I studied in the UK, lots of horror stories to tell:
# Name misspelled 4 times
* Santander: They spelled my name wrong on the debit card, 4 times in a row, with a different misspelling each time. Each time I had to go to the branch and type the correct spelling into a keyboard. They still got it wrong the next time. The 5th card was correct. I was without a working card for 3 months and had to pay everything in cash.
# Locked out after they sent money to somebody else
* Barclays: My flat mate paid me sublet rent. One of the transfer didn't arrive. When he checked, the money was sent to a completely different account number he had never entered (probably an off-by-one error in their code?). He called Barclays to correct the transfer. Instead of fixing the issue, they locked his account for 2 months, he couldn't pay any rent any more, he couldn't receive money from his parents to pay for rent or university fees.
# Ridiculous branch security
* Natwest: I'm at the branch with my friend. We're sitting directly in front of the clerk with her keyboard to her Windows computer in front of her. She unlocks the screen saver, 1-finger-typing the 5-character password (so I knew the password). Then she leaves us in the room alone for 10 minutes, not even locking the screen saver again. Also, the part of the PC where the keyboard is plugged into the USB is directly next to my right leg. It would be very easy to pop in a keylogger without anybody noticing (of course it has already been done: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10322536/Barcla... and http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-santander-arrests/gang-held...). Later she asks my friend for a password. My friend looks at me, I put my fingers into my ears. Afterwards the clerk asks "why did you put your fingers into your ears?". I respond it was so I wouldn't learn my friend's password, obviously. She replies "Oh wow, that's cute!". Such is the qualification and training of those who safeguard your money.
# Preventing my card getting blocked abroad with Jedi tricks
* Santander: I'm abroad in Hungary with my UK debit card being the only one I have with me. After buying an 8£ ticket from ticket machine of the Hungarian public train transport MAV, I get an automated call from Santander to confirm whether a potentially fraudulent payment of 8£ is legit. I confirm. After a short while I receive a text that says my card is now blocked. I call Santander's support. They say my card is blocked because of a fraudulent transaction. I say I just confirmed that this transaction is not fraudulent, please unlock my card. They say "sorry, your card cannot be unlocked it has been marked with a red flag". After being stunned for a moment by this idiocy I say "so what, remove the flag then". "I can't do that Sir, we'll have to send you a new card to your UK address". I lose it with "You will not send me a new card, I am abroad and this card is the only one I can pay with here! You will unlock my card NOW!" (My inner self makes an Obi-Wan-esque hand guesture.) To my surprise, the answer is "OK, I'll check it with my boss", and shortly after "OK, card is unlocked. But we'll send you a new card in one month". I never received a new card.
I've never had any such problems with German and Swiss banks.