Bank of Scotland For 1 to 9 Employees

The below comments were given by respondents who gave the bank a medium overall score (see glossary for more details).

• "Rudimentary. It does everything I want it to do." Southern England; Construction
• "They are adequate. They provide general services required to satisfactory standard." Northern England; Real Estate Activities
• "It is fine for what I need it for, as you may have gathered." Southern England; Information and Communication
• "Very efficient providing both parties understand the requirements." Southern England; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "Impersonal and average service." Southern England; Real Estate Activities
• "They're there when I need them." Scotland; Financial and Insurance Activities
• "Satisfactory." N Ireland; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• "Quite good but I don't actually look for any help off of them. I'm sure if I needed it then they would help me." Scotland; Other Service Activities
• "They're alright, but you don't see a bank manager." Northern England; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "A normal bank that does a business service. Quite satisfied with the service." Northern England; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "They are all the same, average." Northern England; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "I've never actually went to the bank for any money or any loans. I've always built up from the business. My policy in life is make the money, put it in the bank and use your own money. I've never seen the bank as very helpful for small businesses. I've been to seminars where people say the bank can do this and the bank can do that. At the end of the day, the bank can do nothing unless you have a manufacturing product that is going to make you a lot of money." Scotland; Construction
• "I don't really know, [there's] not much to say." Northern England; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Very difficult to say as [I've] just changed over. We've had a lot of our problems from changing with new account numbers." Scotland; Construction
• "I would say they perform a service. They are not fantastic, but not bad either." Scotland; Construction
• "For what they do, it is okay." Southern England; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "We're satisfied with their service but not with their interest rates." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Highly good telephone service." Northern England; Transportation and storage
• "[I] really think it's okay, we get what we need." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "They are okay, not bad. Just a general bank." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "[They are] dependable [and] answer questions very quickly. [I] use the local branch." Scotland; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "It's generally good but recently there have been one or two howling mistakes. Due to this, my feelings [towards] them are pretty neutral." Southern England; Construction
• "Satisfactory." Scotland; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• "It's okay." Wales; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• "Easy." Southern England; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Depends on the product or service required. Good for deposit accounts." Scotland; Construction
• "They've become very remote, not good for people in remote areas. You can no longer contact your local bank, and I don't agree with that." Scotland; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
• "It's satisfactory, that's all." Southern England; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
• "It's a fair service." Scotland; Transportation and storage
• "They are very efficient and I've had no problems with them." Northern England; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "Provides basic service, but no interaction." Scotland; Financial and Insurance Activities
• "Quite happy with their services because it serves their purpose, and haven't had any issues with them so far." Scotland; Financial and Insurance Activities
• "Ordinary service, they are not proactive in any aspect. They don't contact me and I contact. Not really, they never contact me about things." Southern England; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• "They are there if I need them. They just let us get on with our own stuff." Southern England; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• "I would say they are good. The only thing I can say is you don't speak to BOS staff, you speak to Halifax." Northern England; Other Service Activities
• "Prefers to use the bank as little as possible, but when needed, they are adequate." Scotland; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• "I would say the services are average, with nothing exceptionally bad or good. We are still here because it is more hassle to change than it's worth." Northern England; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "They're quite efficient. We have never had any troubles before." Scotland; Administrative and Support Service Activities
• "The bank was not helpful at all. They are not aware of the people that they serve, and have no understanding of the business market." Scotland; Financial and Insurance Activities
• "Very satisfied with help given. They give pretty helpful information. Overall, they are a good bank." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "The point of contact not done well, though they are generally fine." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "I'm very close to the bank, which I find useful, and the Internet banking is very easy. So far I've had no issue of complaint with either." Scotland; Administrative and Support Service Activities
