AlRayan Bank UK Reviews 

Excellent customer service. Mr Muhammad Baig was the advisor I spoke with re mobile app,he talked me through the process and helped reactivating the app. stayed with throughout the process and finally we got it working. Very helpful

Had great customer service from Muhammad Baig, very patient and explained things easily.

I spoke to a gentleman named Zacharia who was most helpful and extremely patient in helping us access our digital banking.

Customer service is very helpful and solved all my issues with my account.

Muhammad Baig was very helpful today and he answered all my queries in a very professional way.
Thanks

I’ve been unable to access my online account since my account was opened. I have called numerous occasions and keep getting advised I will get call back from IT department. Nothing been resolved. Today I was a third party deals with IT issues which means someone else access to all my personal information. Am worried now opening an account with AlRayan bank as no one seems to know what they doing and are incompetent. Am tired of calling AlRayan bank as no one is willing to take ownership or provide honest answers.

Their inability to produce monthly statements for a savings account in a timely fashion was already a laughing stock (2 weeks), now they've switched to strictly quarterly only statements; as if to say we know we're bad so now we're taking just the mick

Please avoid al rayhan bank at all costs.

Just last year I had a fake caller pretending to be from Al rayhan and had asked me to send an OTP code which I did as they mentioned someone is doing fruad in my account. By the way, they called through an al rayhan phone line as it appeared on my phone. Once they mentioned that someone was doing fruad in my account and them being very professional I ended up giving it to them, they took over 7k from my account.

I didn't realise what I got into as I tried calling the number back but it didn't go through. They called me just before 5pm. Following day I called them back and mentioned that their colleague called me and had discussed about the potential fruad going on in my account and I had to send the otp for them to prevent the fruad to go through. The memebr of staff had mentioned I didn't speak to anyone from their team and mentioned that it must of been a fruad call.

That same memeber of staff then transfered me off to another member of staff I had asked what would happen now I demand al rayhan to send my money back to me. The memeber of staff had mentioned it'll be sorted and my money will be back to me and transfered to my account.

After a week of going back and forth I then get a call from someone in al rayhan that I couldn't get my money back at all etc.

I then left it to Allah's and there after I contacted the financial ombudsman team explaining the situation to them. They mentioned that they will investigate this matter and it will take about 3 months.

Subhnallah after 3 months I got married and went umrah for my honey moon and just a week after I returned from umrah I get an email back from financial ombudsman team that I would get all my money back plus compensation for extra £250.

Subhnallah allah is the best of all planners.

Please avoid al rayhan bank at all costs.

Love for your brother on what you love for your self.

I have been a bank account customer of Al Rayan Bank for seven years. I have tried incredibly hard to be loyal to the bank, but they make it impossible and I have just had to shut down my account due to my frustrations.

In every way possible Al Rayan has become worse and worse over the years. There's not enough space to list everything, but, for example:

- they have shut down every single branch
- they have cut their telephone customer support hours (used to be available in evenings and Saturdays)
- their customer service has deteriorated
- their profits rates have declined
- you used to be able to transfer from your Savings account to any account. Now only to one pre-assigned Nominated account, which is a major restriction.

Due to their strict daily transfer limits, which have stayed the same over several years despite huge inflation, you have to write them a letter to transfer larger sums. Inevitably they claim they haven't received the letter!

This bank is beyond awful! Stay well clear!

Honestly the very worst mobile and digital banking app I have encountered in a very long time. Added to which none of the promotional pitches of what my money could increase by have come true and the account pays some of the worst 'profit' in the market. Truly appalling

I'm very happy with their ethical stance, but getting through to them is a nightmare. Their digital "assistant" is useless and you can't get past it. It struggles to recognise 'yes' and 'no'.
They're going app based but only offer ios/android apps and do not offer on-line banking.

Digital services are at least a decade behind other banks.

Chat bot doesn’t seem to understand any question.

Randomly one day could not withdraw from my savings account into the account I’d been using to pay in every month for SEVEN years.

App does not notify you what a problem actually is. Often has login problems where, upon calling, you find your account is locked yet nowhere on the app tells you this. Just lets you go in circles for hours trying to reset the password, seeming like it’s working, until you get to the stage of logging back in and it just doesn’t work.

Transfers randomly stopped working because I had to appoint one nominated account. What’s it to this bank if I want to send my own money to more than one of my own accounts?

Even closing the account is even a dated process. While other banks facilitate digital closure, Al Rayan wants you to send a letter to them in person? Ridiculous.

