Handelsbanken plc (UK) Reviews 

cheat customers out of their money. My mother and I were cheated out of $500 by this bank

I cannot recommend Handelsbanken, based on my experience in trying to open a business bank account with them. They advertise themselves as an old-school bank with values and principles in line with the old days of business banking with a dedicated business lending team with local knowledge and in house decision making. They say that their fees are high but that this will reflect the level of service you can expect to receive. The reality is that after they had effectively harvested all my business information, 3 years of accounts and my personal data - they sent an email to say that they don't deal with any business who has a COVID Bounce Bank loan. A shocking waste of my time dealing with these clowns. Avoid.

I have been with Handelsbanken for quite a few years. I am pleased with the friendly and helpful customer support of the Swindon branch. Everyone seems to be on first name terms and it is always easy getting issues resolved and long as they are not related to technology.

However, the technology side of the bank lets it down significantly.

Firstly the cards do not work with Google Pay (nor I suspect Apple Pay) and I have been told for the last 7 years that "we are working on it". This is a security risk since the cards leak personal information and do not require any user action to extract a payment.

Secondly, when I scan my card using an NFC reader, it list the last 10 transactions, currency, amount and date - anyone can do this, no authentication is required! I do not see why the cards need to present this information to anyone - surely it is not compatible with GDPR.

Thirdly, making online purchases with their debit card seems highly unreliable - I cannot ever get mine to work and have changed cards and methods of authenticating several times but it still does not work - this has been ongoing for several years.

Forthly, online banking does not work properly if you use Linux as a OS. The "connect with USB" to their authenticator does not work. They suggest using Handelsbanked ID but when you try to set it up, it states that you must first connect by USB (which they don't support on Linux), so you end up in a vicious circle!

Finally, when interest rates went down they keep reducing the interest rate until it reached 0% on my account. Now we have had multiple interest rate rises, my account is still 0% but the interest rates on the mortgages keeps increasing! With inflation being high, this kind of approach is really unacceptable.

UPDATE:
Thank you for the reply, however, I have no idea how to DM you since I am not on Twitter or any social media. If you would care to provide an email or phone number I would be happy to discuss

UPDATE:
It's now August. 2024...so how have things gone on?
Well, my debit card still cannot make any online purchases - so no progress there.

The debit card still does not support Google Pay - so no progress there.

I tried opening another account savings account but it was very long winded, required enormous amounts of justification and ended up being told that it wasn't possible since it was viewed as too risky?!?!?! Only been with them in excess of 15 years.

The technology issues with this bank remain, not supporting Goodle Pay in this day and age is completely unacceptable, not being able to get debit cards to work is not acceptable. Interest rates are still pretty poor - typically half of what you would get with challenger banks like Revolut or Aldermote.

I think it is time to change

I opened this account because my old Manager at Natwest had moved to Handelsbanken. He told me it was a more personal bank, and all decisions were made locally and so they could provide fast decisions. This did not prove to be correct.
If you are considering opening an account, I would think twice and read these reviews. In my experience, most of them are very accurate.
I am closing all my accounts with Handelsbanken now. I have found them not to be truthful, and in chaos.

Unless you are a serial, racketeer, or fraudster, this isn't the bank for you.

Successful entrepreneurs and high net worth indeviduals and businesses need not apply.

I called the Bristol branch to book an appointment to open an account. The individual who took my call was presumptuous and entirely lacking in self awareness. For some reason, he felt he needed to explain that they would only open an account for me if I deposited or borrowed “a large sum”, which he elaborated as “more than £2M” and £500k, respectively; he noted, further, that their fees were “high” and that a high street bank might suit me better. It's unfathomable that a customer-facing Handelsbank employee would have been instructed to speak in these terms to a prospective account holder. Make of that what you will. I thanked him for his time and granted that Handelsbank was probably the wrong bank for me.

Long on promises and short on delivery.
My experience of the Islington branch is that the Manager will smoothly make all sorts of promises and then the credit analyst will say "No" to everything.
Not a joined-up bank. They claim to be different and offer a service which understands entrepreneurs and business owners, but this is total rubbish.
I have had an appalling experience with these people and will recommend anyone who might be interested in banking with them to stay away. I lost a house purchase because they changed their minds abruptly and communicated dreadfully.

What a complete shambles!! Avoid them unless you are willing to accept account closures for no rational reason and staff who no longer seem to have a clue about anything.
We have been customers of Handelsbanken in Chelmsford for nearly 20 years and originally they were a breath of fresh air - a personal bank manager and staff who knew you and provided excellent service and a ‘can do’ attitude. However over the last 5 years they have seriously lost their way with a team that appear to spend most of their time box ticking and hiding away from their customers.
There is now : NO personal service ; opaque decision making ; they have become awkward indifferent and deliberately unhelpful and are giving notice to customers of account closures with 8 weeks notice and no explanation . This includes fully regulated profitable businesses with substantial turnovers employing and supporting numerous staff and companies with mortgages on commercial property which they have had their loans terminated at short notice and incurred substantial costs to refinance .
If you are happy with uncertainty in your banking arrangements then you may be a good fit .
To treat long-standing professional customers who have never had any banking issues and at all times have been financially solvent with such distain is despicable and leaves those who are victims of such treatment with feelings of anger and disbelief.
The response from Handelsbanken asks to message them privately - despite the fact that this seems pointless wht are your contact details?

