.....they've got to be better than Abbey! Abbey issue multiple identical cards, keep your money in suspense accounts without bothering to find out where it belongs, until you spend 9 hours on the phone being passed from department to department. Phone services then tel you to go to the branch. The branch say they are only an admin office and can't help and then threaten to call the police if you want to complain. I have only had limited experience with Halifax, but found their staff to be polite and helpful and would certainly consider them when I (as Abbey suggested) I close my current accounts and go elsewhere.
No better or worse than any of the others. I think all the banks in the UK leave a lot to be desired regarding transparency of fees and the fairness of fees. I think call centres over here should be local and not offshore. In saying that I have been banking with First Direct for a couple of years now and find that they are excellent. While they are owned by HSBC they are nothing like them. The call centre is UK based and the staff are actually friendly and helpful - honestly it sounds unusual but true. Their fees are still a little less than fair but are reasonably transparent as you can get a guide from them which we have struggled to do with other banks. Halifax has some great offers floating around and spend a heap on advertising but the people who I know who bank with it don't rave about it like First Direct clients do. I think its personal choice though as to what you look for in a bank.
Ive had a bad experience with this bank, funnily enough they charged me over �700 in bank charges over the space of 4 or 5 months, but Im out of the time line to claim any of them back.
The Halifax is the same as any other branch unfortunately. Although they trumpet their publicity about being caring, stressfree and so on, the staff are trained to be like automotons and never seem to have the initiative to take, make decisions or to veer from the training manual.All of them offer the same services with the same rates of interest and methods of treating their customers. The bank that operates in a different way to the norm will clean up one day.
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