Changing bank

[watervole]

 I've only changed bank twice in my life, once when I got married and once when Barclays made a major screw up and took several months to admit it was their fault and to fix it.

It looks like I'm about to do it again.  I'm about to leave an excellent bank with great customer service who have never given me any hassle at all.

Why?

I've just become a subscriber to Ethical Consumer - the main reason I subscribed was to look at where I wanted to invest my money and to ensure that I wasn't investing in fossil fuels or heavily polluting industries.

Sadly, it turns out that First Direct (and their parent bank HSBC) both have  a very bad track record in fossil fuel investments - and also in companies producing nuclear weapons).

I'm going to pay a visit to Nationwide very soon.    They came out very close to the top on the issues that matter most to me (climate change) and they are based in the UK. 

I expect to be moving my account to them.

Then I'll move onto sorting out my savings.

To put it bluntly, no point in saving money for my grandchild if there isn't a habitable planet for her to enjoy it. Therefore, I'm willing to have less interest for better ethics (and some investments may offer both).

Comments

[history_monk]

Thanks for this. I have been dissatisfied with HSBC for some time, and this asdds to it.

[msilverstar]

Helpful, as my daughter is going to Edinburgh in the fall (!! still boggled!!) and I had no idea how to evaluate the banks.

[elisi]

...

As I'm with Barclays (mostly since they ate took of Woolwich) I have often thought I should switch. Don't even need to look them up. Thanks for poking that idea.

[vera_j]

How very thoughtful and responsible from you.
Well, I don´t find ANY bank trustworthy but I do need their services. Our banks are not as mighty as yours and I also haven´t heard about any nature-friendly activities of theirs.

[suenicorn]

Right now, in this country, there is a royal commission investigating the behaviour of the major banks and oh, my! The things they have been doing to their customers! Like putting their own interests ahead of the client when giving financial advice. And the “Dollarmite” issue where employees were fiddling with children’s accounts to make it look as if there had been deposits when there hadn’t because they would be in trouble if they weren’t encouraging deposits. And nagging people to take out unnecessary insurance - I kept getting nagging letters and phone calls to take out life insurance when I kept telling them I had no dependants, so no point. I did ask if they had insurance against losing one’s job, and they hadn’t, of course.

I can only hope they aren’t closed down, because I have nearly all my money in two of those banks. I’m seriously considering keeping it under the bed.

We don’t get much in interest anyway, my term deposit is giving me about the same or less, as my old passbook account did in the days before everything went digital. I should add that our Tory government resisted this commission for a very long time, while doing one enthusiastically into trade unions(nothing came of that as the unions, unlike the banks, were not corrupt)

Good on you for doing the right thing. I hope you send a letter to the bank management, letting them know why you’re moving.

[damerell]

I've been with Nationwide for many years and you'll be pleased to hear they seem generally OK.