Please tell me which bank is less shit than HSBC

[FaFoutis]

HSBC keep stopping my card. Sometimes it just starts working again, sometimes I have to phone them (1hour job, unintelligible and, I think, rude call centre) and then it takes a week for another card to come. Sometimes I get random sinister unintelligible calls from their 'fraud' department, sometimes not. They often block my card without informing me at all.

They are putting me in dangerous positions by leaving me alone without money when I travel. I understand they are looking out for fraud, but the level of this suggests they have huge problems with their own security. I bloody hate them.

Can anyone recommend a bank that doesn't behave like this? Please?

Definitely a vote for Nationwide. Can I recommend you and we'd both get £100! LOL!

Lloyds. Been with them 28 years through thick and thin.

First Direct are very helpful indeed. They answer the phone, they believe you when you need help and have had a problem - eg fraud, they are simply great to deal with. Will never leave them

Definitely First Direct. Anytime I have to ring them, I get through to a person after about 3 rings. Fantastic customer service

Things I like about NatWest:

Great app (and was good before some of the other banks had apps).
Never needed to talk to customer services (unlike coop).
Never charged me extortionately for getting accidentally overdrawn and always text me with a deadline to fix it when it happened so I could transfer some money over and avoid a charge.
Let me set up a bunch of separate current accounts for different purposes (all managed easily and seamlessly with afformentioned app).

Don’t like:

The ridiculous hard sell every time we go in branch. Literally every time I’ve been in there they’ve been trying to get me to take out accounts with fees or mortgages that are inappropriate for me. Thankfully my ability to say “no” is in tact.

Coop like:

Nothing.

Don’t like:

Awful app.
Terrible customer services.
Charged me 80 quid for going a pound overdrawn then said they’d set up text alerts so I could prevent it in future only to have an available balance figure in their app that was simply made up - not that transactions hadn’t gone through yet, the number was made up, I had documentation to prove it and they had to remove the charges.

NatWest are fucking terrible

Nationwide are far from perfect, and they can be almost as pushy as the big banks in trying to sell products, but they have a genuine commitment to their branch network and they usually treat customers, sorry ‘members’ better than the big banks. It’s frustrating that members don’t get more tangible benefits than bank customers, though.

As a mutual, they occupy a similar space to JL in retail. I have been been a Nationwide member for over 20 years and have no plans to switch.

First direct are really good we have been hacked but they just replaced the money no issue

Just be reading up on FD, its all sounds very good. Just be aware though that there' a £10 charge per month that you don't have to pay if you don't have up to £1,000 a month going on.

Ignore previous post, that's a mess.

There's a £10 charge per month, but you are exempt, if you have up to £1,000 a month going in.

We moved to Nationwide from HSBC and we like Nationwide, especially when they discuss things like porting a mortgage and borrowing more in terms that I easily understand.

I do still have a cc with HSBC and a few weeks ago someone was attempting to use my card number at 3.40am. By the time I woke up at 7 there were two text messages and an email urging me to contact their fraud department, so I think they are pretty vigilant.

First Direct are fabulous. They have won loads of awards for customer service

Nationwide are fab! Great customer service, app is easy to use, branches always well staffed, good rates on savings and mortgages.

I use.halifax and have never had a problem with them. Phoned up with a question the other day and they answered pretty quickly, once I had been through all the hoops of telling an automated voice why I was phoning etc etc. I think after all that it only took 2 rings so that was good. The guy who answered was really quick and clear in his answers. The online banking is good, not that I have anything to compare it to!

Bloody hate HSBC, they were so unhelpful with internet banking, had no idea what was going on with my money cos I could never bloody access anything! Been with them since I was 11 and never worked for me 🙄 Recently switched to first direct and like them a lot.

Another vote for FD I wouldn't consider swapping banks. They're excellent

Barclays have always been very good to me, I would recommend them and Barclaycard. Nationwide royally fucked me over, badly mis-sold me an investment ISA I didn't want and was clear I didn't want as a teen whose mum had died and wanted to tie up some money she'd left me. Now as an adult who has dealt with banks I'd know what she was doing and said no but at the time I was clueless. NatWest are ok, fucked DH and I about a lot when we married and I opened our 'joint' account, we could then we couldn't add him as a joint holder. But it all worked out, he's not added but it's for the best really. They also blocked my credit card when I got it out because those were the days pre kids and I'd get an interest free period, spend and buy handbags and iPads for DH and I then pay off at our leisure, never had a card blocked before because of 'unusual spending' which pissed me off at the time but now I'd appreciate it!