TSB plunges to bottom of banking customer service poll following IT meltdown
TSB has plummeted from 4th to 11th in a banking customer service poll following its recent IT disasters.
Forty nine per cent of those who graded TSB’s service in the MoneySavingExpert.com poll rated it as “poor” with just 23 per cent describing its service as “great”.
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TSB has been rocked by IT failures this year after the botched migration of the records and accounts of 5.2m customers from its old owner Lloyds Banking Group to its present owner Spanish bank Sabadell.
First Direct held onto top spot in the poll with 89 per cent of those rating the bank reporting “great” service.
Challenger banks Monzo and Starling also proved a hit with customers but did not receive the required number of responses to be included in the final rankings.
Gary Caffell, money editor at MoneySavingExpert.com, says “Customer service is key for bank accounts. For most, it's the part of their finances they use most often, so if things go wrong it can have a real impact, as shown by TSB's fall from grace this year.
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"Our poll also shows that the old-school providers are increasingly threatened by challenger banks, which consistently get top scores for service − if the traditional banks don't up their game, they'll lose out to new challengers.”
A TSB spokesperson said: “We’re sorry for the problems customers experienced as a result of our IT switch. Regrettably this is why our scores are low in this poll. Our priority is putting things right for our customers and we’re making good progress with improvements in our service levels.”
Bank customer service ranking in full
| Rank | Bank | Great | OK | Poor |
| 1 | First Direct | 89% | 8% | 3% |
| 2 | Nationwide Building Society | 73% | 21% | 6% |
| 3 | Co-op and Smile | 67% | 24% | 9% |
| 4 | Santander | 61% | 32% | 7% |
| 5 | Lloyds | 45% | 40% | 15% |
| 6 | HSBC | 43% | 40% | 17% |
| 7 | NatWest | 43% | 39% | 18% |
| 8 | Halifax | 41% | 43% | 16% |
| 9 | Barclays | 41% | 41% | 18% |
| 10 | RBS | 29% | 34% | 37% |
| 11 | TSB | 23% | 28% | 49% |
There were 4,997 votes. Rankings based on two points for each "great" per cent, one for each "OK" per cent and zero for "poor". When scores are tied, the bank with the better "great" rating goes ahead.