Bank of Scotland Reviews 

Used to be a great bank. Now customer service justs hides behind Virtual Assistants that don't work and make it harder and harder to speak to anyone.

Bank of Scotland sided with a chargeback claim despite clear evidence that the guest stayed at our property and received the service paid for.

From my perspective, this decision rewarded dishonest behaviour and left our small business to absorb the loss.

If banks continue making decisions like this, they are effectively encouraging abuse of the chargeback system and leaving legitimate businesses unprotected.

Very disappointing experience.

This bank is a disgrace. Contacted customer service today regarding a complaint logged with bank 3 weeks ago with no resolution as yet. Unable to give any update, unable to say anything, unable or unwilling to give contact details of complaints department itself, unable to allow me to talk to manager as claimed you can only do in branch, unable to give contact number for branch as apparently you can only talk to someone at branch if you go into branch...and that would be the same branches they keep closing down. Impossible to get straight answer or any answer for that matter except that bank has up to 8 weeks to resolve a complaint. It probably sits parked on a desk for 7 weeks and then they look into it and meanwhile the customer is left to stew. If they had resolved promptly and with a bit of courtesy then I would not be considering changing banks like I am right now.

Having been banking with bank of Scotland for over 45 years, and now find myself changing as soon as I’m able to switch my account. The customer service is now appalling. I had an issue with cineworld who were taking money from my account by direct debit, which I’ve not authorised, so decided to call BOS. After waiting for a very long period I decided to try going onto some kind of chat or send them a text message or an email. None of these are available options, you can only call them. Eventually, when I got through to an advisor, I was advised that my direct debit indemnity would cover me and I would receive the money back. As the money was not received back, I called them again. I spoke to an adviser who told me that I would need to hold on whilst the issue was fully investigated, and that if the call was terminated for any reason then I would need to call back in and start from scratch, and you guessed it, they can’t call me back. 52 minutes into the call I was disconnected. In this world, I cannot believe the only way to communicate with my bank is by a phone call. Unfortunately I’m guessing they probably don’t care.

Absolutely furious 😡
As the a treasurer of a small charity account…we have been “Subjected to a monthly “Service charge” of £4.75! ….with absolutely no service…The clue is in the word “CHARITY”…NOT BUSINESS….but we are being charged as if we are a business. We have no income stream…make NO profit….but for over a year now we have had to pay this charge( which I believe will increase again soon).
The bank has the use of our funds and makes a good financial gain from investing them on the funds market…it’s an absolutely joke😡…then!…yesterday!
I got a Communication containing a “TEA BAG” telling me to have a cup of tea on the bank!..what an insult…whoever thought this up is a disgrace…and is being paid too much money !
Having worked for the bank for nearly 30 years….I’m ashamed of the current ways of running banks.
Banks of the past had a community conscious…and Treasurers accounts we free of charges…its nice to know that the big bonuses are being paid at the expense of Charities….!😣

Was trying to get my wife to join me with Halifax on a joint account, when required with BoS bank at East Kilbride branch they said to me that I would have to complete forms and have my wife sign them along with proof of her identity this was in the middle of april,, so the advisor advised me that they would scan the documents and then send them through the POST to the halifax I kept checking with bos and they said they were the same nothing has been actioned until I checked with halifax,, nothing was received at their end. I spoke with a lovely advisor on the phone at Halifax she said that the paperwork has probably been lost in the post or it has never been sent, I told her that a letter was handed into the bank asking what was happening with the joint account they never replied and was told by the advisor at the halifax that the rules had changed either they were to late to send the paperwork as my wife would have to open a solo bank account with the halifax then apply to switch over as joint account holder I was on 36 minutes and they transferred £36 into my account and told me that she was going to raise a complaint which she did as i received a letter explaining they had raised the complaint with the bank of scotland. At that time I could get down to the bank but now I have epilepsy and can't get out for the time being. Now I don't lnow who to bank with nationwide are just as bad as the bos or I could go to the toy bank tsb.

BoS insurance - worst experience - simple accidental damage broke window.
Completed claim online twice to be auto rejected. Called up and went through the lengthy process of getting through to a human who told me this shouldn’t have happened - can only think it’s a ploy to get customers to give up as why should you make the process so difficult otherwise.
No direct numbers, no emails to respond to - sad as after 10 years with the same insurance I won’t be staying next time round there’s just no point this was a simple claim god help me if it was complex!

Not what it should be!

Hopeless - my brother in law has severe learning difficulties and we advised BOS , Upperkirkgate, Aberdeen to only allow him to take up to £50 out without our permission. He has no concept of finances and is easily manipulated by people. The branch readily gave him £300 and when we contacted to complain (on several occasions) and ask to speak to the manager, we have had no response. WE will take this further and report, but having seen the reviews below, perhaps we should move banks.
You cannot get through to customer service and when you do, they are totally unhelpful. We live in London so cannot go and visit the branch for help. And it’s impossible to get branch contact details.

Terrible - closing banks - expected to wait an hour to pay a bill - don’t care about customers any longer.

My family business has been banking with BOS for 26 years and they have treated us like dogs! I cannot explain how disappointed I am. Disgusting behaviour. 0/10

Dreadful can’t get to speak to anyone in person. Spent hours trying to get through to our Business Manager ( based we believe in Manchester) and we live in Scotland. Escalating complaints is even worse (when you do after days attempting to make contact) they give the feedback the complaints procedure takes 8 weeks and it’s week 12 now awaiting feedback/resolution.

