Perfect for students (Lloyds TSB)

Member Name: aaronphil

Product:	Lloyds TSB
Date:	26/07/09 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great online and telephone banking system

Disadvantages: Shame about the charges and their automation with the telephone system

The bank that brought you the banking crisis and was bailed out by the government, that's right Lloyds TSB.

I've been with Lloyds for two and a bit years (under 19s account) and am going to stick with them for a while all the way through uni (student account).
Now I have never been a fan of big banks, primarily because they are run by powerful money grabbing lunatics but seeing as I kind of need a bank account for day-to-day living then Lloyds seems to be the best choice.

What makes Lloyds appealing?
Well this particular bank offers a very good telephone service and the general experience I have had with it is very good plus a great bonus is the fact they have UK based call centres (so no language barrier to overcome). Another plus with the telephone system is that the adviser on hand are friendly and you never have to wait to be connected to an adviser (just go through the rubbish automation) so it is pretty quick and simple to resolve a query. Also, with most accounts, you get internet banking and the option to have paperless statements to save the environment blah blah. Quite good idea though because you can import all of your statements into Microsoft Office Excel to keep it all organised or, if you have the some spare pennies (to buy the software), you can import it into Microsoft Money.
I like the in-branch support, and most of the time if you ask for something they deliver straight away, especially for cheque books, paying-in slips etc... Branches are generally kept clean and when busy most, if not all, counters have someone to talk to making it quick and easy to speak to someone at lunch time.

What's wrong with Lloyds?
Well for a start, with regard to the telephone banking system, you have to speak to an automated system and although it works great, you feel like an idiot talking to no one. It takes about 2 minutes for you to actually talk to someone. Also, in my experience, it seems to take a monumentally long time to get through to your local branch using the telephone banking system; I was stuck there for a full 5 minutes before I got to speak to the branch.
Now for the biggest blunder and that are the charges. I'm not too bad off for these little surprises but I was automatically signed up for 'Limit Alert' which unknown to me cost money (only £2.50).
I have also heard a lot of people being told to pay ridiculous charges for letters and bank statements.

Overall then really not a bad bank and you could do worse. For students I would definitely recommend them as they seem to be the only bank offering anything for taking out an account for uni which seems a bit odd but never mind. Also for those who hate the banks operate I would recommend someone like Nationwide who are not a bank, as such, but each and every customer is a 'trustee' and you receive rewards for how good the business does not the shareholders.

Summary: A great overall bank and you can do much worse