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The Co-Op? (Although rumour has it that they're going to completely replace their computer systems either this year or early next year so that might be a case of jumping from one basket case to another!)

RBS appears to have fouled up the scheduling of their overnight batch run in a way that meant large tranches of transactions simply weren't going through the system. Fixing the problem has taken days (which may be down to poorly managed outsourcing) and it's then taking even more time to catch up with the backlog of unregistered transactions, because they can only fit so many extra into the overnight run.

If you've got a pay slip or something, then get yourself to an RBS branch and they'll give you cash to tide you over in the meantime. Don't starve yourself!

I can't use the Co-op. They won't let me have an account because I apparently have a bad credit rating. (The real reason, I expect, is because I have no credit rating as I've never applied for a credit card or loan, or been late on a bill.) They're probably overdue a computer system overhaul as they've recently taken over several other banks and building societies, notably the Britannia where I had a few friends working.

My pay now seems to have appeared, and my second account doesn't have £0.00 in it any more, so I've got my fingers crossed that I'll be able to go to Tesco tonight. I might go to the branch and get cash though, just in case I get the dreaded 'card declined'.

It's worth having a credit card just for the cushion it gives you in exactly these kind of circumstances tbh.

It's also worth using a credit card for the added protection and other benefits (see http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/credit-card-tips).

Just make sure you pay off the balance in full each month so you never get stung by interest.

Or have a second bank account with a different bank and dont have all your rainty day savings acounts with the same bank.

I can't use the Co-op. They won't let me have an account because I apparently have a bad credit rating. (The real reason, I expect, is because I have no credit rating as I've never applied for a credit card or loan, or been late on a bill.)

It's really worth double checking. Identity theft is not always obvious...

The cost is minimal, and I've twice had debts associated with someone else who's shared an address with me (not at the same time) get attached to my name. In one of those cases it appears to have been a deliberate act by the debtor.

Also when I was sorting these out I was told that the "no credit card == bad credit rating" thing is pretty much a myth in the UK at least. It can help make a credit rating better, but its absence doesn't make a credit rating bad.

Credit rating has never worked that way in the UK afaik. I have never had a credit card, or a loan or an overdraft (or a mortgage, or savings account). I have been late on bills and had warnings sent out yet have a perfect credit score (had to be checked recently for pre-mortgage application checks).

The Co-Op run Smile, the internet bank. They've got a great premium current account.

However, I've applied six times online (the only way you can). I'd wade through all my details, previous addresses, employers details, passwords, pin numbers - the works. Took at least 20mins a time - then I'd go to the final page and get a generic "There has been an error with your request, please return to your previous page." And that's it - my entire application lost. So I have been unable to open an account for months. I've given up.

I phoned them, but with no reference number, the woman said they weren't aware of any IT issues and that was that.

I tried Co-op online a couple of times and was rejected. I finally went in to the branch on Leadenhall St in the City and applied 'manually' it went very smoothly and the staff are very helpful. They are very strict with checks for loans and mortgages as well. I wasn't able to get a mortgage with them despite being a customer and with them and having a completely clean credit record because they surmised from the location of my new house that I would be changing jobs and ended up putting me in a position where I had to admit that I was going self employed...game over. No other bank even asked. I would definitely trust them to be fiscally prudent, but if you need some credit you might need to look elsewhere.

Impressive checking there. I'm thinking of opening a second account with a bank independent of Lloyd's tentacles. Might try that one...

The co-op's online banking system is horrible. They used to have it designed so that entering your password multiple times would lock you out of your account, even if you were entering your password correctly but the system was having problems and couldn't verify it for some reason.

I had to call them to reset the password every time the account got locked because of system errors on their part. The current system isn't much better, with the password field at login not accepting backspaces.

I've had my main current account with the co-op for years and it's been fine. However I'm a bit pissed off that they've just withdrawn their low-cost phone line and replaced it with a pricier 0844 number.

I'm with the Co-op and as far as banks go, it's the best I've dealt with so far. Once you memorise the couple of keys to skip straight to a human they pick up straight away and have always been helpful.

On the web though they are horrible. The site is awful and little more than a truncated list of recent transactions with the odd money transfer bit thrown in. I don't know what other banks are like but statements don't go back very far (especially if you have lots of small transactions like I do). They wanted to charge me £395 for statements covering September 2010.

However, they have never cut off my student account without warning a month before I finished (Halifax) or threw my parents out of their house over some fucking clause in the PPI (Natwest).

> Surely this isn't acceptable in 2012?

If you depend so much on one single provider then you have a problem, not the system.

Get some redundancy. Get at least one other bank account. Get a credit card, or two. Keep some emergency cash lying around.

"Get some redundancy. Get at least one other bank account. Get a credit card, or two. Keep some emergency cash lying around."

Possibly as a banking customer you'd expect the bank you're with to have a level of redundancy on their key infrastructure.

I would expect so, but I also would not rely on it.

Get a credit card, or two.

This is the thing. Credit cards are the perfect solution here (and in many other situations), but there's a hard core of people who have some sort of ethical disagreement with them.

there's a hard core of people who have some sort of ethical disagreement with them

I (as a matter of choice) don't have any credit cards. I have no ethical problem with them. I do have an excellent idea what the results of my incredible lack of will power and a credit card will be though :-)

I moved from Natwest to First Direct a couple of months ago, and have had a great experience so far.

Their online banking isn't quite so nice as Natwest's, but that's more than made up for by the amazing phone service. I've had to call a couple of times (once to replace a lost card), and almost instantly been put through to someone who can solve my problem.

I have been with First Direct for a few years and I really like it, wouldn't move. It's good for people like me who want to interact with their bank firstly online, and secondly on the phone, and in person at a branch at a distant third.

