Co Operative Bank Review

Overall Rating

Ethical investment policy. The rest of their service is an absolute joke, like something from the 1950s.

Where do I start? The Co-operative bank, and its subsidiary, Smile, seem disorganised. Their internet banking is absolutely stoneage when compared to other banks. They are not equipped to deal with faster Payments yet, unlike most other banks, which makes it a nightmare to pay money in and out quickly, as they have hardly any branches.

Since opening accounts with Smile and the Co-operative V Bank several years ago, I've had nothing but trouble. Compared to my other main bank, they are awful.
They come across as if the business has been chronically underinvested in. Internet banking with them is a joke - the web site is antiquated. You can't find out what you ' re true available balance is, you have to go to a Link cashpoint to find out. This makes budgeting very difficult. Also, unlike other banks, there's no running total of how much is in your account after each transaction. A real nightmare at times.
They also seem to be incapable of doing day-to-day banking correctly. In the past couple of years I've had over £200 worth of compensation from them for basic errors they've made. These range from getting credit card numbers wrong when making balance transfers, to my latest problem with them; I made a bill payment for £300 to a credit card from my Smile current account. The following day, despite the fact that the money went from my account correctly, and I had more than enough money to cover it, I got a message saying that the payment had bounced due to insufficient funds, and I was charged £30 for it. Two days later, the transaction mysteriously disappeared from my online statement, and the money has not been refunded to my account. I have contacted them to find out what's happened and they have no idea where the money has gone, why I got a message saying it had been bounced, and why I was charged £30. This still has not been resolved.
Unfortunately, this really is all too typical of them. I've a LOT of similar problems with them in the past like this, ranging from them forgetting to send me out replacement debit cards when my old one expired, to them mis-handling payments into my account, so that they were delayed and I was consequently charged for payments that left my account in the meantime.
The fact that they have very few branches is also a nightmare. If you do ever find a branch, you can guarantee that it will be chronically understaffed, the staff won't have a clue what's happening, and the queue will be a mile out of the door because someone's gone on their lunch break at the busiest time of the day.
This means that you have to rely on the post office to deposit cheques etc. which can be a very dodgy affair. They specify that you should allow 6 working days for cheque deposits from the Post Office to appear in your account, which really is unacceptable to start with. However, I've also had cheques go missing, or take longer than the 6 working days specified. This has made it a nightmare to budget against. This is even worse, because they are also not equipped to deal with faster Payments yet, unlike most other banks, which makes it even more of a nightmare to pay money in and out quickly. You have to rely on the old fashioned 4 day BACS transfers if you're transferring money from other banks.
These are just a few of the problems I've had with them, I could write an essay about the rest of them. I really do think that a lot of people let the Co-operative bank get away with murder because of their ethical policy; if they'd received a similar level of service from another bank they'd have left years ago. I'm currently looking to close my accounts with them, I ' ve had enough. For those of you looking for similar ethically based banking, I'd recommend going to one of the high street banks and trying their Sharia accounts (Lloyds TSB and HSBC do them, I'm not a Muslim and I use it for my Lloyds TSB account) - your money will be invested ethically, and you'll get service which is a trillion times better than the Co-op bank/Smile offer.