What's the best feature of your legacy bank?

I will never understand why people say FirstDirect has outstanding services. I opened an account with them a few months and go and I was shocked - they sent me a mountain of paperwork that I had to send back. Then their mobile app is pretty basic (in comparison with Barclays). Any change you want to make they send you a paper form that you need to mail back. :confused: I didn’t think that in this day and age such a big company could waste so much paper…

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Strange - I’ve opened a CA, regular saver, and e-ISA and only really had maybe 2-3 letters in total, and only one with anything to send back?

The App does everything I need (though agree it’s basic), but its the phone service that sets them apart for me. Always answer within 1 ring, and really go above and beyond - e.g. acknowledging that they can see I work in FS myself so they’ll try not to ‘bore me with stuff I already know’, and single call handlers promising call backs at specific days/times and actually doing it!

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Coming from Barclays I find their services average at best.

When I got my account setup (internet banking, mobile banking,etc) I had to setup so many different security questions it became annoying.

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Currently I’m with HSBC.

Best feature for me is that it’s SUPER easy to transfer money from my current account to my savings account and vice versa at any point in time (useful the days before payday or when on holiday!), especially with the app. Hopefully pots will be this simple!

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Something I need on Monzo to test against Starling. I know it won’t be long but it’s so way of life now.

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I’m with Santander and whenever I call up or go into the branch the customer services are really friendly. Albeit sometimes a little clueless and I get passed around for a bit before anything gets solved. There are a lot of things that I’ve gotten used to having with Monzo that I would love for them to implement, but but after getting ridiculous service at Lloyds even simple things like CS is something I appreciate in a legacy bank. Their mobile app isn’t too half bad either.

Save The Change from Lloyds is really good. Rounding up every purchase to the nearest pound and saving into a separate account is a great idea. ‘Saved’ (put by)a £5 in a week without noticing.

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5% on current account, 5% regular saver.

There are things I like more about one interface over another, but the reason I keep any more than my week to week money in any account is it it is earning interest over at least inflation.

Free Priority Pass lounge access.

Relationship manager, someone to delegate tasks to and ensure actions are followed up.

Multi currency current and savings accounts.

First Direct’s phone support is incredible. You call them up, and the phone doesn’t even ring, there’s just someone there asking for your postcode right away. There are no recorded messages, no IVR trees, just a person there to help out.

But don’t worry, @Fred has got some great plans coming up around how to make Monzo calls even better than that :wink:

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Able to call the bank 24/7, there has been a few times I called during the middle of the night and they’re cheery as ever

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Co-op bank has a direct messsge service so you can send a message without having to wait in a queue. They email you with a reply or to say they’ve read your message.

Great (near instant) customer service (first direct). Staff empowered and trained to sort your issue first time.

An internet log on option besides just the app. I find it handy if I need to make lots of payments, unless Monzo have a master plan to make this super easy and efficient.

Linked savings accounts (regular saver and others), and making it easy to transfer money to and fro.

Save the change, where if in credit they automatically round up your payments to the nearest pound. I found this a fantastic idea and an easy way to save.

Visa cash back offers. Obviously Monzo use MasterCard, but will they be offering similar? Just saved £10 on my Lidl shop for instance, no codes etc.

Just get the app right and the rest will follow. I’m sure you’re looking at the best of the legacy bank apps, I only say this as Starling clearly haven’t and it shows! They clearly didn’t bother checking out the existing competition, as they have some glaring omissions in their app.

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Current account: I find it convenient that for a single fee, I’m offered a bundle of products that include mobile phone insurance, travel insurance and home emergency cover. The cost is probably a bit higher than if I chose to buy those products individually, but it’s convenient.

I also like their app, from which I can see all of my accounts and do most of what I need to do (no real-time notifications, though)

Credit card: I find the Avios rewards programme very useful, as it means I get 2-3 cheap European flights each year

Having a coin counter is amazing as I tend to get a lot of change and it takes a while to get a bag of pennies and other denominations when you can do it there and then

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My favourite feature is the cashback - I get a (fairly) good rate of interest on santander 1-2-3 and also get cashback on my mortgage and bills

At the moment I get the best of both worlds with Monzo - transferring my discretionary spend onto Monzo at the beginning of the month to control and analyse what I spend while keeping my savings in the 1-2-3

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That’s the same for me, will be hard pill to swallow to lose when I fully migrate to Monzo from them

For me, it is the ability to print a statement of account or store a PDF which is formatted like a conventional statement. Being subject to self-assessment tax I have to have records in case HMRC decides to review my tax return. I keep the PDFs in a file directory for the required six year although my current bank holds them online as well.

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I keep the Santander account running and transfer money from my Monzo CA to cover the bills individually so I can tag them with what they are being spent on. I get the best of both worlds - interest and cashback on Santander with spend tracking on monzo.

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Applepay

People who don’t use apps or online banking being able to still pay money into my account.