What one rule should banks stick to?

There are many but I would say treat customers in difficulty fairly

Hows about reverting to exactly what banks were supposed to be in the first place?

-You save some money, you get a certain percentage return on it.
-You want to borrow some money, you pay a certain percentage (which is more than the saving rate) in order for the banks to cover their costs and make a profit.

Anything outside of these rules should be run under an “investment bank” arm of the company so as not to jeopardise the stability of the economy.

Our countries economies are based on banking stability. If they are allowed (under the high street name) to frivolously invest in risky enterprises, then this should have absolutely no effect on the BAU (business as usual) of the high street arm that we all rely on.

Remove targets for packaged accounts. We know what targets did for PPI…..it meant that sellers forgot the boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable sales. There are many cases around where those boundaries are very much being used to push packaged accounts that are, on the whole, a complete waste of money. Furthermore their illustrations of predicted savings should be based on discounted rates rather than on non discounted and bank own policies(generally over priced). Consultation on packaged accounts coming up later in the year…..can you tell I’m preparing for it already?
The bonuses should be more tailored towards good customer service rather than the lema of “sales with service”.

Banks shouldn’t charge for becoming overdrawn if you replace the funds within twenty fours.

Don’t you think restricting the prize winner to someone who Tweets is rather an objectionable road for Which to commence on? Is this Which? policy?

Choosing to use Twitter only for for Competition entries whilst simultaneously running a Which? article about people using Facebook and Twitter whilst driving seems a rather beautiful juxtaposition.

I am not quite clear what you mean by bearing in mind – does that mean in future platform posting neutrality will be observed?

I’d like to see current interest rates shown on the account page of all accounts which pay interest.

I don’t use twitter or facebook either.

As holiday season will soon be upon us, I am reminded that the “margin” on exchanging my pounds for Euros is around 20% (ie they sell at 1.20 and but buy at 1.00. Commercial business will get a rate much closer to the REAL EXCHANGE RATE.
Why are banks allowed to charge margin, when providing money is their stock trade. FX brokers are generally closer to the mark thatn the high street banks.
Is it all something to do with the fact that we get our Euro’s “Commission fee”?????? NOT.
Why don’t “Which” take this up as a campaign?

Holding physical currency notes does not earn any interest for the Bank or exchange office. Add the security costs for shipping small packets of money around the country and hedging for currency risks make it a more complcated business than me asking they send £1000 to a foreign account. I would get a much better rate,. I use Travelex for cash and the pre-paid Euro denominated card.

As for what we want from Banks – the most popular move would be to stop them diverting finance to fictitious deals with “foreign” subsiduaries. Barclays obtained a writ removing “stolen” details of the scheme from the Guardian’s website in 2009.

All UK taxpayers may mourn the multi-millions/billions of tax avoided “legally” each year and wonder if promotion of this knowledge and threatened consumer boycotts might actually be most effective in curtailing Banks behaving in this manner. RBS actually closed down their department who dealt in the same way – after becoming publicly owned.

Copies of the original documents are at Wikileaks and a a Google search will bring up the newspaper comments in 2009. For further reading on off-shore banking for avoiding paying tax there is a new book by Shaxson. You will be shocked.

In a global context to help those who suffer in looted countries, and taxpayers paying more than their fair share due to artificial banking shenanigans an end to tax havens and the banks who facilitate them would be a great start.

So in less than 140 words:
“Tax havens rob everyone and banks are the lifelines for the havens. Consumer pressure can work”

In case you wonder I think in 2009 the papers said Barclays had 160-260 off-shore companies.

People on low incomes can become overdrawn because their wages have taken an excessively long time to pass through the banking system while their dirct debit payments have not. The difference may be less than one day but the bank nevertheless makes a charge on the overdraft, and sometimes even sends a letter at further cost. This practice takes advantage of the most vulnerable, it is despicable and appears to be deliberate. Banks shoud have a duty to “be reasonable” about when they declare a customer to be overdrawn.

I would also like to add my objection to the use of Twitter as an exclusive entry point to the competition. I don’t even have a mobile phone because I find it impossible to make out what people are saying. Which? is surely dedicated to consumer choice, it is worrying that you are jumping on the bandwagon that is gradually forcing everybody into a particular groove to avoid being discriminated against.