A 40 mile round trip to our local branch and approached teller to deposit several cheques and was pointed to a machine which she did to everyone who approached her. I eventually managed to deposit cheques (holding up many customers) as I was walking out a clerk said ‘that was easy wasn’t it?’ I said ‘not really I have had to make a special trip into the nearest branching total, 40 minute round trip, 30 minutes tying up a machine and 1.5 hours of my life away from work and wasted. I was told well you could have paid in via the app which I had to reply ‘no we can’t despite repeated requests Bank of Scotland won’t allow us to access that facility.

In process of closing and transferring joint, personal, business, credit card and mortgage accounts. Not bad going Bank of Scotland, we have both been independently customers for 48 years. Your customer service is shocking.

I've been into the bank at Glasgow City Centre this morning one of your staff called Sukhpeer has been RACIST to me, she also tried to make everything so hard for me, she isn't professional.
All I needed was just open new account.
You need to look at the way your staff speaks to the costumers

Just closed the BoS business account after ~14 years of having it (~£2mln put through the acc). The service is now way beyond a joke. The security and management of business debit cards would be laughable if it wasn't so serious (can't freeze a lost card - brilliant!). They also seem to think it's appropriate to control what they consider to be a valid business expense for your business, e.g. they won't let you use it in Tesco supermarkets to buy lunch. Sorry, but I don't need them to dictate to me what a valid business expense is or isn't, that's what I pay an accountant for, and btw, subsistence is a valid expense and Tesco sell sandwiches!
Final nail in the coffin - their 'authentication reader' - kill me now! Long story short, I could still log in to the app fine but not the website as the authentication card was blocked, so had to take it to a BoS/Halifax/Lloyds ATM to unblock it. Since they closed all their local branches I had a 1.5hr round trip to get to the nearest suitable atm just to unblock it (30 second task). Why couldn't I just unblock it in the app!!!??? Oh, final final nail in the coffin - after receiving a letter saying "we're putting your bank account fee up", I thought - "no you're not, in fact - you should be paying me to put up with this sh1t", I decided to transfer the account to Monzo (seamless transition). BoS decided to then charge me 3 x account fees as a final "Hey - look how utterly incompetent we are" parting gift. Then they tried to convince me (in extremely poor broken English on the webchat) that they only needed to refund me once, and then "As i have check that 3 time payment is debited from account need not worry...", so they'd changed their minds and refunded me the overcharges. Ay, caramba! STOP the bus, I need to get off!
Whoever is in charge of business banking at BoS is probably getting paid faaaar too much to destroy what was once a pretty awesome service and they need booted, either into the long grass or up the backside! Either way, I am very, VERY, much out of here!

I couldn't put one star or definitely would have . Remote banking is a joke they stopped wrong card leaving me stranded , they don't care . Umbrella banking BIS , LLOYDS ETC, does not work. I can't access all accounts in branch . I was left standing on a call 45 minutes as they could not access Lloyds . It's a joke 😡

The most rude ignorant disrespectful staff at customer service avoid this company

Terrible experience with car insurance renewal.

1. Got email telling me to ignore another email about renewal which i haven’t received. But not stating what was actually happening about the renewal.
2. Rang to check where the renewal was. Told they were changing all policies to AXA and I’d get the renewal on Monday.
3. Renewal details came in the post but was nearly 50% up on last year.
4. Same day got another email saying they wouldn’t be renewing the policy.

Schrödinger’s insurance. Both renewed and not renewed at the same time.

Got a policy with Direct Line at last years price.

What a mess.

Have an account as the main signatory with a business partner who resigned nearly a year ago. The bank blocked the account citing dispute. Been trying to close and withdraw from the account with no success. Meanwhile I continue to get charged monthly for overdrafts that I cannot pay because the account in frozen. The bank refuses to take over draft payments despite showing proof of companies house and does not stop adding monthly overdrft fees either. The bank offers no resolution even though the other person is unreachable and I am the only one who signed for the account and beng effected. This bank needs to shut down because they are useless to say the least and offers no solution at all.

Several years ago I gave BoS 5 stars (they don't have many of those) for customer service.
In recent years it has become a 1 star bank in all respects.

When I logged into online banking I received a message: “In the coming weeks, the ability to rename accounts online will disappear and your accounts will go back to their original names. You’ll still be able to view or edit account nicknames in the app.”
(I do not own a smartphone.)
This change is unacceptable as the naming allows me to easily differentiate between my “Personal” bank account and our “Joint” bank account. It is unfair and unreasonable because it deliberately penalises people who do not own smartphones for no legitimate reason.
They have also added new functionality to their app but not to online banking, E.g. being able to send messages and deposit cheques digitally. There is NO reason that these features cannot be easily added to online banking.
(My whole career is in banking IT.)

Not sure if it's racism but they treat me like a criminal just for using my money in normal ways even when I completely the verification/two factor authentication tests CORRECTLY. Now on top of everything else I have to deal with they're not letting me use my money until I can get into the branch with ID, AGAIN (this isn't the first time). I really don't have the time and capacity to deal with this in my life right now. It's all completely baseless as I completed the authentication tests correctly and it's my normal phone device. They've also been in the news recently for leaking everyone's data. I had switched from Nationwide to Bank of Scotland because their app was much better but it's just not worth the risk of using them since they've decided THEIR in charge of my money and not me. 1000000000000000% done with them and already made arrangements to switch back to Nationwide with my wages now set up to go in that one. Bank of Scotland's rates are cheaper and they have a decent app but it's just not worth the risk of using them anymore because I really need access to my own money! Whole thing has caused me so much stress I only got 3 hours sleep last night!