Handelsbanken plc (UK) Reviews 

Just finished re structuring own company and funding . Kevin , Jill and Harry at the Cambridge branch could not of been better . Fantastic service from start to finish . Could not recommend more highly

Worst bank ever encountered.
Changed to Handelsbanken 3 years ago and at first forgave them their little 'mistakes' but now realise that staff are actually incompetent and all the personal customer service promised was fictional.

Do not be fooled by their sales pitch !

This bank has won best UK customer service awards for many years and no one has ever heard of them. They are head and shoulders above all the others. So glad I found them. Worth every penny of the small month fee. Real people who know you in the branch who you can telephone and email directly. A fast and efficient 24/7 call centre. Great online systems. I'd give them 10 stars if I could.

Splendid bank, easily the best I have ever used. What you get with HB is old-fashioned personal service and staff who know and understand you and your affairs. You have your account manager in your local branch (mine is in Mayfair) and you can call him or meet him whenever you like. The manager knows you and your circumstances and you are not dealing with computer algorithms or third world call centres. Employees get no sales commission so they have no incentive to sell you expensive or rubbish products. Previously I used First Direct, usually regarded as top for customer service among the high street banks but Handelsbanken is head and shoulders better than First Direct.

Excellent bank and highly recommend them, they took the time to properly understand our circumstances and worked with us to come up with a solution, which worked for all parties when reviewing our mortgage. This is such a far cry from your typical high street bank who hide behind regulation as an excuse to automate their systems. Handelsbanken is banking as it should be and people should remember that cheapest often isn't best!

I have been a highly satisfied customer of Handelsbanken for four years now and can't praise them highly enough. The level of customer service provided by my local branch exceeds even my very demanding expectations and whenever an issue has arisen my designated banking relationship manager has always resolved it very quickly and to my complete satisfaction. My only regret is not moving to Handelsbanken sooner, as the experience is like night and day after the series of problems I had using the traditional high street banks. The interest rates they pay are decidedly on the low sides, which may be an issue for some people, but my priorities are first and foremost placing my hard earned cash in a bank with a low risk profile where I can be confident that it will be safe and secondly receiving good quality, old fashioned customer service.

Have had amazing service. During a diffucult time abroad the manager was in contact and helped immensely. You just wouldnt have this service with a high street bank.

Website clunky and App is ‘classic’, but telephone service is fantastic

Absolute waste of time.
We were referred to Handelsbanken Windsor by an existing customer of theirs. The lady who picked up our inquiry was very inconsistent, one minute telling us what we wanted to borrow was far too small an amount for such a premium bank to lend us, to then telling us the risk was too high for them to lend us the amount. In my meeting with her she told me the bank did not credit check and then next thing was telling me they would need to do credit checks.
She did not seem to know what she was doing, was very condescending and completely wasted our time when we could have been pursuing other options.
A very poor service from her and we are very disappointed to have been treated this way.

I have never had such bad service in my life!
When I first moved to Sweden I went to the Handelsbank closest to my home to open an account. I filled in all the paperwork and was told I would be contacted for an interveiw within a week. I was never contacted.
So I went to the branch closest to my place of work. I filled in the paperwork again and actually got an interveiw. Which was then cancelled a couple of times, but finally I got there and my account was opened.
Now I have had the account for a few months and am struggling to make online purchases. After doing some investigation I discovered that the lady who registered the account had put my foreign tax number in place of my cell phone number (so I wasn't receiving the OTP). I can't see if she put my cell number in place of the tax number though. This could put me in a really difficult situation when I return home. It is soooo unacceptable (I can't even think of a word strong enough) that the people we trust to keep our hard earned money safe make this sort of stupid.......

Whoa. I have never been treated this way ever in my life. Like a piece of s*it, literally. And I have been working as a foreign worker in Germany before. If you happen to be a foreigner, AVOID this bank.

I was referred by a friend to Handelsbanken in Bristol, and attempted to get a current account set up reasonably quickly. It didn't work out very well due to their lack of sense of urgency and slow progress. It started with taking 3 days to get an appointment. I suspected that it wouldn't be handled very quickly, so I asked specifically what documents would be required, which I then brought to the meeting. Then I was informed that they needed an original document of my water bill...the copy I brought was not sufficient...so I had to go back later the same day to drop that off. The following day I was informed that 1 month was missing in the 3 months bank statements I provided. I had accidentally missed October and taken August instead. I quickly provided October, but was starting to lose patience, especially since I had emphasized from the beginning that I needed the account opened quickly.
The following day I got a call informing me that they didn't think they were the right for me and my banking needs....
I find the handling of this remarkable. I have never experienced anything like this from a bank anywhere...
I have been a customer of Handelsbanken in Sweden since 1981 and have substantial assets and savings there, which I informed the UK branch of, but obviously they didn't consider that. They consider themselves a "premium bank" and want to profile themselves on a higher level that the "high street" banks. I think it might be good to first align your processes/people/culture with a premium bank, and then start acting like one.
Obviously I will need to review my "global relationship" with Handelsbanken based on my unpleasant experience with them in Bristol.

Excellent service from my local branch in York. Nothing's ever too much bother, they're really friendly and know their customers personally. I have both business and personal banking from them and never have cause for complaint on either count.

Fantastic personal and local service. Probably not the best choice if you need to push your bank to the limit, as they are quite conservative and seem to prefer low risk customers who put a premium on good service.

Its as different from using a high street bank as eating at a good family owned restaurant is from visiting MacDonalds.