Ranting about BARCLAYS - going to swap banks but to whom?

[Jodee]

Won't bore you with too much detail, but they have managed a triple-whammy this week, cocking up my bosses conveyancing transactions, clients still waiting at 5pm to move in and bl**dy unhappy, interest charges to boot (he is dumping them as well)(1), DH was called a liar by his boss who accused him of not paying in cash and cheques on Monday as it didn't show up in 45mins on boss's account as it normally does (Barclays didn't make the transaction until yesterday) (2) chip and pin nightmare with me (3).

Who has given you excellent service? Need a bank that I can pay cheques into easily, so I guess an internet bank is out.

the cooperative has ethical values.

I haven't read everyone else's recommendations yet but we left Barclay's too. They were rubbish and we nearly lost our business through their incompetence.

We changed to HSBC and they were brilliant. Went out of their way to be helpful.

First direct. Been with them since the beginning and always been more than happy with them. Thats about 10 years now i think.

Oops i have now read the thread and see that everyone else likes first direct too! and it is ten years, thought so. Yes you can send cheques thru post in England.

Also don't forget to go through freefivers if you're opening a first direct account! - You get £50 from first direct for opening the account and also £22.50 into your freefivers account (+ £5 if it's a new freefivers account!)

Wow lots of First direct fans, will definitely check them out. Thanks to everyone for replying. Note in JanH's list none of the BigFour appear ...

I've got no complaints about First Direct either.

The coop. A good ethical bank

omg - so have to agree with aloha! abbey are absolute poo. i only opened an account with them because i used to work for them ten years ago, and am now desperate to get rid, the problem being that i have a large overdraft left from my student account that i need to pay off £1500, but now no longer a student account they keep charging me for it and so the £100 i agreed to pay off each money at least a third of that goes on charges.
most of my friends are with hsbc/first direct and have no complaints. i will be swapping as soon as i can.

oh and abbey have a stupid £250 per day cash limit, which is fine most of the time but at the end of the month when i need to pay my childminder i have to pay her in three instalments!

have got main account with barclays then i opened a smile account with the intention of swapping everything over but got pg and am now on mat leave and because i need the overdraft barclays gave me i can't afford to put everything in smile and leave myself owing barclays loads.

i also don't like the way your statement is done online with smile, tbh, i find it a bit confusing. that wouldn't stop me swapping over though, but like i said the barclays overdraft has got me trapped!