Hi I have to say my branch in Cumbria can only be described as excellent. customer service is second to none- I can phone them and actually be dealt with by a human not an automated system. I have both business and personal accounts with them. They supported us totally through the Covid crises. Great service

I was interested in opening an account with Handelsbank Wrexham. I met the manager at the time, Nicola Hughes, and provided information for them to do their due diligence. I didn't get a response, chased them up and was told they were very busy and to bare with them. One year later I still haven't heard. What a waste of time.

The worst bank. Avoid one minute support the next they will screw you with costs and increasing interest rates

A shocking bank that have no respect or decency , I have been a customer for a number of years and in the last 5 the bank have been shocking . I have repayed all my borrowings and am off .
They nothing better that loansharks

Handelsbanken Nederland

1) When Handelsbanken entered the Dutch market and wanted to gain market share they approached the market very aggresive. I arranged a mortgage in 2011 with floating interest, based on 3 months Euribor. When the 3 M Euribor became negative I received an e-mail: Our systems can't work with negative interest rates so we put a floor at 0%. I replied: May be it's time to contact your software supplier; when the interest is 9% I am also not allowed to write to you my excel column in my spreadsheet can only handle one digit before the comma.
An house owner who choose for floating rate interest is not expecting an interest rise.

2) I had to hand over yearly to Handelsbanken my Tax Declaration, very uncommon in the Netherlands.

3) When I got seperated from my partner and the Bank looked again at my financial position (although my income from fixed contract work was sufficient enough to pay it alone) they said you can easily reduce the principal. I said that's correct. But if you don't mind I prefer to manage my assets myself in stead of you forcing me to reduce the Loan (which was not interesting for them anymore given the low margin on the interest rate)

So as soon as possible I returned to one of the major Dutch Banks with full satisfaction (not only for the primary conditions)

I have been with hb for a few years. Save for corporate finance of which I could have much cheaper and easier, I chose hb.
They are not dynamic and the turnover of staff is a common thread.
I have been asked by my private client manager, what have I been drawing out a couple of hundred pounds a week or so. She wanted me to tell her what I am spending it on and how long will it last.
I've never been so insulted by a bank in my life. They are all talk. If you ain't borrowing at a high price and low gearing. They don't look after your interests.
Ive watched them slowly go down hill and I would advise you to go to a big Bank. They have no clearing status, so corporate cards are issued by NatWest. They took my charge card away because I never used it. I use Amex platinum. I get everything from them. Shame that they are just full of talk and ancient banking apps. The only good thing is that you can get through to the branch, but not sure what you need to do that for unless you have corporate dealings. Im still waiting for IHT advice. Ive lost one year of gift allowance. Every other person I know that used them have left. I can only speak for one branch. But looking at the rating, I'm not alone in my opinion.

I left Santander after shoddy service. I was reluctant to use another U.K. bank as they have similar business models. Read a review about Handelsbanken and what a Joy.

I bank with the Tunbridge Wells branch. Nigel is the manager and what a manager he is.The whole team are so helpful. Cancel your generic bank account where you ring a call centre and get to speak to a person who knows you and can help you.

As it is required to have a Finnish Banking Account to identify online to be able to live in Finland, I tried to call Handelsbanken, as a banking account can't be opened online as a foreigner… after waiting for over 1h 15minutes and getting through (while calling the English number) to get to speak with someone that only speaks Finnish and putting me back in the waiting line. So I decided to hang up and try to open a bank account at another bank that has at least customer support.

While there is no such thing as the perfect bank, Handelsbanken pitch their business as being great at customer service.
While its nice to be able to pick up the phone and great through to the local branch straight away, it costs a lot in monthly fees and their lack of useful tech is very frustrating.
After 6 years we are moving - they just don't offer products that we need. Add to that their incredibly slow response times and high relationship manger 'churn' we are moving back to a big bank.

Some good some bad.

The good things are the customer service and decision making in branch. Just like banks used to be 25 years ago.

The bad stuff relates to their technology. Their debit and credit cards don’t work with Apple Pay! And their mobile app is pretty bad functionality, for example you can’t set up payees on your phone you have to log in to your online account and set them up manually first. Compared to the NatWest App Handelsbanken App it’s rubbish.

Apathetic service, atrocious online/mobile banking. On the whole a bank that seems to care very little about its customers.

Just a quick shout out for the team at Handelsbanken Colchester; professional, efficient, friendly.

How banking should be done!