To be able to understand the person who I am talking to, banks!

That sounds very odd Did the person actually tell you she was locking you? Or was it an automated voice?

That's why I don't bank online.
I think I managed to actually get on to my account once before being locked out time upon time again.

Yes, I sympathise. My "key" to get into my account recently failed and I spoke to someone at the bank who understood me to a point, and I specifically asked for it to be sent to my home address. A week later no "key" - rang again and it had been sent to my "nearest" bank - a 30 mile round trip and I don't drive! Another call that took almost 25 minutes to get one sent to my home. When things work well they are brilliant, but come across a problem and it all goes upside down!

My almost sole reason for using First Direct is that their call centre is in the U.K. . I cannot deal with overseas call centres.

annep1 it was already blocked, I tried to reset it, she said I answered the questions wrong, but I could barely tell what she was saying , her English was pretty bad.

Will ring back tomorrow and hopefully speak to another who I can understand and ask for something to my address rather than a trip out.

Two of my banks have closed in our town, they seem to be disappearing at a rate these days.

In my town there are only Lloyds Bank and HSBC left. We have lost NatWest, Barclays, the Co-operative and Santander is just about to close. For people who live hand to mouth this is a disaster. If you only have seven pounds left in your account it's impossible to get it from an ATM that only deals in £10 notes. Also, I work with some people who have learning disabilities and the local (Santander) branch staff know them and look after their special needs very well.

My sympathies, bikergran. I've just had to ring my credit card company this evening and had to run the gamut of the security questions. I was very nearly blocked because I gave the wrong name for my first primary school. Well it was 60 years ago! I must say my contact was very patient, thank goodness.

What a hassle bikergran. It can all be very stressful. And I hate when call centres are staffed by people who don't understand English. I hope you get sorted out. I use online banking but I do worry about things going wrong and someone accessing my money. I sometimes long for the days when we all went into the bank to get cash and paid with checks. And got our printed statement sent each month.

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My daughters both bank with First Direct and are very satisfied. One of them went travelling the world and gave me a third party mandate on her accounts. An unexpected problem arose and I phoned the bank. As I worked in a bank myself, I knew that what I wanted was a bit 'borderline' and they could have refused to help.

I explained the problem to a lovely, northern sounding lady and she immediately said 'You'd think by that age, we could stop looking after them!' and then proceeded to efficiently help me sort out my daughter's problem. Common sense had prevailed.

I have a 123 account with Santander and am also satisfied with that. The interest is not as good as it used to be but still welcome.

I've been with the same bank since 1960 and I've never had any problems with them at all. The manager in those days was a friend of the family and now his daughter works at the bank.
They know my spending habits and I've always felt so safe with them. I don't bank online and won't. If I wanted to speak to someone on the phone, I have a code so I'm never likely to ever switch, even if interest rates are higher elsewhere. You can't put a price on trust !

I get Scottish speakers - do they count as foreign?

I loved it when Talktalk said they were moving their centres back to the UK. Thought hooray, I'll be able to understand them. Nope, I think they brought the staff with them, I still can't understand them!

When I worked for First Direct, we did have a small number of customers who would put the phone down on us with an explanation that they would only speak to people in the Leeds call centre because of our "funny accents" (the other call centre being in Hamilton)

We just used to cheerfully tell them "Okay, good luck!" since the call queue was automated and new callers were sent to whichever centre's call queue was shortest at the moment you phoned.

But whatever kept them happy

I sometimes can’t understand strong Scottish or ‘Oppp north’ accents but I would never say I just tell them the line is not very good and can they speak slower and clearer They always are very apologetic and do It works just as well with Indian voices most of which I ve found very charming

I wouldn’t bank with First direct if you paid me they point blank refused my custom because they said my record showed I had never had any debts or late payments They actually had the nerve to tell me that, obviously I wasn’t going to make them any money !!!

I don't have a problem with any accent. You've just got to listen hard and concentrate.

If you find it difficult to understand, say so and ask to speak to a supervisor. I must admit some accents defeat me. The times I've needed to speak to Santander they've been very helpful

I sympathise. These foreign call centres are so frustrating aren't they? Of course these days the foreigner could be speaking to you from this country!

I know it's inconvenient for you but in your situation I think your best bet is to go into your nearest branch and ask them to sort things out for you.

In my experience staff in bank branches are British, or at least speak English well enough to be understood!

This morning I tried to close a couple of on line bank accounts containing only a small amount of money. ICICI had locked me out because I hadn't performed any transactions recently, but I dealt on the phone with a lady who spoke perfect English (she is probably Indian) and she arranged exactly what I asked. On the other hand Santander told me that I had to physically go into a bank to explain why I wanted to close the account. I haven't got a very local branch so I just transferred out the money and will leave it empty. Neither gave me the option of simply closing the account on line!

Bikergram

What you should do is
If you are speaking to someone and their accent is making it difficult to understand ask to speak to a manager. If they say no one is available ask that a manager rings you back.
You may find that the person who rings will be more understanding of your problem.
If you do have this type of problem again, make a note of what you did so that you can explain this to the bank.
It is extremely difficult when personnel have accents, my husband has hearing loss and it is impossible for him to understand the person.

I sometimes find this even with native speakers, too - they gabble and mumble at the same time. I have been known to say, 'Could you repeat that please - more slowly?'
I dare say they think, stupid old bag, but frankly I don't care.

I am trying to replace cash into my few savings accounts, I used the cash to enable me to buy a house and have now completed on my old house. So far halifax have put me through fraud processes 3 times, lots of questions and the worst session was with a man with a heavy scottish accent, I could not understand what he was saying. At one point he said to me `you hesitated over that answer` I hesitated because I was trying to make head or tail of what he was actually saying

I am really fed up with banks and online banking in particular, how transactions are blocked, how I have to contact the bank so often and with people I cannot understand over my dodgy phone connection. Nationwide still has a local (16 miles away) prescence and people were queueing out of the door last saturday

I am hearing unpleasant xenophobic undertones in the whole tenor of this topic- foreign voices. Scottish accents? Whatever next?

Just to add I have found the “voices” (human-and from all over) on RBS telephone banking unfailingly helpful, friendly and courteous.

But don’t get me started on Automated Voice Recognition.

DH has had problems understand in foreign accents on several occasions. One one occasion, he had to give up, and went to the bank to try to sort the problem out there instead. They were very sympathetic, as they have to deal with the same people themselves to sort such things out, and have exactly the same problem!