to ask who you bank with any why?

[audens]

I've got accounts with Barclays and NatWest. Now I have a son, I want to open a junior ISA for him. I want a good one with good rates but also want to transfer all my money to the same bank so it's all in the same place. Not sure how easy it is to do but sounds stressful...

Any bank recommendations? I'm not massively enamoured by Barclays, NatWest is ok...

Have been with Natwest since I was 16 so almost 50 years now. I just feel comfortable with them and do like their online banking.

However, my adult dd has her account with Lloyds. She has SLD and Lloyds were the only bank who would open an Appointee account for her - I am her Appointee - without a Power of Attorney. A Power of Attorney cost hundreds of pounds but we can't obtain one anyway because our dd is not able to give authorisation due to her disabilities.🙄

Big thumbs up to Lloyds for making a very stressful situation, at the time, actually quite simple.

Nationwide, they are great and their staff aren't robots.

I switched from Co-op to Natwest ten years ago as they were very kind to me when I was dealing with my DDad's financials after he died. Never had any issues with them and they charge me the grand total of £6 per month if I use my overdraft.

Metro Bank. They opened the account same day, printed card in branch, checked the online banking and app were working for us, and it was all sorted within half an hour. On a Sunday afternoon! My other bank told me it would take at least a week to open a business account. Again, Metro did it all in an hour. They are open 7 days a week, you can make appointments, and the staff are the friendliest and most helpful I have ever met in a bank. They also don’t charge fees for most spending abroad.

HSBC - premier account.

Faultless and no complaints. H works in investment banking and they all have HSBC. DD has HSBC and they have been great with her.

Previously with Lloyds - wouldn’t touch them with a barge poll!!

Rbs, their customer service is woeful and they're just generally rubbish but they're the only ones with a travelling van bank that comes near me for the rare occasion I need to go into a branch

First Direct - I cannot rate them more highly. The customer service is amazing - respond promptly, staff well trained and go over and above.

Agree with every word.

We opened our First Direct accounts pretty much as soon as they started as telephone banking was quite a new thing then and they offered it.

We have received such good service since that I would not change.

Several years ago we both lost our wallets in Paris and were left with no cash, no cards and a five year old to feed. The First Direct person we spoke too could not have been more helpful, sorted out the cards and got cash to us the same afternoon. It just felt so reassuring to have a friendly, concerned person on the end of the line who was clearly doing everything she could to make life a bit easier.

@klopptimist I was going to say the same thing about NatWest. I’ve recently had to deal with the death my father, who banked with NatWest. Their team is amazing. They’ve done so much for us because my dad was a long standing customer (decades), including paying for his repatriation because his current account comes with travel insurance. I had to phone up loads of banks and insurance companies to work out my dads financial situation and every other one closed the door on me, despite my dad being a customer. I cried on the phone to the woman at NatWest customer services because she was equipped and able to actually help me. I’m moving to Natwest on the basis of my experience with them.

@watchmefly Lloyds tsb doesn't exist. Tsb is seperate and Lloyds is a banking group which includes Halifax.

We have accounts with hsbc, Halifax and Lloyds. I find the Lloyds/Halifax app easiest to use. I rarely have need to go into branch apart from to use their automated machines, and like most machines get annoyed when they don't work but again found a Lloyds and halifax ones Better than hsbc.

I have never had any issues. My daughter's isa is with Halifax and I can view and transfer money using my Halifax account. I have the one which I can withdraw from straight away which works well.

Have had problems with Halifax due to mortgage but their complaints team have been good and compensated us fairly.

Lloyds and halifax have a good cashback feature and often Sainsbury's or Morrison's come up with 5 or 10% cashback (maximum of £15) but if you are doing your normal shop it's a nice bonus. Lots of other stores and resturants come up as well.

Thing to remember is Lloyds banking group is partially owned by the public and a UK company so come Brexit might be in better standing?

If you are going to switch do it now before all the switch offers end.

Nationwide - always helpful either by telephone/email queries. Also respond very quickly on Twitter.

Should've said I also really like Nationwide's app.

Busy

I wish my bank would send me a box of crocs! I love crocodiles

I'm with Lloyds. I was the last person in the world to use online banking and I've found it brilliant and wonder how I coped before.

I've been with TSB, Nat West and the old Abbey National in the past and definetely
prefer Lloyds.

Barclays. Although I also have an account with HSBC which I pay bills from. I prefer Barclays because

-I have quite a few BACS payments going into my account and they clear with Barclays very quickly, HSBC are a lot slower.
-If my payday is a Monday I can withdraw it the Saturday before.
-personalised debit cards
-very good payment machines in branch
-app easy to use and I don’t have to fiddle about with one of those card readers in order to make a payment like I do with HSBC.

I work for my bank. It’s just easiest to stay with them.

I’ll never bank with Santander. I was with them years ago and they treated me very shabbily. It has left a mark!

Also I think ours is the best app? Consistently high scored and is very safe. I almost exclusively use the app to bank so it’s important to me it’s easy and reliable to use.

Barclays, which I like as I get paid on a Monday and can withdraw on a Saturday. Never had any major issues with them, but don't find them particularly helpful. And getting someone on the phone is often a nightmare.

And nationwide who are great. Always really helpful and the kids have basic accounts with them.

I have no loyalty to any bank, I change to where the best savings rates are or best deals or cash backs . I have more than one bank account. I have a credit card that doesn't charge me any extras when I travel abroad. There is plenty of advice on money saving expert website.

First Direct are just amazing, but this:

first direct brilliant but they don't do kids account and you have to bank at least £1000 a month unless you have other products

Isn’t strictly true. You CAN have an account and pay in less than £1,000, but you will be charged a monthly fee, unless you have other qualifying products, such as credit card or certain savings accounts.

I like Barclays for my current account, and have a savings account there too. The app is really good, and you can use your phone as a PIN sentry for 'full' online banking too. The interest on the savings account isn't great, but it's very easy to move money in and out of it, so it's more of a place to move money out of my current account, but not tie it up.

I have ISAs with Skipton and Halifax. Halifax got a black mark when I had to ring their telephone line from in the branch to open an account and then put one of the branch staff on to authorise it, which seemed a stupid system!