I’m not using bloody twitter, and I also object to your insistence that I should.

However – a rule for the banks (assuming that they own the credit card companies). Have one or two addresses that are valid for deliveries of mail-order goods (cardholder not present). One (1) is the cardholder’s billing address. The other (2) maybe their workplace or a relative’s address if goods cannot be safely left on the doorstep. Possibly exempt florists. But everybody else ordering something expensive on a stolen card doesn’t get the benefit, just becomes a nuisance! Implemented as a further input on a PDA machine – delivery address 1 or 2, and the printout specifies where it has to be delivered to.

Credit card fraud cut by 99.9% in one simple go. And the banks can get rid of the PCI compliance bulls*it that makes them so much money from small businesses.

Banks should stop treating customers like a cash cow and treat us like customers.

I will not be entering this competition because I do not use facebook, twitter or any of the numerous unsocial forms of communication, Which is in danger of losing touch with their readership

Re: Patrick Steens comments on Twitter.

Twitter is a commercial US company which despite some shakiness in it’s securing of customer info is projecting a profit for 2011. They take money from commercial clients. My concern is that like Reddit, Digg and MySpace [and CB radio] these are “fashions” and as comercial pressures dominate will fall out of favour.

“MySpace, meanwhile, has fallen 55 percent to a market share of only 30 percent — about half of Facebook.” http://www.pcworld.com/article/190034/after_numerous_shakeups_is_myspace_dying.html

Profit projections for Twitter are here:
http://techcrunch.com/2009/07/15/twitters-financial-forecast-shows-first-revenue-in-q3-1-billion-users-in-2013/
and more up-to-date news here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/dec/16/twitter-200m-fundraising-hopes-flotation

I suspect a Wiki based approach to conumer items and subjects might be a more satisfying use of the Internet for Which? members and the public. And given it would be run by Which? and UK based and controlled it would not be subject to any US problems.

I too apologise for going off-topic but as it seems to be a concern for many perhaps it is worthy of discussion.

I too object to limiting a competition to Twitter users, surely quite a small proportion of ‘Which’ subscribers. Can you offer a 2nd Kindle to anyone who does not use Twitter?

My one idea is that I would like banks to offer a one time code for online transactions. i.e. every time I am asked to divulge my credit or debit card details over the phone or online, My identity is confirmed from a list of numbers, supplied by the bank, each of which can only be used once.

This would not replace the PIN for use when I use the card in person and no one has access to my card details. The list could be safely left at home (or password protected on a computer), and kept separate from the card.

Whenever I deal with banks, as in my final paid off mortgage termination with Barclays, I’m amazed how inefficient and slow they are – despite always being ready to threaten me if I have a problem.

The response from them was atrocious and I had had to make two formal complaints to get a person to contact me and sort out their self-made mess. (Note: I had a Woolich BUILDING SOCIETY mortgage until bought out).

Recently I dealt with Nationwide, a real Building Society, the difference was amazing, the feeling of value and consideration was dramatically different.

Return business?
Barclays & Banks = 0
Nationwide = 100%

My message to Banks – “Treat customers as people – not income generation targets.”

I don’t and won’t use Twatter – so the compo is a dead issue and inappropriate for Which!
It’s nothing more than a teenagers toy.
Yes – I use IM, e-mail and mobile cell phones, yes I am qualified to teach IT
so its not Ludditism – its just well pointless!

So here are the finalists. Given they were weeded for practicality the first one seems a bit of a stretch. BTW how many entries were there? Us non-Twits are agog.

* Banks should be open by 0600 for those who can’t get out during lunch.
* Banks should tell you in plain English when interest rates change.
* Banks can’t drop rates on old savings accounts and offer higher rates on new accounts that have exactly the same terms.
* Banks should not give new customers better deals than loyal existing customers.
* Don’t contact customers when they see an amount of money enter their account with a view of selling something.

A quick update on the competition as it closed at midnight last night. There were over 3000 votes in total, and the winning bank rule was:

‘Banks should not give new customers better deals than loyal existing customers.’

To find out more, and see what we’re doing to take your suggestions forward, you can read the news article here:
http://www.which.co.uk/news/2011/04/consumers-vote-for-better-banking-251363/