High Street Banks Deliver Best of Bad Service

One of the things most of us don’t change during our adult life is our bank. This has been proven to a certain extent, as two years ago the Office of Fair Trading discovered 64 per cent of consumers had always had the same account. As a result, many bank clients are finding both the rates not up to standard and faulty service.

A recent survey found that the new, smaller banks were offering better service overall, compared to the old high street bank names, most people are familiar with. About 43,000 people were surveyed about their experience with 31 leading banks and building institutions. The survey took things like current accounts, savings, mortgages and credit cards into account, to produce an overall satisfaction score.



The top three providers from the survey were First Direct, the One Account, and Smile. A few other businesses which could be considered honorable mention from the survey are Cahoot, Egg, Tesco and Saga. Another detail about the survey is that four out of the top ten are building institutions. Although they are financial entities, these businesses have a social purpose and highly value everyday customers.

At the other end of the spectrum are the big old banks. The list of banks which scored very low in the survey includes Bank of Scotland, Halifax, Santander, RBS, NatWest and Lloyds.

An estimated nine out of every ten of the UK’s 54 million active account holders are with the traditional, older banks. HSBC proved to be a mold-breaker, as they came in 15th place overall. Peter Vicary-Smith remarked on the quality of service provided by the traditional banks, saying: “Time and again, the big high street banks are found to be lacking when it comes to good customer service.”

High street banks tend to be set in stone on the types of products they offer their long-standing customers. The way the old traditional banks have survived this long is by relying on the same types of products year after year, to cater to the customers who always want the same products to choose from, like a fast food restaurant menu.

Coincidently, the same banks that almost folded during the crisis are the ones which fared so poorly during the survey. These banks did not sit on the brink of failure during the crisis because they provided bad customer service, but instead because they decided to put all their eggs in the international finance basket.

Even though the public owns a couple of these old traditional banks, namely RBS and Lloyds, ministers are not concerned with their poor record. When asked why they continue to treat the public so badly, the Treasury diverted the inquiries toward the banks.

But the Treasury added: “The Government is committed to greater transparency of complaints handling where this will help consumers. From the end of August, firms will have to publish complaints data every six months, allowing people to see how many complaints particular firms receive and how they handle them.”

It will probably be many years before the traditional banks score well on this type of survey, but one thing is for sure. For those who are unhappy with their current bank; change to a new one. Switching is easy and all direct debits are transferred seamlessly. You may be surprised at the difference.