Dear wonderful hive mind of the internet: I'd like some advice.
My girlfriend Christine currently has a bank account with the Royal Bank of Scotland, but has been notified that RBS has sold its branch network to the Spanish bank Santander and that Santander will be taking over her account in the near future. This is despite RBS owning another high street bank, NatWest.
Santander have grown quickly - they took over Abbey National a few years ago and have since gobbled up the 'good' half of Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester. But this has been at a price - a recent poll on Money Saving Expert rated them by far the worst bank for customer service, and that former Alliance & Leicester customers have had the worst problems. These have included having their accounts essentially frozen for days at a time during the switchover.
Obviously, Christine would like to avoid this, so we're on the look out for something new.
Santander, for all its faults, does have a good deal at present - new customers get £100 and a high interest rate on the first £2,500 in their current account for 12 months, but to qualify she would have to move to them now to be classed as a new customer. Similarly Halifax's reward current account, which I have, pays you £5 for every month where you pay in at least £1000, though again Halifax does not score highly for customer service.
The best of the larger banks seems to be The Co-operative Bank but there isn't a branch in her home town of Blackpool - the nearest one being 12 miles away in Preston.
So, internet people, what are your suggestions? Ideally she needs an account she can access online as well as in branch, and one with a bank that isn't likely to cause her problems. How do you each feel about your current bank, and would you recommend it? Please let me know in the comments.






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