour like accidently dropping a sweety wrapper. I find your smugness and lack of humanity appalling in the extreme. It's people like like you who make me wish that we had allowed the banks to fail and let the mollycoddled staff end up on the street.

All Banks are carrying individual value, one possibly better than the other instead of remaining at par. Although I hold my own Bank Account when I was a little child of 9 years old to keep my scholarship funds absolutely hassle free where my Grand Father was the most dignified Customer by virtue of his status of highest depositor but lost the entire funds when it became Bankrupt.

During the time of my College Education I found no problem with my Bank too. However, during my employment, I was so engaged with my work that I allowed my salary to skip my notice to see nothing deposited in my Bank Account other than seeing ourselves both end meet somehow; neglecting even my children’s requirements of providing of appropriate dresses to them to see themselves removed from taking part in Games with their colleagues considering them as below standard. This fact is known to me just on the other day being it was kept secret all along, not to allow me to get hurt anyway but yet tear came out from both of my eyes automatically. Hence my relation with the concern Bank was bare minimum to do any interaction, to give an assessment of my attachment with it. I no doubt was a Credit Card Customer to number of Banks with development of cordial relationship with all.

I had in-fact became a customer of the ICICI Bank just prior to leaving my job under forceful circumstances to keep the sale proceed from whatever property I was having with me that time to live ourselves most ordinarily. Even though I am a non-entity by using of all measurable instruments to earn a standard to oneself as available to the modern society, the Bank kept me living till date through extension of loans to the extent possible to see ourselves living still, ignoring very much my repaying capacity. Accordingly my satisfaction with the services provided by the said Bank is concerned; it was of highest order, up to extent of baring my conscience to choose a different one later through a switch over; even if more facilities are made available or extended to me and hence unbreakable unless circumstances force to act otherwise.

(Dr.M.M.HAZARIKA, PhD)

I have no complaints about my bank. 25 years ago I opened an account in the Post Office with the National Girobank. It was good and they open on Saturdays. I stayed with them.

They changed their name to Girobank plc, then Alliance & Leicester, then Santander.
I have never needed to change banks. They have always done it for me!

I have a successful business, small, but successfully growing.

I have achieved success NOT via bank help or access to funds, because commercial funds/loans etc are outrageously expensive.

Its all very well banks saying that businesses havent taken advantage of available funds which government made then have available, but the reality is that the banks have deceitfully created a situation and criterea which MANY MANY small/medium and even big businesses just cannot afford or meet the criterea demands.

Most things in life are quite simple to improve, including banks & their poor services and practices, its ONLY when so called technical experts get involved on either side & they bleed and confuse/complicate the system for as much as they can via invented complications.

EVERY single legal regulation, law, proceedure and spoken/written sentence has to be FULLY technicalised so that "experts/laywers etc cant take advantage of TINY TINY loopholes.

WE NEED a law of COMMON SENSE that dictates that EVERY UK/British/English rule and law is NOT open to negotiation or re-interpretation and is a statute for that which is was initially intended, which is how EU charters and laws are legally defined.

Once we have such a law, then it is a simple matter to apply it to bank regulations and other laws, just as EU laws over-rode UK laws, so too we can do the same within our OWN legal system & it doesnt take much effort. I could come up with basics in a few moments, let alone years it normally takes to change laws & rules.

The fact remains that the banking system is basically operating how it did previously to the crash, governments forcing them to put aside a bit of extra cash is pretentious, deceitful and ultimately NOT factually good enough to prevent or stop another such catastrophic world incident from happening again.

I think banks, like dangerous dogs, need to be kept on a much tighter leash and for some, even mussled.

Funnily enough, yes I am happy with my bank.

I decided many years ago that I wanted an ethical bank account and I got one from the Co-operative Bank. They’ve been straightforward with me through the years and I’ve never had a problem with them.

I also applied to be a Member of the Co-operative itself which was easy to do and only cost a quid I think, so in a way I own my bank.

They haven’t needed bailing out because they haven’t been up to no good. They don’t invest in arms or other such nasties but do donate to good causes like helping indigenous people in Canada campaign against the tar pits. Don’t sound much like a bank do they, that’s why I like them.

Their IT was a bit wobbly for a while until they learned how to do online banking but that’s been about it as far as the minor gripes go.

The other bank I had to use when in Ireland was the Halifax Ireland, may that bank and all who work for it descend into the flames of hell to burn in torment for all eternity (my little happy easter bunny thought), so I can’t put hand on heart to enthusiastically endorse the Halifax then.

The quality of banks in general is so low that all banks have poor service, poor staffing and poor policies.

When the quality is so low then there is no expectations, just go in and come out. 16 months ago I wrote to my bank to have few details amended and till this date they have not done it.

Oh those dreadful " whistling " adverts , they are so banal . Are they Government-inspired to make the gullible feel good and vote Labour ?

I now believe its official the BBC has become a media machine serving the good of the government and banks.

I find these result "mind bogglingly, astonishing" (I only wish I could come up with some better words to use). In the current economic climate, Im sure everyone can come up with at least 5 or more reasons for wanting to go out banker bashing.

It must have been some very carefully draughted questionnaire, or they collected the data from within the annual banker’s conference, or probably both!

It’s got the same smell as when the smoking industry said "smoking is good for you".