What is the best bank to bank with?

Question

I am fed up with the service I am getting from Llyods and want to move all my banking. I have 2 cuurent accounts 1 joint and the wife also has a current account. I am never in the RED and always have some cash in one account for that rainy day.(1) Can I move all my DD, SO and payments with no fuss or cost (2) Can I bank on line (3) No charges for having an account with then. Any help out there............

Answer 1

i dont know the best but the worst is citibank

Answer 2

You will always get customers who have had bad experiences with certain banks and then you will get customers who sing the firm's praises.

I have an account with Halifax and one with First Direct. Both are very good. Halifax is convenient in as much as the online banking is straight forward, there are lots of branches and the staff (in my experience) have always been helpful.

First Direct, on the other hand, is exceptional with its customer service - they generally answer the phone within 3 rings, you always speak to a human and you can contact them 24 hours a day. Although they don't have their own branches, you can use HSBC branches. But, you will probably have heard by now that they are planning on introducing charges for their current accounts, however, I envisage most high street banks will be following suit early next year!

All the banks will assist you with transferring your direct debits and will be relatively fuss free.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Bulding societies tend to be better than banks, so Nationwide. It depends what you care about though. Nationwide offer good customer service.
Co-op Bank is the most major ethical bank, investing in ethical sector.
Halifax tend to offer the best interest rates but are pretty crap with their customer service and tend to muck up simple tasks..generally incompetant. Abbey are the same too.
Barclays are **** too.

So I 'd say go with Nationwide or the Co-op

Setting up a DD is always free and you may get money for trasferring your current account to another bank, abbey/halifax have an offer on this.

Answer 4

You could try Alliance and Leicester at www.alliance-leicester.co.uk
They do a bank account change service which gets you there eventually. They are slow, and it is hard to speak to the same person twice. They are quick to charge you for not having enough money in the account, just like the others. I did it and I do all the things you mention, but don't expect them to be all that efficient. If you ring them expect to use an expensive 0870 number, and be in a queue.

Answer 5

Abbey are doing 6% interest on current accounts when you switch, they don't charge and have good online banking. They'll switch your diret debits etc and salary payments within a couple of weeks. Halifax are doing pretty much the same deal but the interest rate is just slightly above 5% I think. Again their online banking is good.

Answer 6

WACHOVIA is a good bank... if you live in the NJ, PA, DE, NY area COMMERCE BANK is good they are open 7 days a week from 8am to 8pm M-F... 8am - 6pm Sat ... and 8am - 3pm Sun... WOODFOREST is also a good one that is open 7 days a week WOODFOREST is a bank for you if you live in the south like NC, SC and I believe they are mainly out of Texas... but all three banks that i mentioned have free checking, direct deposit, and low fees

Answer 7

First Direct is very good service but watch out if you go overdrawn - Ouch !

Answer 8

Go to the Money saving expert web site , they are great and will show you the best bank to go to, and also how to save money.http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

Answer 9

Check out http://www.fool.co.uk. They offer good financial services/advice and opinions.

Answer 10

I think Wellsfargo is worse that Citibank