Best and worst banks: how customers rate their service

A survey has revealed which banks are most likely to be recommended based on their quality of service, online and mobile banking, overdraft and branch services.

Metro Bank and first direct are jointly the banks we're most likely to recommend to friends while RBS is the least likely to get a positive review.

That's according to a detailed new survey of customer opinions from Ipsos MORI, which was commissioned by the Competition and Markets Authority to learn more about how well banks are treating us.

Regular loveMONEY readers may not be surprised by first direct taking one of the top spots as it regularly scores well in various customer satisfaction surveys.

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Worth listening to these results

Across the UK, approximately 860 customers were surveyed for each provider over the course of the last year, with 13,760 people being surveyed in total.

The fact that each bank has a decent number of respondents is significant as many other surveys often have an uneven spread, which can really skew the findings for banks with particularly few respondents.

Customers were asked how likely they were to recommend their current account provider and their online and mobile banking services, as well as overdraft and branch services to family and friends.

The results reveal the proportion of customers, among those who took part in the survey, of each provider who said they were ’extremely likely’ or ‘very likely’ to recommend each service.

Overall service quality

Customers from different banks were asked how likely they would be to recommend their personal current account provider to friends and family.

Out of those surveyed, 82% of Metro Bank and first direct customers said they would recommend their provider to family and friends.

Nationwide was the second most recommended at 74% while Barclays was third at 66%.

It was bad news for Tesco Bank and The Co-operative Bank (both 55%) but this was better than Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which scored the lowest out of all the banks surveyed at 46%.

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Get paid to join a top bank

If you're fed up with rubbish service and want to join one of the most recommended banks above, the good news is some of them will even pay you to do so.

Joint-winner first direct will pay you £50 for signing up, while third-placed Nationwide has a £100 referral scheme.

That means if you know an existing customer who recommends you, or conversely, you're a customer who recommends a mate, you'll both pocket £100.

Finally, HSBC finished a respectable sixth and will pay you a whopping £175 for switching to its Advance account.

There are strings attached, however, which you can learn more about in this roundup of the best bank switching bonuses.

Online and mobile banking services

Back to the survey, when customers were asked how likely they would be to recommend their provider’s online and mobile banking services to friends and family, Barclays took the top spot at 86%.

It was closely followed by first direct at 85% and Metro Bank at 83%.

Unfortunately, Tesco Bank, RBS and The Co-operative Bank did not fare well, although The Co-operative Bank was ultimately joint last with TSB at 63%. 

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Overdraft services

Metro Bank and first direct were among the most recommended yet again, but first direct ended up being the most likely to be recommended for its overdraft services at 77%.

Metro Bank scored 67% while Barclays, HSBC and Santander came in joint third at 65%.

It should be noted that Tesco Bank was excluded despite offering overdraft services as less than 100 of their customers provided an eligible score.

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Services in branches

Customers were asked how likely they would be to recommend their provider’s branch services to friends and family.

Metro Bank took the top spot, scoring 85% while Nationwide scored 79%, followed by both Lloyds Bank and Barclays at 73%.

RBS was at the bottom of the pile at 53%, while The Co-operative Bank scored 63% and NatWest 64%.

Tesco Bank and first direct were obviously excluded as they don’t operate any branches under their branding.

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