Recommend a bank please

[JRatron]

Hi,
Our company has been running for 6 years and turnover is over £1m
We've been banking with LloydsTSB up to now, but I'm fed up of having constantly changing acc managers who don't know who we are, who's hands are totally tied so they can't ever do anything for us and who can't do simple tasks like correctly inform us every time we have received an international payment or who can't provide invoices for international bank charges because "our international service is a like a separate company and our systems aren't linked"
We use travelex for sending payments internationally as LloysTSB don't have a mechanism for this that doesn't involve standing in a queue..

So we're looking to switch.

We don't need a free service, but good value is important.
We need good people to deal with, who listen and who understand business needs.
We need very good internet banking as this will be 99% of our banking.
We don't handle a lot of cash.
We do a fair bit of international business, so a bank geared up for international banking and who people in other countries have heard of would be a bonus.

I'm put off Co-op as their internet banking seems dated.
Does anyone have any recommendations? HSBC? Barclays? Natwest?

thanks,
James

 

[Dawn Lane]

Although I don't use the international part of it, I do bank with HSBC and would recommend them. I use my account mainly online although I do post cheques once a month.

Clients of mine also use HSBC, with one of them using the international service regularly (for buying products and paying for services abroad).

I have a local branch and business manager but can do almost everything online if I want to.

Go have a chat with your local branch.

Dawn

 

[David Griffiths]

The problem with asking for recommendations for banks is that for everybody who recommends Bank A because they are happy with the service, there will be somebody else who will day that the bank is useless and don't touch them with a bargepole. That's life as a banker these days.

All of the big banks will deal with international transactions, but you would need to discuss the exact way in which they are handled and make sure that any issues that you've had with Lloyds would be dealt with to your liking with a new bank.

The problem of changing managers seems widespread. I know that Barclays don't move managers around if they don't want to go, and my manager has been there for 7 years plus. However another accountant on here who banks with Barclays has had several. That seems to be pot luck as well. You'll also find that while most managers will be willing and able to help as much as they can, their hands in terms of decision making will be tied, and almost everything has to go up the ladder.

Lloyds Internet banking is very poor compared with others. Barclays is OK (but has a reputation for being slow around the last day of each month) and so is HSBC.

Ask people local to you if they are happy with the bank and the manager. Net off the "great" from the "garbage" in each case and go to talk to them.

 

[Truemanbrown]

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that the account manager who is looking after your account is constantly changing.

I do not think it matters which bank you go to, what you need is an old style manager who is not going to disappear within months. These are few and far between these days!!!

 

[David Griffiths]

I do not think it matters which bank you go to, what you need is an old style manager who is not going to disappear within months. These are few and far between these days!!!

Move to sunny Cwmbran, and bank with Barclays - everybody welcome (except other firms of accountants, of course!)

 

[KM-Tiger]

I would suggest you look at HSBC. They have a separate and different online banking system - hsbc.net - that is geared to international transactions. A quite different kettle of fish to their UK online business banking.

Used to use it in a former business, and the few times I needed to make payments to foreign banks, it was a breeze.

 

[tony84]

Im with RBS, i have a decent sum in my bank account for my age but nowhere near the numbers your talking.
I cant fault them. Infact if anything, i just want to be left alone. They call me atleast once a year usually 2-3 times. In 6 years ive had 2 account managers. I have no idea how much sway they have but ive had 1 refund £150 in charges on a relatives account at my request - so it would seem they have a bit.
The branch staff in the 4 branches i have used on a regular basis all get to know me and are really polite.
Natwest on the other hand - although the same company are rude, grumpy and can actually be quite awkward.

The only other bank ive used is Halifax and they were quite polite and friendly too.

 

[Business News]

The best bank really depends what you do and what you want from a bank. My personal likes are low or no charges, interest on credits and a good web interface and from my experience finding all bases covered by one bank is the holy grail.

HSBC have a great web presence but apply charges with no interest on our credit or deposit accounts.

Santander do pay interest on accounts but have a very basic web interface though it does everything you need to do. The thing I really dislike about their way of operating is they take a working day to move money between accounts. This has caught us out on more than one occassion with rejected BACS payments when you forget to move forward these payments relative to transferring money into the account to cover the payment. Cheque deposits can take 2 weeks to arrive in your account.

Coop free banking has a terrible web interface. Very labour intensive to do anything and it doesn't even have a multi-bacs payment facility. It is really only any good for companies dealing with a few suppliers, customers or staff.

We use HSBC for all receipts and the others for interest on credit balances and all the payments as they offer free transactions. This reduced our banking costs by 60% and increased interest receipts by 150% when rates were 5% or infinity now HSBC don't actually pay any interest.

So our recommendation is more than one bank is required to give you the best available of all worlds but HSBC works fine as the mainstay.

 

[T7production]

We've been with Natwest since I started the company (14 years). Amazingly we've only had two accounts managers in that time: the current one for about six years.
Obviously, that's basically down to luck; but I do find their online banking good though. We've also an account with Smile (Co Op) - and the internet banking there does seem a little more cumbersome

HSBC turned us down flat!!

