Building Societies don't have shareholders, that's the point. They're owned by their members. Halifax floated on the stock market in 1997 ( according to Wiki).

Lloyds have been great but they hit me with a ridiculous overdraft fee and have refused to refund me, £160 fine for going £2.75 over an overdraft.

Nationwide..... though technically they aren't a bank.

See if you can reclaim the charges, the case is still going through Court but provisionally the OFT have decided that the charges are unfair.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges

HBoS, Llyods TSB, BoS but mainly HBoS because that's where the wife and I have our account. Got to keep on top of them though or they'll not update accounts losing you money.....

Al

Hsbc. I have been with them for 22 years and never had a problem with them.

I've banked with Natwest since I was a nipper (or rather, my parents gave me a bank accout as early as one could be opened for me). Never had issues with them, even when I applied for a loan and then later cancelled it.

I also use Barclays [i]but[/b] never been a fan of them. Good points include them not charging me for when I went over my spending limit (DD was £80, only had £50 in the account, forgot to put extra in). They sent me a letter saying that they wouldn't charge me for that one event since I was always in the black.

For me, "never had a problem" does not equal "happy". I got my first account with Lloyds as a kid, then worked for Natwest for 3yrs (before, during and after the RBS takeover). I know have accounts or credit cards with Natwest, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, Virgin and Barclaycard. None of them have been amazing and consequently I haven't voted. In my experience banks are generally crap and knowing how it all works from the inside, I just plod along content that as long as nothing gets massively cocked up, that's as good as it gets.

For those people moaning about charges - all banks are the same.

I have accounts with nearly a dozen banks and building societies, so here's my opinion:

• Best bank: Barclays
  Their branch staff are very helpful and seem to be able to sort out most enquiries without an issue. They pay the best interest around on their Golden ISA too.

• Worst bank: Halifax
  Their branch staff are awful, not to mention my head nearly being chopped off multiple times for leaning over the counter when signing forms! I had a problem with them a few months back and they put £50 in my account, but have never received a reply to my letter. I wrote to their Customer Services Department months ago and never received a reply, so I wrote to the Head of Customer Services four weeks ago and had the same issue.

Good luck!

Peter.

Been with the Halifax for 11 years and not had any trouble at all, quite the reverse, when my card was "cloned" they contacted me straight away and stopped it, new card in 3 days, and no loss to me, also have not paid any fees in the 11 years

Was with HSBC, moved to the Halifax when they re-vamped the local branches, removing cashiers in favour of far too many greeters who ask you to take a number rather than serve you themselves. Oh, was getting tired of the Indian call centre's who'd never heard of Wales and would lecture you on your finances.

With Halifax customer services you will nearly always end up speaking to a pleasant Scottish woman and they are by and large very helpful.
Where they are not helpful is if you have the sheer audacity to go 15p overdrawn for any length of time, they'll slap a £35 charge onto your account and will only refund one stupid charge a year.

Now they intend to migrate everyone to this new account where they pay you £5 for being in credit but charge you £1 per day for being in your agreed overdraft - where do they propose I get the extra £30 each month just to stand still??

With Abbey and Barclays.

Abbey staff are great no issues, very helpful.

Barclays no issues just not very helpful.

I've been with the A&L for gawd knows how long, and they've always been OK. Aside from the overdraft charges.

RBS were good for business banking, but I had an account with Barclays about 20 years ago. Never again.

Well, the thing is, that if you do reclaim the charges, banks and building societies will then close your account (usually after they've paid up) and most people seem to think that the hassle of setting up a whole new account, changing direct debits etc isn't worth it, especially when the new bank/BS will then still just charge you the same charges until the situation is sorted legally.

Another to add to my list!

• Worst bank: RBS
  I opened an account online and they wrote to me about four weeks after opening the account asking for originals of three bank statements from my current bank. I don't get proper bank statements due to it all being online, but my main issue was they wanted them within three days otherwise they'd cancel my application. Needless to say, I never sent them and I guess I will never have another account there.

Peter.