what is the 'best' bank

[MadEyeMisdee]

because mine has p*ssed me off for the last time. they have 'lost' £150 which i am trying desperatly to chase up.

abby

I think that you need to consider what you need from a bank, and especially to what extent you need overdraft facilities. I bank with First Direct and have found them to be excellent - arranging a mortgage was a piece of cake, they will deliver foreign currency the next day, 24 hour phone banking, easy internet and mobile options. Anytime I have had a query on my account, or an error has occured then it has been dealt with immediately and satisfactorily. But I think that they prefer customers who stay in credit with them, so someone who goes overdrawn mayhave a different experience iyswim.

Lloyds have been fab with us.

i have a lloyds account which has been used just for paying a loan from which ends in about 3 weeks.. i am thinking of transferring all my benefit payments over to that account and using the abbey one for bills etc.

We are with Smile. Excellent in every way. We banked with First Direct for a long time and they were good, but Smile has the edge in most ways.

Dh swapped to nationwide after a nightmare with NatWest (I am still with NatWest but only as a protest after they wanted to close mya ccount - very much in the black- when I accomplanied a then ill Dh to a meeting about his overdraft issues). nationwide ahve been fabulous with DH and indeed the kids accounts,a nd I would recommend them to anyone.

Oh Nationwide 'lost' £300 on transactionwith payPal (was paypal giving wrong reference)- they took it on and sorted within a few hours. fab!

lloyds are a shitload of wank - my dh has them.

ihave the co-op. its ethical, you can telephone bank - really easily and speak to a person 24 hours a day - you can internet bank too.

i o not have a branch in my town - so i use another account for if i get cheques or something - but 99% of the time it works out brilliantly.

yes yes Nationwide too is good - i have my CB paid into there - the good thing is - they have no shareholdres - hate the fact that my money makes bit fat rich peoples fatter and richer the rich fuckers

i dont think it does telephone banking - it does internet banking and has a local branch

i am with lloyds and found them to be great.

i was with hsbc - and would never go back.

cx

Nationwide always seem to do really well. Abbey are having some terrible press at the moment

I'd second the recommendation for smile. Their customer service is very good.

i really want a branch and not purely internet account. i have ING savings account which is looking pitiful atm, but planning on building that back up.

will try and get to nationwide this week to open an account. as wasnt particually happy with lloyds. i would like two accounts, one for regular payments and one for my spends really. its how i always do it, so i always have cash in one account if needed.

we have 3 with antionwide atm, one is Dh's curenta ccount (never got around to combining our accounts), one is for the charity trust payments that the boys receive whilst i study, and one os for DH's small business (and I do mean small- WTC chap laughed but hey £250 a year profit on ebay is £250 to spemd we wouldn't have ahd otherwise,a nd its a customer abse for when he can do it properly)

Royal Bank of Scotland have been good for us- local branch, internet and phone banking, arranged a mortgage for us in 24h including couriering the documents to us to sign, and then back to head office.

We have accounts with Nationwide and Smile. I have found them both to be great. The advantage of Nationwide over Smile is the fact that you can visit a branch.