Inefficient banking systems

Online banking is a nightmare when it comes dealing with logging on or calling the remote call centre. The banks have made online banking completely un-user-friendly with questions when you call that tax the mind and which are vastly more complicated than "who wants to be a millionaire": memorable names which one juut cannot recall, memorable dates that have slipped long into the obscurity of history. Then customer numbers, then account numbers, then sort code number and the third and seventh digit of a PON number or password which you have long forgotten. Did you pass the security test? No you didn't. You would need a first class degree in mental arithmetic to do so.

Banks which insist on this nightmare I will close my account with no matter how good their interest is. The whole logging on procedure has to be simplified.

What really gets my back up is the time taken to transfer funds from one account to another.

Why, if you are using the internet banking service, does it take 4 working days to move your money? Why isn't it instantaneous?

I'll tell you why. Once the banks get your money by whatever means they have a monopoly on it. They want to keep it for as long as possible. During the 4 days they use when you try to transfer it, they are manaufacturing a huge profit from your funds.

Demand payment for this interest, or instant transfer. Banks have no right to keep your money longer than necessary. There should be consumer legislation and protection on this.

As simple as that bankimg system here is obsolete. Even in Poland when You will do transfer before 09:30AM it will reach its destination at 12:30 THE SAME DAY!!!!! The rest of time banks are STEALING interest from YOUR money!!!!!! that is the Truth!

The trouble is you the customer, because the banks keep selling to you people, and you keep buying! Whilst this keeps working the banks won't change. If you keep buying products, like mortgages with massive fees attached, they'll keep selling to you until kingdom come. There used to be no mortgage fees or, if there were, they were very small, maximum £99 for arranging a fixed rate one. Why you people think it's a good idea to pay £400, £500, £600 today is beyond me. Believe you me there is no need, the extra on top of the £99, is pure profit.

This might not appear to help the person paying fees for late payment or slow clearing, but it's all part of the same picture. It is possible to change things, but banks are big and so it will take an enormous shove to get their attention.

In reality it will take a large group of customers to walk away from one of the main banks and not go back until things change massively in their favour. You keep your account, just don't use it. So if Barclays customers left them in droves and they obtained no new customers from other banks, that would eventually force Barclays to change. If Barclays changed as much as customers demanded, then they could go back to Barclays. All the banks would then be very reluctant to take you for granted again, they'd be pretty dim if they tried. I worked for them for 17 years before taking redundancy seven years ago, I know. It doesn't have to be Barclays, they're all as bad as each other.

What customers need is someone to organise this customer cause. Anyone up for it?

I was called a "stupid B***h" by a girl at NATWEST telephone banking!!!! the Chairman could not be bothered to call me - and Michael Duncan in his office has just insulted me again today by offering me £250. Ihave a copy of the transcript. Should I call the press???? I am claiming compensation. By the way it is that offensive I was not allowed to type it on here, hence the stars.

The Nationwide building society [former Co-operative building society] is run by a clique, a boardroom of self-appointed croneys. There's no real democratic process in the Nationwide. Members' bank? Huh! That was 70 years ago. There's no mutuality in money anymore.

Changing banks? You're only jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. They're all the same. They all make money in the same way - from you the ugly customers!

We only keep money in banks because we think it is safer to do so. But what with identity fraud, and bank charges, and poor interest rates, and the taxman and the delibrerate slowness in the transfer of funds, is your hard-earned money really safe?

Time to demand your wages to be paid to you in cash, in coin of the realm again.

I take some comfort in finding that Im not the only one dis-satisfied with the nationwide.Ive just p got my branch to print a check out from a savings account and deposit it in my current account.Then I find that I cant draw on it until it has cleared.Whats that all about.The dont pay me interest from the day the cheque is printed but they dont let me use the money once transfered. I also transfered money to my visa debit card from a first direct account and nationwide couldnt find the money but took 14 days to send it back. And this is supposed to be a members society.
Im changing banks.

No matter WHAT bank you have, they all have ONE thing in common,, "SHAREHOLDERS".

They are the one coining it in with all these ILLEGAL charges. For christ sake, we are in the 21st century, and you still have to rely on snail mail to pay things.

Direct debit is ALSO a rip off, yes it's convenient, but don't have enough money to cover it, (sometimes it does happen when you get paid monthly) and they rip you off again with charges.

WHY can't WE charge when OUR money fails to get cleared in time???

It's all about money. The three to five days they take to transfer your funds is in their account on which they gain interest, billions each year, for damn all. Ever seen a poor banker? It's simple plain robbery.

This one's quite interesting actually. Things don't seem to have moved on at all in recent years. With electronic fund transfers and automatic clearing, you'd think that all this could be done at the push of a button. Why the three to five day wait then? Can someone on the inside with good banking knowledge provide us with some answers?

How is changing banks going to help? They all rely on the same useless electronic payment system that takes 5 working days to move your money! They all charge fees for late payments even if it's their fault. Please tell me where the mythical alternative bank is that doesn't have these problems, I'd love to know...

Yes change your bank. Why should you put up with the service when you can easily go elsewhere? By the way, don't even go close to Natwest or Lloyds, they have THE worst customer service anywhere!