British e-banks are improving, according to their own customers. There has been a significant drop in the number of people telling the research agency Virtual Surveys that they have had problems with their online bank accounts.
However, the latest findings from the agency’s Virtual Online Banking Survey (V-OBS), derived from more than 5,000 web-based interviews with UK e-banking customers, show that more than half of them are still having problems; mainly due to website outages, login failures and general slow speed of access.
% experiencing any service problem with their online bank in the last 3 months:64% Q2/200161% Q3/200160% Q4/200155% Q1/2002
Correspondingly there has been an increase in overall satisfaction with online banks.
% describing their online bank as excellent:
17% Q2/200119% Q3/200120% Q4/200124% Q1/2002
More specifically this recent rise in overall satisfaction appears to have been driven particularly by customers of: Lloyds TSB, RBS/NatWest and AbbeyNational/Cahoot.
However the latest quarter shows still shows Smile at the top of the league table with a V-OBS score of 4.1 out of 5 amongst those who have used it. Runners-up included Smile’s parent bank Co-operative Bank (4.0) and First Direct (3.9).
Virtual Online Banking Survey (V-OBS) League Table for Q1/2002. (Scores are out of 5 with those in brackets denoting changes versus the previous quarter.)
4.1 (-0.1) Smile
4.0 (+0.2) Co-operative Bank
3.9 (-0.1) First Direct3.8 (+0.2) HSBC3.8 (-0.1) Nationwide3.8 (+0.3) RBS3.7 (+0.3) Cahoot3.6 (+0.2) Halifax3.5 (+0.1) Barclays 3.5 (+0.3) Lloyds TSB3.4 (-) IF3.4 (-) Egg3.4 (+0.3) Abbey National3.3 (-0.1) Bank of Scotland3.3 (-0.1) Woolwich3.1 (+0.3) NatWest2.7 (-) Alliance & Leicester