Always find it funny that Natwest and RBS receive different rankings (ok, I know they’ve split them to be England/Scotland) when they’re the same bank…
No surprise to see First Direct at the top, everyone I’ve spoke to said they are great.
Nice to see Metro coming in at 2nd! Challenger bank
I personally have always found the support good with Halifax/Lloyds Banking Group. As you say about Natwest @anon61087081, Bank of Scotland & Halifax are basically the same underneath no? Interesting their scores vary so much.
Personally I find Nationwide’s online banking awful. So to see them ranked about Lloyds is interesting.
Yeah, I can only assume (in regards to RBS) it’s since their collapse and the bad press associated with it. As far as the operation goes, it’s exactly the same. App, backend services etc.
Never had bad experience personally, their app is pretty decent and updated with new features regularly (can even freeze my old RBS credit card now!)
FYI BoS and Halifax have different call centers, although they can serve both banks` accounts. As I don’t mind the slightly harsher Scottish accent I always prefer calling BoS as usually the call is picked up close to immediately where Halifax ones tend to have 5-6 min waiting time.
First Direct are great if you call them. But you shouldn’t need to call them in the first place. The app is super basic. The security is way too convoluted. And their automated systems are painfully slow.
The amount of times I had to reset the password on First Direct alone made me stop using them whatsoever… But yeah phone support has always been speedy and helpful.
I genuinely thought they were joking when I had to make a password and 3(?) memorable questions. Then a separate password for online/app. Virtual pin card reader for random stuff too. They even do that 3rd 6th 8th letter thing. And I had to be on the phone with them for nearly 30mins just repeating stuff I’d filled out online just to activate it.
I’ve not actually had to phone them up yet for anything, I’ve just done a CASS from an old account to FD for the free gift. I’ll be closing it as soon as I get that.
I reinstalled my iPhone the other week and forgot to disable the First Direct Digital Key. I now need to ring up First Direct to reset it but forgot my telephone banking passwords . I’ll probably leave that for a few months…
On topic.
Monzo should join this list soon. The criteria for entering is simple:
GB PCA market to Brands with more than 150,000 Active PCAs in GB;
This this this! First Directs app/password/digital key/whatever else implementation is awful and the reason I didn’t last long with them! Yeah granted their telephone banking service is good but that isn’t everything!
Information on service quality will be published every six months by all British banks and building societies with more than 150,000 personal current accounts (PCAs) or 20,000 business current accounts (BCAs), and all Northern Ireland banks and building societies with more than 20,000 PCAs or 15,000 BCAs.
Study methodology
Providers participating in the survey in Great Britain
Bank of Scotland, Barclays Bank UK, Clydesdale Bank, Coventry Building Society, first direct, Halifax, HSBC UK, Lloyds Bank, Metro Bank, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander UK, The Co-operative Bank, TSB, Yorkshire Bank.