 

[zigojacko]

We have the majority of our business accounts with RBS who have been very helpful, supportive, easy to get hold of, no overseas call centres with pretty much immediate access to my dedicated account manager whenever I need.

We also carry out international transfers/transactions and although there is no built-in system in their digital banking section, they offer Bankline for a small monthly fee which allows us to set up schedules overseas or otherwise payments and a whole host of other features.

May be worth considering.

 

[bdw]

Confirming what David said above, I was with RBS but the service I received from them was terrible and their international payment system was very poor. On one occasions I wrote to my manager telling him about an incident of dreadfully poor service. I told him that as a result of this I was thinking of closing my account and asked him to give a reason why I shouldn't do so. He did not reply!

As a result of this nearly four years ago I moved to A&L commercial bank (now Santander) who have been excellent. Their Internet banking and international payments systems are great. You may have heard that Santander are getting a bad name but I think this is for consumer banking. AFAIK the commercial operation is a separate operation.

But then again who knows? It may all change with the takeover.

 

[zigojacko]

We have the majority of our business accounts with RBS who have been very helpful, supportive, easy to get hold of, no overseas call centres with pretty much immediate access to my dedicated account manager whenever I need.

We also carry out international transfers/transactions and although there is no built-in system in their digital banking section, they offer Bankline for a small monthly fee which allows us to set up schedules overseas or otherwise payments and a whole host of other features.

May be worth considering.

As a result of this nearly four years ago I moved to A&L commercial bank (now Santander) who have been excellent. Their Internet banking and international payments systems are great. You may have heard that Santander are getting a bad name but I think this is for consumer banking. AFAIK the commercial operation is a separate operation.

But then again who knows? It may all change with the takeover.

Following on from my last post and in correlation to what bdw stated, my RBS accounts are held at the branches due to switch over to Santander by 2012. I have been informed that there will be no change or disruptance to the services I require. We'll see.

I wasn't happy to be informed of this after the incident that saw Santander deliver thousands of bank statements to the wrong addresses.

 

[3 MORE YEARS]

Natwest seem to have pretty good customer service, but Santander is giving free business banking (beyond the initial 2 years).

 

[JRatron]

Thanks guys, that's really helpful

We were swaying towards HSBC for their Internet banking and their international presence, but I've just had another option presented to us....
Handels Bank. A Swedish owned bank who only accepts certain types of customers, but we should fit their remit.

Does anyone have any practical experience of them though?

I found an article (can't post a link here) that makes interesting reading...

Unlike our familiar High Street banks, where key business decisions - whether to lend to customers for example - are often dictated by edicts from someone sitting in head office, Handelsbanken empowers branch staff to decide who to take on as new customers and who to lend to.

It then closely monitors the financial performance of each branch to ensure that they are operating satisfactorily.
It does not sell fancy financial products, such as the controversial payment protection insurance, and it does not push branch staff to sell products by dangling bonus or commission payments in front of them. Neither does it advertise, which probably explains why it is not a household name.

It is a throwback to banking epitomised by fictional wartime bank manager Captain Mainwaring in TV's Dad's Army, in the days when branch managers ruled the roost and banking was relationship based and not reliant on selling unwanted products.

Such focus on the customer seems to work. Handelsbanken, which operates worldwide, now has 30,000 British customers.
According to independent research, Handelsbanken has the highest rating among personal and business bank customers for satisfaction and loyalty - far higher than Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Indeed, it was one of the few banks (HSBC was a notable exception among the big banks) where customer satisfaction levels increased last year, rather than dropped further.

Anders Bouvin is chief executive of Handelsbanken in Britain. He says the aim is to build long-term relationships with customers. The result is that many customers are successful business people - lawyers and serial entrepreneurs through to financial advisers - who recommend the bank to friends and business colleagues. It is akin to an exclusive banking club and Bouvin is happy with the label.

Hooked: Keen angler Nick Stephens and his family all switched to Handelsbanken
'If we live up to what we stand for as a bank, then we must have belief in our customers,' he says. 'So yes, we will have several conversations with people before we invite them to bank with us. But once on board, we want to look after their banking needs throughout their life.'

 

[CabinLIving]

I was going to suggest the Co-op through the fsb, we currently us LLoyds but joined the fsb so were thinking of switching.

We have been in touch with Handelsbanken particularly Alison Hewitt in Worcester extremely helpful and arranged a mortgage in principal (following a long face to face metting) to buy a Garden Centre when Lloyds TSB said no.

I would highly recommend Handelsbanken

 

[talkinpeace]

Another angle :
I have friends who work in Corporate Finance for banks.
As you do they have moved around all of the banks over the years.
Several have now ended up with Handelsbanken and have no intention of moving on.
The bank have that shocking Scandinavian thing : a decent ethic towards their staff and customers.
On the weekend I met some staff from a Norwegian PLC and they were so pleasant it was a real surprise to realise how senior they were - not at all "up themselves" as those from a big UK or US company would be.

Personally I'm a Co-op person