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Royal Bank of Scotland came bottom of the poll with HSBC's online lender First Direct in top place
Thousands of bank customers believe the UK’s biggest lenders are failing to improve services.
Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays have all dropped down the ranks of customer satisfaction, according to a survey of 10,000 current account holders by price comparison site uSwitch.
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The survey findings come just weeks before the results of a review of the current account market, following concerns that it lacks competition and transparency over charges.
RBS came bottom in the poll, with customers voting it the worst current account provider for a second consecutive year, in terms of satisfaction, trust, online services, value for money and rewards offered.
The state-backed bank, which the government has just begun selling off in the country’s biggest privatisation, has suffered technology glitches that have affected customers’ access to their accounts.
The poll shows that HSBC has fallen eight places in the “most trusted” category, after months of negative publicity surrounding a tax evasion scandal at its Swiss private bank and recent systems faults.
Barclays has suffered the biggest drop in overall satisfaction, while Lloyds has also fallen across a range of aspects in offering current accounts.
Competition from so-called challenger banks, such as TSB, Metro and Virgin Money, is growing.
Nicolas Frankcom, of uSwitch.com, said: “With more challenger banks expected to shake things up even further in the future, the big four clearly have more to do if they want to be the big winners.”
TSB, which was carved out of Lloyds and recently bought by Spanish lender Sabadell, has risen up the ranks, improving on customer service, value for money and trust, according to the uSwitch poll.
The government launched a seven-day service two years ago designed to make it easier for current account customers to change banks.
However, critics argue that the numbers changing banks remain low, with 1m current account holders switching last year, out of a total of 50m.
James Daley, of consumer site Fairer Finance, described the figures as “incredibly low”, noting that the switching service has had “negligible impact.
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“The main barrier is that people are just worried about something going wrong, and are not sure they see the value in better service from other providers.
“There was always a massive task ahead of the big banks to turn around organisations that were failing culturally in multiple ways — and this is a 10-year turnround.”
“What’s been alarming in the last few months is some of the banks are starting to lose patience.”
He cites Barclays as an example in ousting chief executive Antony Jenkins because he has not made enough profit.
First Direct, the online bank owned by HSBC, topped the charts, coming first in nine out of 12 categories for overall current account offerings.
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