Banking

[Dibs-h]

I'm looking to move my business banking from HSBC to someone else. Candidates are

- Co op
- Santander

My banking is 99.99% electronic so cash\branches\etc. aren't a concern for me.

Anyone bank with these and had any issues with them? If you bank with them as a non-business customer and have had good\bad experiences, be good to hear them.

Open to other suggestions tho.

Thanks

Dibs

 

[HappyHacker]

I currently am with Lloyds and their electronic banking works well for me. I was with TSB and their systems are, surprisingly, similar to Lloyds.

I did think about changing but cannot be bothered with all the rubbish about proving that I am me and not some money launderer or scam artist. It amazes me that the banks go to all this trouble,as they are legally bound to do, but then get fined, peanuts if they are caught, for facilitating money laundering on a grand scale for their favourite clients. I expect I should not be surprised really they are doing it to make money after all.

 

[lurker]

I'm with Santander

123 account
cash back on utility bills etc
monthly interest on the 1st £20k
Makes you eligible for a saver account paying 3%

Never happened, but I'd want a local branch so I could go in and rant loudly if any cock ups occurred. :twisted:

 

[Geoff_S]

It will be interesting to hear your experience if you go with Santander.

In a nutshell, we wanted to open a business account about 2/3 years ago for a new startup. Santander wanted to see past invoices. We explained that we
could not raise invoices until we had a bank account. However, we had loads of other proof as to who we are, confirmation of the limited company set up, list
of directors, driving licences, passports, proof of address, etc etc.

No good, no invoice then no account. But again, without a bank account we could not raise an invoice.

Oh yes, and we had had a Santander 123 account for 2/3years with them already.

No invoice, no account. We gave up!

Ironically, in this instance, we opened an account with HSBC and have never had a problem.

Apart from that, yes, Santander is OK. It's a bank, it has a good online system, it does banking stuff. Do I congratulate them for doing banking? No, they're a bank.

 

[lurker]

sorry!

I missed the bit about a business account

 

[RogerP]

Banked with the Co-op for many years, no problems at all, they have all the services of any bank. Their on-line banking works very well and the ability to withdraw cash at any PO counter is useful.

 

[Dibs-h]

sorry!

I missed the bit about a business account

LOL - You must have also missed the bit that said,

"If you bank with them as a non-business customer and have had good\bad experiences, be good to hear them."

So all's good.

Cheers

Dibs

 

[pcb1962]

I had my business account with Santander until I shut down a couple of years ago.
Always found them very good to deal with, I would recommend them.
UK call centres - very important to me, I struggle with hearing clearly on the phone and accents don't help.
If you have personal accounts with them too you can see all of your accounts on one page from your business login.
Loads of cash back if you have a 123 personal account and pay all your bills from it.

 

[RogerS]

...... It amazes me that the banks go to all this trouble,.....

Especially when you get the anal-retentives at Barclays head office who would not accept a paper statement from my credit card company because it didn't state if it was Visa or Mastercard. Go figure. Told them I had a job for them that involved sex and travel and I'd go elsewhere.

Or finding that some numpty at Amex had, without any reason or authority or them being able to produce a proper audit trail as to how and why, managed to partially cancel my card. To the extent that sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't. Supplier swears blind it's Amex at fault. Amex swear blind it's the supplier. Tool three months to sort out and £200 compensation..so not all bad.

Just about to claim my 'Sorry to trouble you...here's £25 as compensation' award from Lloyds where their systems keep getting ever more frenetic in telling me that I've not looked at my credit card statement online for x months. Reason? Zero balance. Not rocket science to design a system that filters out the emails on a zero balance and stops them being sent.

 

[MartinCox]

I could add stories about the two banks we use/used but isn’t it the truth that there are many, many faults with all * the banks (including those we knew as building societies) and credit card companies?

I think you only have to look back at the last 9 years to come to the reasonable conclusion that they are all unfit for purpose; that they lack any kind of morality; that none will hesitate to try and take money that they do not deserve; that they are desperate to lend money to those who don’t need it but will do anything to avoid lending money to anyone who needs it. I can hardly think of a more disparaging term than to call someone a banker (okay, we can add cold callers, sub-continent scammers etc. but those couldn’t even try to pretend they could be legal).

* my wife has banked with Nationwide (a true) Building Society for many years. Never had an issue; and they do online banking plus branches. But I’m happy to concede that they will be negative takes to tell about them.

 

[Dibs-h]

I couldn't agree more with you Martin. A few years ago - bit late I appreciate but not too late - the penny dropped that business (big or otherwise) has nothing to do with morality or ethics (sadly) and entirely to do with legality and illegality. And the constant "greying" of the 2 by large corporations.

If you choose to stash the notes under the mattress - assuming it gets to a noticeable amount, i.e. > 5K, spending that somewhere is likely to get you the attention of the "Money Laundering" authorities, where you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent, i.e. prove where\how you got it and you've paid tax on it or we're keeping it.

Making life difficult to operate without a bank account. And for most of them we are just a sort code\account number and they couldn't give 2 hoots.

Take my current "headache" - the letter from the complaints dept says "address in Liverpool", speaking to the person today, it was clear she hadn't even looked at the account. Just "looked at what my colleague had said". And we all know how accurate Chinese whisphers are?

I was erring down the road of the Co op as they're an ethical bank but found stuff on the old tinternet to say they're owned by hedge funds. Assuming that's true - since when does hedge fund equate to ethical\moral?

Dibs

 

[Hot stuff]

We've used Santander for a couple of years for the bulk of our savings and never had a problem. The general banking experience with them has been great, can't fault the staff or the variety of accounts available.
You've to watch what interest rates are offered by various competitors and if you want to maximise your return then constant cash movement is necessary but that can turn into a real chore. As long as it's near enough, I tend to leave well alone and use the extra time to spend some of it.
Interest rates in Spain are a fair bit higher for the same accounts but I couldn't find an easy way of taking advantage of that fact, probably only get harder from now on.