Media Coverage | 2001 Archive

Sunday Times Money: Online banks fail customer tests

Online banks are failing customers by making it difficult to carry out even the most basic tasks, writes David Budworth.

A survey of target customers by The Usability Company, an internet consultant, reveals how frustrating it can be to find out simple information using online banking services.

NatWest, Cahoot and Egg came out particularly poorly in the survey, which asked a group of eight frequent web users to perform two tasks: obtain the best interest rate for a savings account and search for a telephone helpline number.

The participants said it was almost impossible to discover a helpline number on the NatWest site. Most ended up mistakenly phoning the Royal Bank of Scotland's switchboard. RBS, which owns NatWest, had to direct users elsewhere. The correct number is actually in the feedback section of the site.

Users of the Cahoot and Egg sites suffered the same problem. Customers had to sift through information on Egg's site to uncover a phone number. Cahoot's "contact us" section contains only e-mail addresses. When users e-mailed asking for a helpline number, the quickest reply came two days later.

On Lloyds TSB's site, pinpointing the best savings rate was also a chore. The savings account section was hard to find and the account descriptions were complicated and gave little indication of its rates.

In the survey of sites Smile, Intelligent Finance, Alliance & Leicester and Abbey National were most highly rated.

The survey highlights the fact that despite claims that online banking is a speedy alternative to traditional services, many customers think that internet banks are frustratingly slow and difficult to use. Last month, The Sunday Times revealed that it can still take three to four working days for a customer with an internet bank to transfer money between banks. 

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© The Usability Company 2007