Bank accounts, who to switch to?

[manicscousers]

we're with RBS, they're going to be taken over by Santander who already own our Abbey savings accounts, any reccommendations for a new bank?
don't like santander and they have a really bad reputation for customer service, thanks for any advice  :)

[manicscousers]

[caroline7758]

we've been with First Direct for 17 years and never had cause for complaint. Although they don't have branches, you can pay in at HSBC as they are part of that group. We do most of our banking online and occasionally by phone.

Our daughter has just written a letter of complaint to Natwest because she has been without a debit card for nearly 2 months thanks to their incompetence.

[grannyjanny]

We feel the same Mal & are thinking about the Co-op bank. We need to do some more reseach but it does look promising.
How are you all doing & is she still in hospital?

[saddad]

I've been with TSB (Now Lloyds) since the '60's but I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. OH is with Halifax and now they have "joined" Lloyds we can't do half of the transfers we rely on. If you wait a couple of years you will probably find they are all the same company...  >:(

[manicscousers]

.
How are you all doing & is she still in hospital?

yes, she's in rehab, still of the same mind so I'm leaving it in the hands of the professionals, if she goes home on her own, I'll have to grin and bear it :-\
we were looking at hsbc

[daveyboi]

I guess the safest bank is HSBC as they did not get into real trouble in the crisis

[:(]

Which magazine did a survey in August. This is the main bit of what they said.

First Direct top for customer satisfaction
Excellent customer service remains key to keeping customers happy, as First Direct came top in three satisfaction surveys - current accounts, savings and mortgages – giving it an overall score of 82%. Current account mortgage experts, One Account, came in second with a score of 81%, while Smile came third with 79%.

Consumers looking for happy banking should steer clear of banks owned by the Lloyds Banking Group, as Bank of Scotland and Halifax both sit at the bottom of the table, while Lloyds TSB and Cheltenham & Gloucester don't score much better.

Compared with the overall average of 59%, Bank of Scotland came bottom of the table with an overall score of just 43%, Halifax's overall score was 46%, Cheltenham & Gloucester's score was 50% and Lloyds TSB scored 53%.

Banking giant Santander also scored poorly, with a satisfaction score of just 47%, while Northern Rock wasn't much better, scoring just 49%.

[manicscousers]

thanks for that, weequeenie, interesting results  :)

[plot51A]

Smile please  :) :) :)

[Deb P]

Well this is very interesting, we have a 'One Account' with the RBS and I had no idea thay had sold all their English branches and mortgages! :o

Even more interestingly, customers can choose to stay on with the RBS, (although where you would go to pay in cheques with no branches could be interesting....), but the RBS are not allowed to ask you if you want to stay, you have to tell them you want to and fill in a form!

I shall ring them tomorrow and ask them where it leaves us, I don't trust Santander either, and my nephew is a bank manager with them!

[gp.girl]

Nationwide building society, 10 years, no real problems.......didn't need government money either  :)

[queenbee]

Yorkshire Building Society, you just can not fault them on service and interest rates, they are only a small company and it is a pleasure to do business with them.

[grawrc]

I'm with smile (coop online) and have been for years. I can't fault them.

I also have RBS accounts and HBOSnow amalgamated with TBS lloyds - convenient and local but poor service (especially HBOS etc) and poor interest rates  (especially RBS).

Santander seem to be expanding when everyone else is not and that worries me.

HSBC is Hongkong shanghai bank and I trust that as much as all the other peripheral banks.

[dtw]

Santander are well dodgy.

Nationwide are good, their online banking is more secure as they have a card reader which you need to use for setting up transfers.

[skintnbitter]

Yorkshire Bank or Building Society, as far as I am aware they did not have any problems when the poo hit the fan

[taurus]

Nationwide building society.  Been with them many years.  Always received good service.