• "Very good. Never had any problems with them." Southern England; Construction
• "I would say they are helpful. Very friendly. Always there if I need them." Northern England; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "The only problem is we have to phone them up for any queries. There's no high street bank. It is known as HBOS. Halifax can't deal with the business side of things. We can't chat to somebody face to face, only over the phone." Northern England; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
• "Online facility is fine. Telephone facility is not so good, so not getting a high score. Admin is so long winded." Northern England; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "They are okay to bank with. Good service." Northern England; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "They give me relevant information and keep me updated." Scotland; Human Health and Social Work Activities
• "Passive. I just receive statements." Northern England; Financial and Insurance Activities
• "It meets all that we need at the present time, and we have been with them for 30 plus years. We are satisfied with what we get." Scotland; Mining & quarrying: Electricity, Gas and Air Conditioning Supply, Sewerage & Waste Management
• "Very basic. No support." Southern England; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
• "It's business banking on the phone. I do not have a manager to go and speak to. That's one of the downfalls. So if I wanted a loan I could not do that over the phone as I would want to go and speak to somebody. I bought a van, and I was only able to write a cheque for £[x]...which meant I had to juggle around." Southern England; Accommodation and Food Service Activities
• "Minimal, but I do not need much." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Keeps us up to date and are helpful. Local branch is helpful. If you have a problem it can be sorted in the local branch." Scotland; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• "It generally does the transactions. I use the online banking and it does what is necessary." Southern England; Construction
• "It's adequate. We can deposit money and post cheques, but other than that they don't give us any support. There's nothing spectacular about them. I wouldn't go around telling people. They do what they say on the tin." Southern England; Other Service Activities
• "Does exactly what it says on the tin. Efficient for what I need them for." Southern England; Other Service Activities
• "Banking and communication is good with managers. Downside is credit card facility is terrible, so use other card." Southern England; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
• "I wouldn't know how to describe it. Everything runs smoothly." Northern England; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "It is satisfactory. We've got Internet banking which is convenient, as we can check our account daily and also in the afternoon, evenings, and weekends when branches are usually closed. We also have a local branch for paying in the money we receive from customers." Scotland; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "They are adequate and satisfactory. Don't do anything well or badly." Scotland; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "BOS agriculture division is very helpful, very approachable, and understand what the business is doing. Will keep going with them." Scotland; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
• "They were very helpful and gave me very little hassle." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "They are average. They are not very helpful because I don't have an overdraft. I went to a second bank to save my current account. They said I didn't qualify. I went to Arnold Clark, they gave you one right away. The actual staff are nice, but awful higher up, just because I don't have facility. I got rid of my overdraft because my account manager was not helpful at all. I paid it off. I use the bank for cheques. The other banks are probably better." Scotland; Construction
• "Not very efficient. They have poor processes and procedures." Southern England; Construction
• "Very easy. Very efficient. First, I should say that it's an online banking account exclusively. Easy access to all the information. Convenience and ease of access are the primary reasons. No negative experiences." Wales; Information and Communication
• "It is reactive, and they communicate reasonably well. It is just somewhere for me to keep my money. They give me a postal account and I don't get charged any fees. It is more about Internet banking. It is part of my personal bank account, Halifax. It is a reasonable bank. They would have to do something stupid to lose me." Northern England; Financial and Insurance Activities
• "I think it's adequate. With my personal accounts I have a very good relationship. However, mu business banking relationship is not so good. I would like the same kind of manager to deal with issues and provide similar services." Southern England; Education
• "It's a reliable banks. There's good customer service, and it has got easy online banking." Southern England; Construction
• "Adequate." Southern England; Administrative and Support Service Activities
• "Adequate. They are not often in touch with me. I find I have to be the one who has to contact them." Northern England; Other Service Activities
• "It takes your money very quickly but doesn't give you loans so quickly. They haven't been a problem. We've been with them for 20 years and they've not been a problem." Scotland; Construction