First Direct is entirely owned by HSBC - it's essentially a branch of HSBC on the internet not the high street. If you need to deposit a paper cheque or the like you will be directed to a HSBC branch.

First Direct has no 2FA barrier to online banking, which is one of the key reasons I moved to them from Barclays (who were mostly a decent bank in fairness).

Same here, although they have recently changed the wording of their T&Cs to include 2FA. I asked them about this, and they said they were considering its introduction. (HSBC already has it).

Also, they use that "second letter from your password" style of login, and I'm not sure how they're doing that without keeping the plaintext of the whole password somewhere.

I keep the equivalent of about 500 USD in cash at a "hidden" spot in my apartment, in case something bad temporarily would happen to my bank account. Not enough for it to hurt if it was stolen, but enough to last for a while (I am a student). Perhaps that's something you could consider once this mess is sorted.

I've been with the Nationwide for years now, and never had a problem with them. Being a building society they're a bit less profit driven, though I don't know if anything can protect against offshore cost-cutting exercises in this day and age :/

One of the problems with a large-scale outage for a large financial institution is it will cascade down to other banks.

So if a bank the size of RBS/NatWest (comparable to Bank of America, or Chase) falls over and you don't have an account it might not affect you - unless your employer uses that bank to carry out their pay runs, in which case you're not going to get paid. Several newspapers were reporting people whose house purchases fell through because their solicitors were using NatWest as an intermediary.

(I actually bank with Nationwide as well, although their online service is a bit odd. Then again, when is that not true for a bank?)

+1 for First Direct, but don't take my word for it: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-a...

Ditto.

I had actually decided to move away from Natwest before this outage - as part of RBS acquiring some bank branches from one of the other bankrupt banks, the EU competition authorities forced them to sell some of their accounts to Santander, and they thought it would be a good idea to sell half of my accounts (business and personal credit card) whilst retaining the other half (personal, savings and joint account). Given that I would crawl over broken glass rather than use Santander, this prompted me to think about alternatives and duly switch my personal banking to First Direct (which took a matter of minutes and has worked perfectly), and my business banking will go to either HSBC or Barclays (under consideration because Barclays offer data feeds which I can pipe directly into FreeAgent).

Ditto the Ditto - but note that Note all Barclays account are available for feed into FreeAgent. My Business Account was not. Had a hilarious few days speaking to various Barclays people who didn't know the service existed, or that Barclays even had a Data Services division.

I'm 22, so you might say I haven't experienced the full spectrum of banking products, but for what I have used I really like HSBC. Always quick to answer the phone, and maybe not so specific to their service levels but they were one of the few banks to not take bailout cash if I remember rightly.

They have their First Direct offering too, which gives you a higher interest rate for less face-time. You still get to use parts of the HSBC branches too.

Hope all ends well for you sir!

I just switched my business to HSBC and have found the service to be very good.

We're refinancing our house through HSBC and our account manager has been exceptionally nice. It's a premier account so we're still trying to get a handle on the different and new fees (recommended because we do a lot of intl travel).

I've used a few and ultimately ended up at HSBC for my business and personal account. Haven't had any problems so far (touch wood) and been pretty impressed so far with the service.

If I remember correctly, they were one of the few banks to come out the back of the banking crisis largely unscathed. Convinced a few friends to move too and have had good feedback so far (but ymmv as usual).

This thread is relevant to my interests: I'm totally going to switch when I can actually get at my cash. If the problem has been because of cuts to & outsourcing of IT staff, we can only assume there'll be more of them.

So, here's a question: does anyone know what the frontline IT setups of other UK banks are like? There'd be no point in jumping to an outfit which has similarly weak infrastructure.

If you're going to switch, why wait? You can have more than one account at a time.

Open the new one, and start using it. When you have access to your old account, write yourself a check and deposit it in the new account.

It's that easy. You don't have to officially "close" the account and withdraw the cash.

Once your balance is zero in the old account, give them a call and confirm that you want it closed, but at least in the US banks will auto close zero balance accounts after a little while.

Over here they tend to deliberately keep them open (and will encourage you to leave 5 pounds in there to do so), presumably to inflate their statistics.

I have been using hsbc for business banking and haven't had a complaint.

You just need to warn them when you travel or they will block your card.

Agree - HSBC - good experience for me. I've been with HSBC UK for personal use for about five years. Their online banking is what I'd expect - allows for low-hassle international FX transfers, security seems solid, stuff works, no user interface horror. On the phone they're consistently helpful. Like the parent, they block my card the moment I do too many transactions with new overseas providers without warning them. But they sort it out quickly if you call and verify.

Can any British readers recommend any alternative banks?

Consider building societies.

I've been very happy with the Nationwide for twenty odd years. Online banking is pretty good. Also, because of their organisational structure, building societies seem to have weathered the various banking stupidities of the last few years considerably better then some.

For personal and small business banking that crosses borders, I'm partial to HSBC's systems and practices which feel somewhat less unethical than most, though I cannot attest whether those are the same in their UK home as they are in the smattering of branches in New England.

I recommend asking a friend to lend you the money. Also, always carry cash on you (25 quid, enough for a weekly shop).

I'd strongly recommend Nationwide. Their staff are always friendly and helpful, it's a building society and their online banking site shits all over Natwest's offering (I had a NW account up until a year or so ago).

Can any British readers recommend any alternative banks?

Fair enough, but this isn't endemic to RBS. It's like looking for a new neighborhood to move to if your cat gets run over.

It's not really like that at all. It's worthwhile having a backup account at an alternate bank (that's obviously not within the same banking group), for the same reason we make backups of our data -- things happen. It's nice to know there's a second debit card and a chunk of change in another account should anything happen.

So you have one bank account, and no one to borrow money from?

My only advice: Avoid Santander.