iPad2 up for grabs

Posted in 'Banking' by Barry Stamp

09 November 2011

Please let us have your views – good or bad – about your bank or about the credit card you use, and you can enter into a draw to win a highly desirable 16GB iPad2 with Wi-Fi

We’ve been running the annual Banking and Credit Card Survey since 2005, one of the very biggest of its kind. We use the results to let our customers know which banks and credit cards give good service, and which do not. You can see the customer satisfaction rating, in percentage terms, on our free Find a Lender service, for example.

One of the most interesting things to come out of the surveys is that since 2005 banks have generally improved their customer service ratings. But as soon as the credit crunch came, and when banks were both heavily and publicly criticised, the overall ratings fell from 62% to 55%. Some banks have done consistently well, in particular First Direct and Smile. Others have done consistently poorly. Similarly, some credit cards, notably American Express, have kept at or near the top of the customer service ratings.

Another interesting observation is that the main reason given for using a main card shifts widely all the time. In 2005, ‘internet access’, ‘size of credit limit’, ‘0% interest rates’ and ’ APR’ were cited as the main ones. But by 2009 these trawled the bottom of the table of reasons, with ‘convenience’ and ‘reward schemes ‘moving into top places. By the way, if you’re looking for a good reward scheme card, the AA credit card has rewards of up to 4% and is the current best buy.

We sometimes unearth some nasty stuff. For example, one of our surveys discovered that an astonishing 60% of respondents were pressurised into buying payment protection insurance. On a brighter note, we found in the depths of the recession that 41% were paying off their credit card bills in full every month, 12% able only to make the minimum payment, and the remainder paying somewhere in between.

But it’s your comments that make it fun to unravel the survey results. ‘At least Dick Turpin wore a mask’ wrote one respondent.

The responses this year are equally as powerful. There is a lot of feedback about excessive charges, and about inflexibility when your financial fortunes take a hit. If you’ve got a story to tell us, the survey gives you space to do so.

And don’t forget to enter the prize draw for the iPad2 at the end of the survey!

Tell us about your bank or credit card here please