• "Basic account, [it] does what I need it to. Nothing outstanding" Northern England; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "I am able to get hold of them generally, and they have responded well apart from [on] one occasion." Southern England; Accommodation and Food Service Activities
• "Basic, [they] provide the basic service and nothing more." Southern England; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Personally dealing with the employees is good, but overall the merchant services are very expensive, that is why we came out of it." Scotland; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
• "I would say rather bland. Basically we're all just numbers." Scotland; Financial and Insurance Activities
• "Very good. [I] would recommend. They have always been okay, always been willing to lend." Scotland; Manufacturing
• "[They are] quite good at keeping a watch on the accounts. Any fraud or unusual payments are questioned. Customer service [is] quite good and they have local branches, which are handy as cheques need to be paid in, so there is no traveling far to do that." Scotland; Construction
• "Satisfied with the service we get." Wales; Mining & quarrying: Electricity, Gas and Air Conditioning Supply, Sewerage & Waste Management
• "Adequate. Their advisors are good. We hold a good relationship." Southern England; Financial and Insurance Activities
• "I would not use them, they have expensive interest rates." Southern England; Human Health and Social Work Activities
• "I use them simply for convenience because I have to bank coins, and a lot of the banks will not take my account because of the amount of coins." Southern England; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
• "Minimal service, as they are not interested." Southern England; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
• "We don't use it very extensively. We're looking to close it and rationalise to one bank, HSBC. The reason is [that] we find [then] easier to work with. It's just very basic things. The statement facilities are much easier with HSBC, and so we want one bank, and it's online facilities are much easier to use." Southern England; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "Very good." Southern England; Information and Communication
• "Initially good, but not so good nowadays, which is why I am leaving them for another bank. I rarely need to speak to anyone." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "[At] times not very efficient. They don't always do what they say they are going to do on time. They can be poor in that respect. They are good at supporting me financially, such as giving me an overdraft." Scotland; Construction
• "Adequate." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "I just use it to get change." Scotland; Accommodation and Food Service Activities
• "Basically, since telephone banking has come into business banking, I no longer meet face to face with a business manager, which I don't think is a good thing. So for me, there is no personal touch to the Bank of Scotland. If you want to speak to anybody, you have to go through a machine." Scotland; Other Service Activities
• "Adequate." Scotland; Other Service Activities
• "I would advise [them] to look around, to shop around. I would summarise [that] the service as poor." Scotland; Accommodation and Food Service Activities
• "Normal. We don't have much interaction with them. They provide a service and we receive the service." Scotland; Manufacturing
• "Pretty helpful. I go and ask a question [and] I get an answer." Scotland; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• "We would recommend the Bank of Scotland as [a] business bank as they provide a business relationship manager. [They] provide a business manager [who] you can get in touch with when you need them." Scotland; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• "Very good." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "I have a lot of time for my personal representative and [I] am satisfied with the bank's performance." Scotland; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• "It is adequate. We recently tried to obtain a commercial mortgage and they were completely unhelpful." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Reasonably good." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Little involvement." Scotland; Administrative and Support Service Activities
• "It is fine. We do not have a named business manager contact. We are a small business." Scotland; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
• "Adequate as far as banks go." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Good." Scotland; Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
• "We have not done any business with them except for the merchant services." Northern England; Construction
• "Easy to use. Bear in mind we don't ask for anything. The bits we do use work very well." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "It's very hard to give that because it's a small sub-branch in [location] of the Bank of Scotland [location] and because of [that], it is only open 1 day in the week." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "From my experience, the actual bank services have been good. A couple of times I've asked for an overdraft but I have been very disappointed." Scotland; Accommodation and Food Service Activities
• "Good service." Scotland; Manufacturing
• "Poor." Southern England; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities

The below comments were given by respondents who gave the bank a low overall score (see glossary for more details).

