Banking in the UK

winstons pt

Hey guys, who would be the best bank to do all your banking with in the UK?
Regards Paddy

razorblunt

I use HSBC and I find them very decent, had free overdraft for 12months, poor saving options though so currently looking around and Santander are looking good here.

Few friends use Lloyds and RBS and they have no complaints either.

Count Duckula

Barclays have always done well by me. Most banks are the same, really, with maybe a gimmick or two thrown in for good measure. I wouldn't worry too much about who in particular you go with over here - I've got friends banking with all sorts of people, and no one has any horror stories.

Lemming

I use Lloyds TSB, not had much issue yet a year later.

Fysh

I'm with HSBC and they're OK (though I have heard that you may have to pay £5/month for the first year of having an account with them if you haven't lived in the UK for at least 3 years - I got around that by pointing out my employer has a corporate account with them).

The only one I'd be wary of is Natwest, on the basis that I banked with them when I was in college here ~10 years ago. They were hopeless then (refusing me all sorts of services because I "didn't have a UK address", moving away from opening on Saturdays, and more) and from what I can tell of their advertising have only recently realised how many customers they lost as a result of this.

Lemming

I've heard negative things about HSBC; all consistantly similar, and from not just online comments, but from a friend of mine too.

Basically; the upshot is if your account gets overdrawn; even by a small amount they will start making phone calls. Lots of them. Constantly. Every. Other. F*cking. Hour. to remind you that you owe them money and when will you have the money becauseyouowethemmoneyincaseyouhadn'ttakennoteofthatfactandthey'recallingyoutoremindyouofthefactthatyouowethemmoney.

Fysh

Eeesh. Sounds like a grim experience, bordering on harassment....I've not experienced it myself but must admit I know of a few other people who seem to have been treated rather worse by HSBC than I have.

It's chance more than anything that led me to them - I was only after a current account when I first moved over, and originally tried to join RBS. I gave up on them after a fortnight when they said it would be another month before the account was ready, and went for HSBC as the bank with the next nearest branch, and once they found out my employer had a corporate account with them everything was sorted.

Lemming

Fysh wrote: »

Eeesh. Sounds like a grim experience, bordering on harassment....I've not experienced it myself but must admit I know of a few other people who seem to have been treated rather worse by HSBC than I have.

"Harassment" is the word that crops up frequently on HSBC complaints. As I said before, if it were people moaning about x, y, and z you'd take it with a pinch of salt or someone having a bad day. But when so many are consistently complaining about the same thing you have to take note.

r3nu4l

I'm with Nationwide (a Building society rather than a bank), having moved from Natwest when I got my mortgage with Nationwide.

I've found them very pleasant to deal with so far and they have been brilliant on communication. My only gripe is that until recently the flexaccount debit card could be used abroad without incurring any charges, this has now been replaced by free travel insurance :mad:

Count Duckula

There are a good few credit cards that will let you use them abroad with no charge or only a minimum fee, though. So just use one of those abroad, and it also makes it much easier to track how much you're spending, or see if the card has been cloned.

The free travel insurance is actually a very sweet deal.

r3nu4l

Count Duckula wrote: »

There are a good few credit cards that will let you use them abroad with no charge or only a minimum fee, though. So just use one of those abroad, and it also makes it much easier to track how much you're spending, or see if the card has been cloned.

The free travel insurance is actually a very sweet deal.

Nah, I much prefer using my debit card, always have. I'm always on top of my finances so can tell you at any moment how much should be in my account and I'm very careful about card cloning too My problem with the travel insurance is that because I book flights and hotels etc on my Credit Card I get free travel insurance anyway so the Flexaccount Travel insurance is a joke for me. I'd much rather my free withdrawals.