How did your Bank treat you in 2009?

[Zak33]

Hi guys

A littlle poll for you all. How did your Bank treat you in 2009?

[Steve]

Well there's the one that was shut down by anti-terrorism laws, then there was the dutch one, then there was the one that bought every other bank in the UK.

But on the whole, I think I've fared OK, so no significant complaints from me, except the usual expected incompetence.

[dave87]

My own bank - fine, as far as I can tell.

The bank one of my credit cards is with - pissup in a brewery springs to mind...

[Saracen]

Average I suppose. I got treated about as I expected to be from a bank. The real question is what those expectations were.

[Salazaar]

Great service from Co-op, though my comparison is with HSBC who I dumped the year before for being crap, so I might be being a little blinkered.

[kalniel]

Better than my bank in 2008

[Zak33]

mine was good until I wanted to extend my mortgage facility... not that I need to use it.. but I started seeing cheap houses so thought I'd get ready to pounce.

The underwriters were... childish to say the least.

I've got reams of equity and overpay mammothly, but they wanted my house valued. Fair play... but I had to pay... ok...

"Would you like a visit valuation (£299) or a Drive By (£50)"

A drive by? Is it a killing? Do you use guns? No.. a bloke allegedly drives to my road, looks out of his car window, goes home and looks on right move and values it.

Could be a false front like a Wild West film.. they'd never know. I agreed to £50 and was charged £80 which was then refunded with an apology

Apart from that... Nat West did good!

[dave87]

I've got to say - in my distant past I had a HSBC account. First bank account and all that.

Found them singularly unhelpful when I wanted to do anything - put it down to age. Then decided to go to University, and they were even worse.

Ditched them in favour of the bank my parent's use, and they've been a revelation. Properly decent banking, and if you want it, decent personal service.

[TheAnimus]

LloydsTSB so badly treated me I walked away from them for all my banking needs, despite been with them for THIRTEEN YEARS

Also what ground my gears was that the phone bank staff could only apologise for the constant cockups by my Business Account Manager. But because this was my personal account, all decisions had to go via him, because my business account was worth more.

These people must have made a lot of money from me over the years, and they'd seen my income over double every 18 months since I graduated, yet they kept screwing things up, they even blocked my mortgage payment one day because "it looked suspicious".... They also cancelled my debit card when I was abroad once, despite me telling them I was going in advance.

I also had fraud on my account 3 times in 6 months, with the last case happening two days after my new card was issued. This new card hadn't been used online ONCE. only in a Chip n Pin machine at tesco and a cashpoint at lloyds. Been an engineering educated geek i know a skimmer when I see one too.

On the other hand HSBC fell overbackwards to accomdate my every need, and i'm very happy with them. Their Premier service is excellent.

[scaryjim]

Happy to name and shame Abbey - now Santander, of course - they have repeatedly provided bad to appalling customer service including leaving me without a working bank card for 2 weeks just prior to Christmas, and I'll be leaving them as soon as I've cleared my (arranged) overdraft. I've heard of a lot of people having similar experiences since Santander got their claws into Abbey, which is a shame, because I'd been a happy customer for about 4 years prior to the takeover (and my wife had been a happy customer for much longer).

[daniel_owen_uk]

Mine fine.

G/F's not good, frozen account (in dispute), £500 overdraft, she has been paying the minimum as it's not just hers to pay off (complicated), changed it to £1 a day!!!

Nice one!!!! 73% apr

And that was to make it "easier to understand"

[scaryjim]

... I had a HSBC account ... Found them singularly unhelpful ...

That's odd, my experience of HSBC was that they were very helpful indeed. I never had any issues and was a satisfied customer for many years until they removed my overdraft limit completely with no room for negotiation. Wouldn't even consider an arranged stepped reduction - just "You can't have an overdraft anymore.". That left me completely unable to use that bank account, of course, so I had to switch.

[Saracen]

........ I agreed to £50 .....

Erm .... I know someone that can get you in on the ground floor on a newly discovered gold mine in California? Or there's a really good deal on lunar waterfront property if that's more suitable to your taste.


Fifty quid for a "driveby"? They catch you first thing in the morning, on a 'morning after the night before' or something?

[Stringent]

Good for me, I didn't have any issues at all.

[tiggerai]

The drive by is how all houses were valued for Council Tax bands in 1990...

Natwest have done well, they've upgraded the online banking (which I've been using for years) and it's now slick and nice and very easy to use. They've also added Credit card services online, which gives me another reason not to phone them

When i do phone them, I get people who understand me, understand what I'm talking about and 9 times out of 10 I can understand them too. (apart from the Scots - I struggle with the accent when i can't lipread!)

When they've charged me for something that wasn't my fault - the charges have been refunded on the spot, no quibbles. Play by the rules and you don't get charged... like everything else in life!

Halifax's online banking is pitiful when compared (as that's where my mortgage is)

[shaithis]

HSBC here, treated the same as usual but as I haven't gone over-drawn in ~8 years, so I expect this thread isn't meant for me

I did get them to do a claw-back in 2009 though from a dodgy satellite TV maintenance company that I saw something from on my statement I had not authorized.....they did surprise me when they refunded almost 3 times the amount back though because I had missed the 2 payments they had taken previously!!