The Co-operative Bank Reviews 

Excellent service via phone and branch.

I really appreciated the direct, speedy response when I contacted the bank with a potential fraud situation on my account. The staff members were knowledgeable and in control of the problem and responded to prevent any further escalation. I was very relieved and appreciative that things were resolved almost instantly. There was no waiting on a connection phone line but was connected to an advisor almost straight away. All in all this was an efficient, first class service that seemed well managed in a very stressful situation Thank you.

On applying for a savings account online I had to fill in a form. The form asked me for my date of birth and it presented me with a calendar that showed only the current month. To change the date the only means was to touch an arrow which moved the calendar back by one month. As I am over 80 years old, this meant I would have to touch the arrow at least 80 x 12 times to get back to my birth year. After touching the arrow about 240 times I was suddenly invited to enter my birthdate manually, and was shown two examples (something like 1 July 1960 and 01/07/1960). Neither example method was accepted when I entered my birthdate as it was magically changed to the format 1960-01-07, which was not accepted. Please redesign this part of your form so that it works.

I visited the Co-operativebank in Hanley.

On arrival I was greeted straight away as I walked through the door by a lady called Alison ( very professional )

I had an issue with my banking app.

I sat down with Alison and she reset my details for logging into the online app and I was up and running very shortly after a few security questions.

Many thanks and best regards, Roy Maxfield.

i found that i was looked after well and could not fault the help that was given me, anila who i spoke to wes very plesant and look after me and help solve all my proplems and help me get a better return on my savings

Straight forward to navigate. And amend standing order

As an investing member of Coventry B.Soc I was enticed to open a Co-op Bank a/c on the understanding that I would receive a £100 bonus provided I opened an a/c before 17th Aug & subsequently adhered to Co-op Bank's T&Cs for the first 3 months (i.e 1st Sept-30th Nov). I opened my Co-op a/c on 7th Aug, i.e 10 days ahead of that deadline, & made an online request for transfer in of my existing a/c with First Direct (HSBC) the same day. On 24th Aug I was informed there was a problem with the First Direct debit card & therefore the transfer could not proceed!? My understanding is after opening an a/c there is 14 days gracetime to initiate an a/c transfer, so someone opening an a/c on 17th Aug deadline date effectively has until 31st Aug. On 28th Aug I was told by Co-op customer relations that yes they could restart the bank transfer but despite my phonecall preceding 31st Aug I would not qualify for the £100 Coventry B.Soc bonus. An appalling way to treat an alleged valued customer, in fact it's an absolute disgrace! Only informing me on 24th Aug (i.e 7 days after 17th Aug deadline) then what was I supposed to do?.... borrow Dr Who's TARDIS in an attempt at time travel! Suffice to say I have raised a formal complaint regarding the shabby treatment received from Co-op Bank customer relations.
Update :
1. Specified deadline; open an a/c by 17 Aug, then have 14 days to invoke bank transfer...except no, because 31 Aug is a bank holiday & 29-30 Aug is a weekend & yet 28 Aug still doesn't qualify either!!
2. Apparently my First Direct debit card i.d number was submitted incorrectly. When I asked the agent what card number they had on record the response was "don't know because deleted from our system". How convenient then for the Co-op Bank!
3. When submitting the request online a Summary of information is compiled first and sensibly you're urged to check it before submitting. For transfer of the existing bank a/c, the sort code & a/c number obviously feature on the Summary but the associated debit card does not. So how are you supposed to check the debit card number is correct prior to submission?
4. Anyhow what relevance does the debit card have whereby it can prevent a requested bank a/c transfer going ahead? And if the card number is really needed then why not the expiry date too? And what if you don't have a debit card with the existing a/c?
I applied online in good faith & well before the 17/8 deadline, yet the whole experience & treatment I've received thus far as a supposed valued member of Coventry B.Soc has been absolutely appalling.
I can only hope that Co-op Bank uphold my formal complaint, secure in the knowledge that if the £100 Coventry B.Soc bonus is reneged upon then my ultimate recourse to involve the financial ombudsman will no doubt cost them a damn sight more than £100. A resultant entrenched shambolic mess that could have so easily been rectified by the Co-op Bank customer relations/response team. But no I guess 'common sense' isn't as common as one might think.

it was great to have a branch and talk to humans about resolving my issue - branch staff were great - knowledgable and helpful - my experience of telephone banking was very different having to wait in excess of 20 minutes each time before giving up

Even trying to achieve the most simplest task online is a nightmare my other banks quite clearly show me how to get to my paper statement online not so with the co-op, I believe the co-op at the Bill Society are uniting if they don’t get together you will be no co-op to bank with

Very good service Jackie made my options very clear and I was pleased with the whole experience thanks

Staff always helpful, knowledgable, and friendly. No robots. Calls answered quickly.

I was a victim of a scam, and had money stolen from me. The bank sorted it and reimbursed me. The wait to talk to somebody was a bit long, but I got there in the end, and was passed to a specialised advisor who was friendly, understanding and efficient. She took her time to explain to me, and resolved the issue.

Friendly professional service. Very helpful and knowledgeable advisors

Joined last week, business banking. I read reviews before on the hassle you have to do... These people leaving bad reviews must have just come out of the nut house. 17k in the new bank account, paid everyone even myself and used the approve app. Parents been coop members since the pits (didn't get approved because of that) was with NatWest, since 2020 yes NatWest is more better for instant payments but if I'm honest we like it like this. It's more personal, cut off time for same-day is 8pm. No problem setting it up and no probs with the approve app. 7k over draft been giving too 👍 5* easy to set up new payes to. I've mad 12k worth of transfers in the day of opening to my sub contractors, not once did it get stopped (as people said, repeat fraud checks) I received repeated SMS saying a payment has went through . 100% recommend 👍👍👍👍 the people back 👍

I could not cope with the complicated security questions online when applying for my new account. I telephoned customer services and a Branch member of staff helped me over the phone. She kindly sent me by post a hard copy of all the information I needed. She was a most understanding and thoughtful person for which I was most grateful. Thank you

Have always found cooperative bank sympathetic & highly efficient friendly staff on online banking. Been with them for almost 30 years. 😇

In view of my hearing difficulty the staff were considerate and did their best to accommodate the request for clarity when speaking. I found the amount of requests for identity a bit too much to be reasonable. Over-all, the outcome was successful.

Unable to get electronic (pdf) copies of my monthly statements from less than a year ago, despite having mobile app and online banking.
Only way to get statements (required immediately by GOV.UK in pdf format) is to PAY £10 for paper copies to be sent in the post which takes 10 working days!!
Staff unwilling to escalate or let me speak to complaints department. Complaints must be raised on your behalf by the same person/department you're complaining about!
This bank is not fit for purpose.
I am reporting co-op bank to Financial Ombudsman.

Terrible start after switching banks

I recently switched my main current account from Nationwide to The Co-operative Bank and I already regret the decision.

Since the switch completed, I have been completely unable to register for or access online/mobile banking due to a technical/security issue. I have spent hours on the phone across multiple calls, repeatedly explaining the same problem and going through the registration process, but it still hasn’t been resolved.

The issue has been referred to IT and I have now had to raise a formal complaint. What makes this particularly stressful is that I am travelling abroad on Monday and have repeatedly explained that I urgently need access to my account before I leave, yet nobody has been able to confirm when it will actually be fixed.

I understand technical problems happen, but being unable to access and manage my main bank account for days immediately after switching, combined with the amount of time I’ve spent trying to get it resolved, has been extremely frustrating.

Not the experience I expected from a new bank at all. Wish I never switched banks!