LincsMag - Lincolnshire Magazine

Banks Still Failing Customers

by Patricia Montgomery, LincsMag Writer.
Date: 01 September 2010

The big high street banks continue to fall short of customers’ expectations, with the smaller banks, such as First Direct and Smile, yet again topping the Which? Money People’s Choice poll*.

The consumer champion’s annual round-up of Which? member satisfaction surveys reveals the best and worst financial brands in four key areas - current accounts, savings, credit cards and mortgages. First Direct, One Account and Smile scored best, leaving Bank of Scotland, Halifax and Santander at the bottom of the table**.

Excellent customer service remains key to keeping customers happy, as First Direct came top in three satisfaction surveys - current accounts, savings and mortgages – giving it an overall score of 82%. Current account mortgage experts, One Account, came in second with a score of 81%, while Smile came third with 79%***.

Consumers looking for happy banking should steer clear of banks owned by the Lloyds Banking Group, as Bank of Scotland and Halifax both sit at the bottom of the table, and Lloyds TSB and Cheltenham & Gloucester don’t score much better****.

Which? chief executive, Peter Vicary-Smith says:

“Whether it’s a current account, mortgage, credit card or savings account, we consistently see the same names keeping their customers happy.

“Time and again, the big high street banks are found to be lacking when it comes to good customer service. People who are unhappy with their bank must vote with their feet and move to a better financial provider.”

* In October/November 2009 and April 2010, Which? Money surveyed 14,621 Which? members about current accounts and 13,524 about savings accounts. In January and June 2010 Which? Money surveyed 4,522 members about their mortgage lenders, and in July 2009 and March 2010 10,758 members were surveyed about their credit card providers.

To calculate overall satisfaction scores, Which? Money combined members’ overall satisfaction with their likelihood of recommending the provider to a friend.

The table shows the providers we were able to rate in at least two of the four core product categories that we carry out customer satisfaction surveys for – mortgages, savings , current accounts and credit cards. The combined score is created using relative customer scores for each sector. These relative scores were calculated by dividing each individual score by the average for each sector.

**** Bank of Scotland came bottom of the table with an overall score of 43%, Halifax’s overall score was 46%, Cheltenham & Gloucester’s score was 50% and Lloyds TSB scored 53%.

The full article ‘People’s Choice 2010’ appears in the September 2010 issue of Which? Money magazine.