I don't hail from Glasgow, but i grew up not far away. I can't even understand a glasgwegian accent sometimes so i feel your pain.

Speaking in reverse, i have a problem with call centre staff. They don't need to hail from a particular region, this seems to affect them all. They always pronounce my surname wrong, even if i correct it for them politely over the phone. I just keep politely informing them that i am not a legendary general and strategist of world war 2, thank you very much.

What fun it is to pit the English against the Scottish in matters of sovereignty. Shouldn't it be the Bank of the United Kingdom to avoid alienating the Irish too?

In an earlier post, I had a go at overseas call centres. It just so happens that a bank manager told me a while back that his bank had received a complaint about their unintelligble foreign sounding call centre staff, which had confused them as they only had UK call centres - they eventually traced the incident and identified the culprit as a born and bred Glaswegian. You can't win.

But it's funded by the British tax payer? Not the London tax payer? By your reasoning, then it should be the British Olympics.

The same applies to the Bank of England. As it sets and controls the flow of money and base interest rates for the whole of Britain, not just England, and is funded by the British tax payer, then it should be called the Bank of Britain.

mrstella0:

Shall we start calling the London Olympics the British Olympics?

No, because the Olympics are awarded to a city, not a country.

If only the Clydesdale had got the millions of pounds worth of free tv news advertising, maybe I would have heard of it.

.. but it's an Australian Bank now...

*runs away.

:)

So the Clydesdale Bank isn't well known? I beg to differ. It's well known, in Scotland.

Anyway, your example of no longer calling RBS or HBOS Scottish is erroneous. Shall we start calling the London Olympics the British Olympics?

mrstella0:there's more than 2 Scottish based banks you know Jalexa.

not that well known then

meh.

mrstella0:

I work and test on a very well known Scottish Bank's internet banking system

How can it be Scottish when (both) required serious baleing out by the UK Government?

Hmmm, I appear to be at odds with everyone else. I'm a Software Test Analyst by trade, and also happen to specialise in useability.

I've found that personally i prefer the simple approach of my account online with Halifax, although i agree entirely about the online security aspect.

At the same time, I work and test on a very well known Scottish Bank's internet banking system (i work for them on contract, you know im not allowed to tell you who ;o) ). They regularly get plaudits for their ease of use, and will be bringing some of the tools you've mentioned online soon! Certainly not at the depth you're looking for, but something that should help the average customer manage their money better.

I have no experience of Halifax per se, but Intelligent Finance (a division of Halifax) has a pretty awful on-line system, beaten only by Abbey (not only do you need to remember your memorable answer to log in, but the question too) and HSBCnet Corporate (which is too horrible to describe and the "Help" Desk staff are unintelligble).

Having said HSBCnet is rubbish, normal HSBC internet banking is ok for business and First Direct is wonderful. Maybe the three parts of the same company should compare notes.

Jalexa:

IainG:

@Jalexa: Meh. I trust myself to not get hit by a keylogger.

I'm sure you do, but hardly the point. You're a software engineer and most are not.

Funnily enough a paper statement arrived today from Halifax. Strange, I though I was paperless. Eventually I noticed an explanation, changes to terms and conditions required paper notification enclosed as a seperate booklet. But why the statement?

At least one other bank also recognises the need to notify changes to terms and conditions by mail. That bank didn't also include a paper statement. Who's right? You/I can decide.

I'm paperless for several reasons. One is to avoid statement interception in the post. Halifax is inept as I think you also know.

Amex generally don't send the statement if they notify you of changes on paper, Halifax do from what you have explained, so i guess its based per the online terms and conditions per seperate entity. (Amex now qualifies as a BHC, haha).

Tbh its catch 22 trying to avoid one or the other, online fraud is just as possible, though more usernames and passwords are required, but if your main aim is to avoid mail tampering then online is the way to go, if online paranoia is what worries you then paper statements seem to make more sense...

IainG:

I'm getting quite unsatisfied with my bank (Halifax). I don't mind their £1 per day overdraft charge, I'm not particularly fussy abut their sub-par interest rates on my ISA, I am neither elated nor frustrated by their Ultimate Reward account, and my mortgage with them is adequate.

No, what's frustrating me is the uselessness of their online banking UI.

My requirements are pretty simple. I'd like to be able to see how much money I have. I'd like to see a list of transactions stretching back at least a month. I like to somehow be able to compare that to previous months to see whether my money is going up (woo!) or down (boo!). I'd like to be able to write notes next to transactions so that when I come back two months later I'm not wondering "where that £300 went".

It is indeed terrible (but there may be hope for you, which i'll get to later)...but the rest of the good stuff Halifax does outweighs the bad. For limit increases and overdraft increases they don't search your credit report everytime, they have UK only call centers open 24 hours over the phone (you'd be surprised but some of the biggest banks in the world aren't anymore) and also they do protect customers a lot.

The online services drive me nuts too, they never even send you your username for online banking! Grr! Its down to the customer to chase it up...

There's quite a lot of data involved in "How much money do I have", so ideally I'd like some analytical tools to help me visualise that data.

I'm a software engineer by trade, and I have the joy of working with a number of excellent data visualisation tools. Thus, I find it somewhat appaling when my bank (which makes a great deal of money from me) gives me tools that are useless.

While it invalidates Halifax's online fraud guarantee, have you ever thought of using one of those systems that allows you to view all your balances for all cards at one go?

It does have its risks, but has its benefits at the same time too....

Does anyone know of a UK-based bank with an exemplary online banking tool? Are there any reasonably up-to-date reviews/comparisons?

Lloyds, which you would think is good given the banking merger but they will operate their online services seperately for some time, look at how Halifax screwed up BOS's system...from what i have heard the online service with BOS was outstanding before the Halifax takeover.

The problem with Lloyds is that while hey are 24 hour operated, if you ever do try use the system in the grave-yard hours, if they are doing m'nence/system is upgrading, all their phone and net systems are unavailable! And the same is now starting to happen with Halifax i am noticing. Which means you sign in, and se "temporarily unavailable" in red for a few hours, and if you can only check in the early hours of the morning, you're kinda screwed unfortunately...