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| *Loan,banking and credit>>>bank account |
Which of the following e-finance companies (banks & credit) would you open an account with? |
Please rank them from your best to worse and provide your ranking criteria. The companies are all in UK but anyone from any country is welcome to answer the question. Am interested to know what people like or dislike about these companies from their experience or hearsay. They are: Smile, Abbey, MBNA Europe, egg, Intelligent Finance, Nationwide, RBS. I would put Nationwide first for the reason that I have supported the co-operative and mutual movements for nearly 50 years and I think that the privatisation of the mutual financial services sector in the UK and the USA was nothing less than outright theft by "friends of the party in power". Reserves accumulated over more than a century by thrifty savers of the working classes at a time when the High Street banks wouldn't have truck with them were paid out, a piddling amount to carpetbaggers and the bulk as bonuses to senior management. Nationwide, a few smaller building societies and a the credit union movement (mostly in the USA) alone have stood against this trend. (Of course the Equitable Life and similar privatisations were due to management arrogance and incompetence, but that's another story.) Another thing about Nationwide is that they, virtually alone among major credit and debit card issuers, have zero loading on overseas cash point use. (OK, VISA charge a commission. But most banks and card issuers load onto that up to 2-1/2%. I remember that years ago Amex advertised that they only charged 1/2% premium. Today Amex (I think) charges 2% loading. Nationwide is 0%. (Of course Amex gives you (if you have the right deal) a 1% cash back or 1% in points; so the penalty is half of what it seems.) OK. For the rest: Internet banking is handy, and the answer will depend on whether you are saving or borrowing. I think that loyalty to a financial services provider opens you up to overcharging and worse. I read (I think in the Guardian many years ago) that if one is in business and growing, or even just a private customer and getting richer, one ought to change banks every five years because banks remember you as you were, and take advantage of your slothfulness. As it happens, we have to refinance our mortgage and we have a project in mind for which we want to release capital from our house. We are switching lenders. Neither is in your list. I think I would not do busines with MNBA Europe or America, because of their poor reputation with respect to credit cards, and their stupidly lending people "into bankruptcy". Egg: well, they started out OK (but like many financial services outfits have been sold so who knows who runs them now; I'm too lazy to research it). I do know they cut the cash-back bonus on credit cards from 1% to 1/2%. I have nothing against Abbey. The others I simply don't know. ING, not listed, is a good online savings outfit and does business in a lot of countries which is good if you work in multiple currencies; but I think Nationwide matches them and if you work only in 拢拢 they are good enough. Sorry, I've been called to dinner . . . I would bank with nationwide as it's highly regarded. ranking: nationwide, rbs, egg, abbey, mbna, smile, intellig finance |
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