Feb 2021 Service Quality Results

Banking and money
#1

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Overall Service quality

Rank Likelihood to recommend (Feb 2021) Likelihood to recommend (Aug 2020) Change
Monzo 1 85% 86% -1%
first direct 2 ↑ 83% 83% 0%
Starling Bank 3 ↓ 82% 84% -2%
Metro Bank 4 76% 81% -5%
Nationwide 5 71% 71% 0%
Barclays 6 66% 62% 4%
Lloyds Bank 7 ↑ 64% 60% 4%
Halifax 8 ↓ 62% 62% 0%
Bank of Scotland 9 ↑ 61% 58% 3%
NatWest 10 ↑ 58% 58% 0%
HSBC UK 11 ↓ 58% 59% -1%
Santander 12 ↓ 57% 61% -4%
The co-operative bank 13 ↑ 57% 57% 0%
Virgin Money 14 ↓ 54% 60% -6%
TSB 15 ↑ 53% 51% 2%
Tesco Bank 16 ↑ 47% 44% 3%
Royal Bank of Scotland 16 ↑ 47% 46% 1%

Online and mobile banking services

Rank Likelihood to recommend (Feb 2021) Likelihood to recommend (Aug 2020) Change
Monzo 1 89% 89% 0%
Starling Bank 2 87% 88% -1%
first direct 3 ↑ 84% 83% 1%
Nationwide 4 ↑ 82% 81% 1%
Barclays 5 81% 81% 0%
Metro Bank 6 ↓ 80% 85% -5%
Bank of Scotland 7 ↑ 79% 77% 2%
Halifax 7 ↓ 79% 81% -2%
Lloyds Bank 7 ↑ 79% 78% 1%
NatWest 10 ↑ 76% 75% 1%
Santander 10 76% 76% 0%
HSBC UK 12 ↓ 74% 72% 2%
Royal Bank of Scotland 13 ↑ 68% 71% -3%
Virgin Money 13 ↓ 68% 75% -7%
The co-operative bank 15 ↑ 66% 67% -1%
TSB 16 ↑ 65% 65% 0%
Tesco Bank 17 ↑ 62% 59% 3%

Overdraft services

Rank Likelihood to recommend (Feb 2021) Likelihood to recommend (Aug 2020) Change
Metro Bank 1 ↑ 69% 71% -2%
first direct 1 ↑ 69% 73% -4%
Monzo 3 ↑ 66% 69% -3%
Starling Bank 4 ↓ 65% 74% -9%
Barclays 5 ↑ 61% 58% 3%
Lloyds Bank 6 ↑ 60% 55% 5%
Halifax 6 ↓ 60% 62% -2%
Santander 8 ↑ 59% 55% 4%
HSBC UK 9 ↓ 58% 58% 0%
TSB 9 ↑ 58% 57% 1%
Bank of Scotland 11 ↓ 56% 57% -1%
Nationwide 11 ↓ 56% 59% -3%
Virgin Money 13 ↓ 52% 58% -6%
The co-operative bank 14 ↓ 51% 56% -5%
NatWest 15 50% 53% -3%
Royal Bank of Scotland 16 ↑ 47% 51% -4%
Tesco Bank 17 43% 50% -7%

Credit to @danbeddows on the Monzo forum for the Aug ‘20 vs Feb ‘21 tables

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#2

Interesting to see Starling slip into 3rd place in the Overall Service Quality results, being overtaken by First Direct. Perhaps related to the issues being raised in this thread?

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#3

It’s only a 2% drop in overall service quality. That’s potentially just random noise.

The striking change in Starling’s results is 9% drop in score for overdraft services. That’s biggest drop across all banks. What happened there?

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#4

I think this is due to the refusal to provide an overdraft and also due to the refusal to amend the existing limit.
They refused to amend my limit twice for 7 months without explanation… just a standard (same) message in chat.

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#5

Surely all banks turn down a proportion of customers who request an overdraft or overdraft amendment though. Or do you feel Starling have recently become more cautious in this regard?

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#6

From what I’ve heard, it seems they’ve always been pretty cautious when it comes to offering overdrafts. A lot of customers just don’t get offered them at all, even though they hold very generous ones with other banks. What’s caused the 9 percentage point drop from August is very curious though…?

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#7

I think they have changed the overdraft interest rates, and increased them significantly for most customers since the last survey?

Whereas previously they were one of the cheapest banks for overdrafts, I think they are now pretty much the same as everyone else?

That may have affected things.

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#8

It was previously 15% across the board. It’s now 15%, 25% or 35% depending on your credit score. The change was announced in December 2019, and took effect in April 2020, so if the drop in score is related, it’s somewhat delayed.

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#9

That’s what I was thinking of - thanks for posting the link!

Basically, my recollection was that 15% was pretty good relative to the market (at the time) while most customers seem to have now been moved to the 35% and they may not be happy about it (especially as many banks charge around that figure, so it’s not very competitive any more).

I think that’s probably the reason for the change in score.

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#10

I believe that’s still rather competitive compared to most? (Although does FD still have that £200 interest free overdraft offer with M&S…?)

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#11

I’m not completely sure, but I suppose it only takes a small number of people to be rattled by it to have a significant impact on the scoring?

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#12

I expect so (I take these survey results with a mountain of salt! - after all, just look at how close FD and Metro come to Starling and Monzo in the digital category, when in reality the neobanks are leagues ahead in that regard). Is Monzo’s overdraft offering better than Starling’s though?

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#13

Absolutely, I do take them with a mountain of salt!

Some of these things are down to customer expectations, I think. Monzo and Starling customers would expect a really exceptional app but First Direct customers might think their app is good even if Monzo customers would think it was rubbish - essentially, a different type of customer may be more demanding in different areas.

I think Monzo’s overdrafts are now quite similar to Starling - they were forced to get rid of their flat-fee pricing as per new FCA guidelines, so now charge a percentage (not sure what) and they are also pretty conservative in their lending.

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#14

It’s interesting that Halifax is down and Lloyds are up in the online and mobile banking section give they are identical from a functional point of view.

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#15

Same with RBS and NatWest (although maybe dark mode is worth 8 percentage points!)

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#16

These guys actually have a scarily nice app, if they had an easier way for me to contact them bar calling, they’d probably be my #1 bank

But alas, they don’t. So I closed my account :3 (being open on a Sunday is also a big plus)

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#17

Don’t they have secure messaging via internet banking?

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#18

This may be the heart of the matter for starling. The sort of customers their ads have been aimed at will likely have been getting some fee-free overdraft elsewhere. Discovering you can’t get any free limit and getting charged at least 15% probably has been a shock for some - even if it’s only because the rules have also changed

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#19

Ah, good to know! (I must admit I just automatically lumbered them together with the other high street banks)

So there’s no live chat or anything? That’s ridiculous, and makes me very glad I ended up never finishing my application a year or so ago.

#20

I’m not sure how many banks other than FD and M&S offer a fee free overdraft allowance? Maybe a couple of packaged accounts?

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