Suggest A Decent Bank

**Ivor1** · 26 June 2006, 07:20

Got to totally agree with this. Ive been a Natwest private customer for 22 years, I then tried to open a Business Bank account with them what a ******* nightmare. 3 weeks on and Ive still not heard anything back from them, I call the supposed Business Manager and he never answers his phone, when he did (once) he said he would call back and never did. How long can it take to tell a customer if there application was successful or at least find out what the status is.

Just out of interest the bloke at Natwest you dealt with Call Ben ?

All I can say about Natwest Business Banking and there branch service is its ******* crap, totally unprofessional and incomptentent, as soon as the spotty, scruffy 19 year old Business Branch Manager at my local branch I was supisious.

Anyway still dont know if my account has been opened, but dont care anymore Im closing all my accounts with them. My dad also had problems with there business service, he had revenues going through his company account of £1mil plus a year and had been a private customer with them for many years, he left them as well in the end.

I made the mistake of apply with them as I thought it would be easy how fecking wrong could i be !

**Cowboy Bob** · 26 June 2006, 07:37

MyCo is with Abbey and so far I'm very satisfied with their service. I get no charges at all (I chose the Internet only option) for things like BACS payments and everything was set up and ready to go as soon as I presented them with the incorporation certificate.

**weemster** · 26 June 2006, 07:38

Business Banking

I found NatWest to be a little behind with the times with regard to businesss banking (I don't think they are really interested in this sort of business - small turnovers and contractors like me expecting something for nothing

I have found Abbey to be pretty good. They have free banking to certain limits which won't suit all but are pretty generous and also a reasonable interest rate. I think this approach is quite mature as they differentiate between small, medium and large businesses rather than blanket charges across the board.

**MikeP** · 26 June 2006, 20:05

Had a friend who signed up as a sole trader with Lloyds in a few days no hitches. They have/had a deal with the first 18 moths free. Abbey also looks good, and another colleague has had some nasty experiences with Natworst.

If you're with SJD they can get you a decent deal with Cater Allen. I've heard bad things about them, but I've been with them for a year & a half and found their service excellent.

Just my 2p.

**Helios** · 26 June 2006, 20:16

Will give Abbey a go. Cheers.

**Ruprect** · 26 June 2006, 20:55

You get 3.5% interest and no charges from Cater Allen if you've got more than 10K to open it with. Not sure how hard the process is tho.

**Denny** · 26 June 2006, 23:15

Originally posted by Ruprect

You get 3.5% interest and no charges from Cater Allen if you've got more than 10K to open it with. Not sure how hard the process is tho.

The best thing about it is that you get through to a real human being customer service op immediately after using their freephone number, with no menus and annoying call centre robots to deal with, spewing out their scripted responses to your queries.

**Mustang** · 27 June 2006, 09:47

When are HSBC going to learn that a call centre in India is driving customers away? They need to scrap the idea and bring it back on shore!

**TheMonkey** · 27 June 2006, 10:01

I'm with HSBC Direct and have had no problems at all. They are amazingly well spoken and the line is not crackly

Suggest A Decent Bank