People do not know about this, but coming from a banking background I would like to impart some wisdom.

If a bank does not do what you request for instance last week I wanted to transfer money from one account to anther bank account. Anyone would think that this was easy...but not for my bank!

I received a letter a week later (despite my telephone number being on the form ) stating that the transaction had not gone through because the amount needed to be clarified. The woman had written 2500 so they wanted the amount clarified as either £25.00 or £2,500. Anyhoo when I called the number on the letter that was sent to me I got through to a call centre where all the staff were unhelpful and I was told that because the transaction was done at a branch, I would have to deal with the branch!!!!

...to cut a long story short, I was passed from pillar to post and got angry. I wrote a letter to the Head Office and it got lost!!! I called Head Office and demanded compensation for the hassle and got £75.00

Not many people do this and I urge you all to do it if you get crap customer service from your bank, as you are entitled to it...but not many people know :D

Which bank was it?

Halifax :x

Why am I NOT surprised!

How was the original transaction committed? By phone or at the branch?

Their not the only ones. I bank with a few banks and the best one so far has been Smile all the rest suck....so far.

I would have stayed with Smile but the interest rates aint competative enough

Originally posted by Abby
How was the original transaction committed? By phone or at the branch?

I went to a branch.

Originally posted by XADRIAN
I went to a branch.

Wow! That WAS bad service! :o

I've been with the Halifax for about ...(estimates quickly) ten years and have not had any problems, but then I only have a very basic current account with them.

I seriously considered switching to Yorkshire Bank when the Halifax started charging me £1 to use a competitors cash machine - if I withdraw money from Yorkshire Bank, I'd expect YB to charge me, but not my own bank, who won't open a branch in the area :x

Sadly, Yorkshire Bank made it too difficult to join (you must phone up to make an apppintment, bring this and that ID) also the Halifax came to their senses and dropped the charge.

Of course, if they ever reinstate it, I'll be off like a shot!

I'm thinking of switching banks (currently with Halifax). HSBC are getting my vote (only because the better half works for em and its easier to switch money around).

I have heard that HSBC aren't the best when it comes to CS.
Although I hear Abby National are pretty good!

Originally posted by XADRIAN
Their not the only ones. I bank with a few banks and the best one so far has been Smile all the rest suck....so far.

I would have stayed with Smile but the interest rates aint competative enough

I agree, Smile all the way. I've been there for several years and, touch wood, never had a problem.

I don't understand the bit about interest rates. You'd need to have a shed load of money going through your account to detect the difference of 3/4% or so. The difference between Smile and, say, Lloyds is substantial, in the first year I made £60 in interest alone never mind no charges for being overdrawn.

Additionally, I have an Egg account which has a higher interest rate than Smile and I can move money between the 2 quite painlessly.

My advice: Go Internet banking.

xxxxxxxxxxx

I'm with the Yorkshire Bank. Recently tried to go for internet banking, but is it with every bank that you have to register to telephone banking first??
Chloé

If you have a substantial amount of money that needs investing wisely then you want to know that the banks you use are reliable...admittedly mistakes are made but when you have a few thousand in a current account gaining no interest and the bank just leave it there and send you a letter a week later...then thats rubbish service.

Originally posted by XADRIAN
Halifax :x

Despite what they may call themselves, they're not a bank.

That's the problem.