I have been with Lloyds bank since I was 16 my family have always banked with them but I now hate them .
They are careless and uncaring .
Branches are shut bank clerks are useless and bank managers seem to be young women you definitely don’t want to keep in your cupboard .
Getting in touch with them is a nightmare their automated system is enough to send you to the nearest mental facility and self commit .
Internet banking is always asking for verification and talking to a human being is nigh on impossible .
I too had banked with Lloyds for many, many years until there was a problem with my account. There was £70.00 in interest missing due to an error on their part. I queried this and was given ‘the run-round’, one department couldn’t deal with that so it was on to another one. They couldn’t deal with it, the previous department should have done ‘this and that’. Back to the other department and it all started again.
That was it, straight to the local branch I moved with my account to moving home. They too were very unsympathetic, completely disowning any responsibility for what had happened. Even when I then said “close my account, that’s enough” they were completely without any thought of what they had caused and that was after being a customer for around 45 years!
I transferred everything to Santander, where I had a business account for quite a few years without any problems at all. Coincidentally, later on a similar interest error occurred, that was sorted out in less than 10 minutes and that interest was immediately credited to my account plus another, smaller amount as a goodwill gesture. Now that is what is called service. Even now with the coronavirus and what this has caused for most businesses, Santander still give good service. Their online website works very well, their telephone service is good too, high street branches though I have to admit are lacking, but then there are more customers using each one as more branches are closed in favour of online banking. That’s a self-perpetuating problem I believe.
Problems with any organisation that are not sorted in an acceptable way? The answer – vote with your feet and walk away, there are others!
I’m afraid that verification will be with us for ever irrespective of who we bank with because of banking fraud. Even NS&I now asks me for a verification code before letting me access my premium bond account.
I joined the TSB because they were not one of the big banks.And Lloyds took them over and they became a very big bank.I should have moved but where to,they are all the same.Here in Oz too.
I have to say I purposely avoided the big four banks since the Commonwealth Bank took over The State Bank but since Australian Unity completely stuffed up my credit union I moved to Westpac where I had a credit card (leftover from Virgin).
To be honest I have been pleasantly surprised with Westpac, their internet banking has been excellent - their phone app brilliant (I couldn’t believe I could deposit a cheque using it). I haven’t visited the local branch for years and on the rare occasion I have needed to phone them if there was a queue I just left my number, they called me back and were very helpful and knowledgeable.
Perhaps you just need to find the right bank. i vaguely remember that in the UK I used the PO Giro(bank?) from the day it opened in the 1960s (don’t know if it even exists now)