• "The bank doesn't provide very good support." Scotland; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
• "Adequately." Scotland; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "Background day to day is fine. [The] reason I'm stalling to rate them is because I tried to open another account [and] it's been five months now, and they just opened it for my business. I got £200 compensation, but still it wasn't a great experience. They didn't consider that I had had another account with them for 20 years." Scotland; Construction
• "It is shocking. That's it." Scotland; Construction
• "They are useless and not very good at all." Northern England; Information and Communication
• "[It's] poor. Customer service is poor." Northern England; Construction
• "They're very unhelpful and charge you for everything. They're corrupt and don't care for our financial situation. A company was created with a similar name as ours and now owes me more than £8000. They basically emptied my bank account and the Bank of Scotland knew about it and ignored the situation." Scotland; Transportation and storage
• "They are reliable. Yes, not bad at all." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Poor." Wales; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "I am very unhappy with the service of my bank. The service strongly deteriorated a year ago. All banks are the same at the moment. For example my overdraft fee at the moment is £[x] That is crazy. I'd be happier if I could speak to a bank where someone knows what they are talking about. Then I would possibly be interested, it's crazy now. Banks don't invest in [their] own people, they take risks abroad, and raise the fees in Britain. If you can't pay those fees, they take your property." Scotland; Accommodation and Food Service Activities
• "When I set up my business, [I] was asked by people in business what were the obstacles I had, and my reply was banking with the Bank of Scotland." Scotland; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "[They're] poor. They haven't given me an overdraft facility, and I'm cheesed off about that, anyway." Northern England; Accommodation and Food Service Activities
• "Rubbish." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Very minimal. We don't have much contact." Scotland; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "Just that the bank are good at what they do. They process payments very well. The security is good and that's all I can say about it, really." Southern England; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Rubbish. I just hate the bank. Big charges, very few branches, and the time it takes for the cheques to clear." Northern England; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "Diabolical. The paying in book and cheque book used to generate a new one, but when I get down to a certain number, I have to phone up and ask the bank. Recently I rang up to ask for one and they said I should receive it at the end of [month]. I then phoned again to ask, got sent to a call centre, and they asked for security details. They asked how much money was paid in to the account on [date] and they wouldn't disclose how it was paid in, so I couldn't answer the question. They were asking overdraft questions when I don't have one, and I failed the security questions. Therefore I am still waiting on the cheque book and can't run my business correctly without it." Northern England; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Don't really get much service, all done on the Internet." Northern England; Administrative and Support Service Activities
• "Very bad." Scotland; Construction
• "I do online banking, so I don't really receive a service from them." Northern England; Human Health and Social Work Activities
• "They are just a bank and we have to use them." Southern England; Financial and Insurance Activities
• "They are not interested in their customers. The service they provide is not working as they described." Scotland; Construction
• "A faceless wonder in Edinburgh." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Not flexible enough." Southern England; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "Very poor. They don't want to help people who have small businesses." Southern England; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Lacking in personal touch. Just don't feel that you mean anything to them. They don't inform you when they have changed account managers. They called to renew an overdraft facility that I didn't have. I couldn't tell the last time I have heard from a business manager." Scotland; Education
• "It's a shocker that I can't transfer funds from one account to the other. I have to personally take the money out and deposit them again in. Shocker." Scotland; Construction
• "Not very good." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Totally unsatisfactory. It was just a total shambles when we tried to transfer and move everything over to them." Southern England; Manufacturing
• "Poor." Southern England; Real Estate Activities
• "After 40 years of banking with the Bank of Scotland and 73 relationship managers, the current relationship manager called me a dinosaur because I expected some customer service from the said relationship manger." Scotland; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
• "Satisfactory on day to day transactions, but really inefficient when I bought a business and changed the name. It took months and they got it wrong. [They] had to pay me compensation." Scotland; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "It was a nice small bank [that has] become a big bank, and subsequently [the] services [have] deteriorated enormously." Southern England; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "Compared to previous years the service is poor. They just don't provide basic services, such as providing cheque books without having to request them automatically. A bank transfer [was] not processed on the day it was requested." Scotland; Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities
• "Frustrating, difficult to contact when needed" Scotland; Financial and Insurance Activities
• "Non-existent. [I] don't get any feedback or any help from them." Northern England; Wholesale and retail trade, Repair of motor vehicles or motorcycles
• "Pretty mediocre. Pretty average on most things." Scotland; Manufacturing
• "They leave me alone. We have no dealings with them." Scotland; Human Health and Social Work Activities
• "They don't do anything, absolutely nothing apart from charge me for everything. They've lost sight in the customer completely." Scotland; Accommodation and Food Service Activities
• "Very uninterested in our business. Very unwilling to be helpful." Scotland; Other Service Activities
• "Very poor now. Used to be better when we had bank managers, but now we don't." Scotland; Transportation and storage
• "Not really good at all. They are quite slow when you try to speak to them. You get passed from department to department without solving anything and you have to repeat yourself every time. They say they will get back to you and they don't, so you have to call them again." Scotland; Accommodation and Food Service Activities