When you close the last physical branch in the country, online services have to be top tier. I have had an account with almost every high street bank, as well as the likes of Monzo, Revolut etc and Al Rayan comes in undisputed winner for the worst website and app.

Update:
Finally my account was opened after nearly 2 months. I received a call from the team apologising for the delays. I will keep it 3 stars for now and may change the rating depending on my experience going ahead.

My experience with Al-Rayan bank has been nothing short of shambles so far. I am trying to open a savings account for last 2 months. I have been extra patient and understanding as I wanted to move away from traditional interest based banking and transfer my savings to them. However, there is no sense of responsibility or customer service. I am giving two stars because the representative on 8th Oct showed some common courtesy and contact me back to give an update unlike all the other team members.

Application completed 28 August and in two months I have contacted them 6 times to complete the process but still unsuccessful in account opening.

1st contact after a week of application submission: Their representative said that they have the application and if the team need anything they will let me know. It can take 10 days to process the application.

2nd contact: The representative said that they cannot do anything as they work differently from the team who opens account. They cannot tell me if they need any documents and cannot help at well.

3rd contact: The representative spoke to someone and asked me to provide my previous home address (which I had already provided at the time of application). Stated that only the previous address was missing and now it should be completed soon.

4th contact: Their representative asked to send them proof of ID (photocopy) after verification from post office. (apparently they still in 20th century). I mailed them all the documents.

5th contact (8th Oct): They have now received the documents and they will approve my account.

Received a call from the representative on the same day that they are having difficulties in approving my account and IT team is involved to help resolve this.

6th contact: IT issue is still not resolved and they have no timeframe regarding how long it will take.

It has been over a week since the last contact and no one has contacted me back. The account is still not opened even after nearly 2 months. I am not sure how poor of a service we should tolerate just to be able to open a sharia compliant account.

I should like to express sincere thanks and appreciation to Zakariya who demonstrated the most extraordinary levels of patience and courtesy when helping me with on line banking this morning. His knowledge of the system whilst guding me through it was impeccable.

Contacted them to review a old savings account, had to go through security, answered one question wrong and was not offered any alternative question, just turned away. No empathy from agent, just a stonewall response. I was actually trying to save them from sending us irrelevant mail !
Dreadful login process if you forget your details, have to send them written proof, would never use them again.

This is by far the worst bank in the UK. It’s about 20 years behind every other bank.

1. There is a £5 charge if your funds go below £2500

2. Bank transfers are not instantaneous. You need to wait about 3 days as it goes through their “clearing” system 😭😭

3. App never works

4. Online banking has a mind of its own

5. When you call them, they will almost always say the department you want to contact is busy so they can “request a call back”

6. Their staff on the phone sound like young college children

7. Phone waiting times are ridiculous

8. If you have home finance with them, you end up paying a ridiculously high portion towards rent and a tiny amount towards acquisition. They are supposed to be a bank that supports Muslims against riba/interest, but the “alternative” they offer is even worse and comparable to dhulm! The irony.

The only good thing about them, is the nasheed that’s played when waiting on the phone.

EDIT 18/10/24 AFTER SEEING THEIR RESPONSE:

- their response says all you need to know. Why?

A) there’s no addressing of the fact they charge you more than a traditional “haram” mortgage. Basically milking it.

B) they accept they charging you £5/month

C) they’re content with their average ratings on the App Store 😂 funny thing is if you filter on the App Store for most recent, you’ll see probably more than half of the reviews are 1 star 😂🤷‍♂️

The young lady who took my call was extremely patient and professional throughout our lengthy conversation.

Al Rayyan Bank at Salwa Road Mr. Ahmed Amer he is A banker he is one of best ever banker I have ever met great respected good job very smart good helper he make everything easy and simple
God blesses him
Thanks Mr Ahmed Amer

I had the need to raise an issue with Customer Services. The lady who took my call could not be more helpful. The day after the Bank Holiday, I received a call from Mr M Faisal in the Customer Care Team as promised. He was exceptionally helpful and professional and explained the process leading to the issue I had experienced. Even though it transpired that Al Rayan were not at fault (it was down to the clearing system that caused the transfer delay due to additional security checks etc), Al Rayan apologised and compensated me for my inconvenience as a gesture of goodwill. I am very happy with the resolution to my issue on this occasion and I very much doubt other banks would have done the same.

I have still not received any correspondence regarding my complaint which it has been over a year now. From reading the reviews it seems this bank is heading downhill. CLOSE your account as soon as possible as once they start messing you about it will really upset you.