I have never had anything but positive encounters with Alliance and Leicester. I signed up for it through a cashback offer of £50 on topcashback and found the whole sign up process pretty easy. They sent me a letter with a form enclosed which I had to send back to them confirming my identity. They provided a pre-paid envelope for this.

Within a couple of weeks I was fully signed up with a card, pin and internet banking account. Although I do not really use it much, the internet banking service is very good and efficient whilst still feeling secure. It allows you to transfer money to other accounts and cancel standing orders.

This probably doesn't bother most people but the card also looks pretty nice. It has a stylish blue colour and is a visa card. This was also a bonus for me because it meant that I could use it in more places than my existing solo card. Although their customer service is very good in branches and they have convenient self-service machines to pay money in, unfortunately they do not have a lot of branches so I have to make some form of effort to pay money in. But overall a great bank.