Close Brothers Savings Recensioni 

I opened a savings account a few weeks ago but I can’t access it online. Have rung several times but customer services don’t seem to think it’s a problem. ‘There’s not much else we can do…’I was told to wait to be contacted but nobody did contact me. I rang again but the lack of concern made me ask to withdraw the money and was told I couldn’t. They say they’ve raised it again with IT and with Complaints but still nobody has got back to me.

The application process does not have the facility to enter both a village name and a town/city name resulting in me waiting for my account to be set up and requesting an amendment - they said there was no difference in both my amendment and my original address - I corrected them - there was a difference - and they apologised and amended my address however my village name has been added at the beginning of my address and looks like my house name - I have not bothered to write back - there should be a facility in the application process to enter both a village name and a town/city name - how many people have written to correct or have not bothered resulting in Close Brothers holding incorrect addresses

Terrible service... web site crashes, can't download documents, no response to on line messages, emails not sent when agreed by phone, take ages to answer phones, send excessive paper out by post etc, etc..

You have been warned!

Applied for their 1 year cash ISA - due to the market-leading rate at the time,

Since applying have endured a series of time-consuming broken promises due mainly to processes that are designed for the benefit of CBS rather than their customers!

Raised a complaint with Head of Savings Operations (mark dot stevens at closebrothers dot com). He didn't respond so had to deal with an inexperienced Complaints Handler. Provided with bland excuses for process failures (including one response which contradicted what they had been saying about their process and which I'm sure isn't factual).

Offered a compensation sum that didn't reflect the time and hassle I'd endured - refused offer and sum increased by 66% - but still less than the value of my time.

Will not use CBS ever again for investments. I can only hope that the withdrawal process is swift - I'm not hopeful!

UPDATE - following CBS reply

Yes my complaint was resolved - I was offered compensation to stop me taking it any further - at times life is just too short and I chose to take the £50 bribe

Perhaps you should focus on the reasons for my complaint and actions that CBS could take to reduce the chance of such customer frustration in the future

Why would I want to discuss my review any further? I'm very happy that my review reflects my experience with CBS.

If I did want to discuss the poor service any further why would I contact the very same team that was responsible for such poor service! Why not think of the customer and arrange contact with somebody at CBS who can make a difference - such as the Head of Savings Operations - oh wait - I tried that approach and got no response!

Your reply is both meaningless and irrelevant. Another illustration of the contempt CBS displays for its customers.

I have only been a customer of this company for a few years and don't usually write reviews but wanted to say how easy it was to open an account with them and how easy it is to see my money grow on their online banking portal. Thank you.

The range of products has increased drastically since I last opened an account with Close Brothers. The whole process seemed a lot slicker too! Keep up the good work!

Fantastic isa transfer from another provider seamless quick transfer no issues

Opened a number of accounts with close savings latest being the easy access, seamless process through the website to manage

Easy online processes, new bank account opened quickly. Would love an app to be able to process and move my funds more easily on the go

Good online banking. Easy to place notice on my funds and got an email confirmation. Did have to call to update my address however, would be nice if I could do this more easily.

The process of setting up an ISA could not have been easier to set up and the navigation was straight forward. Good rates too.

Account opening process was good and rates seem consistently attractive. Wish they had an app though as would be easier than logging into my pc when I want to withdraw money.

Good online experience, no problems setting up a fixed rate bond and a fixed rate ISA, communication was very good throughout. Interest rates were very attractive.

Opened an account with £50k online - balance showed £85k. Contacted bank and explained their error, they called me back for me to explain for the second time, heard nothing for two days and was contacted to be told they had found a discrepancy with my account. Informed Shane that I had reported the £35k discrepancy to which he said as it’s Close Brothers fault they would give me a payment of £25 for my trouble. I told him that was an insult for my honesty of their £35k mistake and to return my original investment.To be fair they sent it back that day, still waiting for paperwork to explain how they debited my account without permission, showing mistakes.
Still waiting for the compensation!
Update 13:50 7-8-23
CBS contacted me 31st Aug to be informed that on top of the £25 already paid in compensation that they were willing to pay another £25 to settle any complaint against them. I told the caller that I have not received the original £25 and another £25 would not be enough to settle my case. In response he replied he would have to speak to his manager as he had no authority to increase offer and would get back to me. A follow on call was received 3 days later by Mario but I was not home so he booked an appointment to speak to me that day at 12:45. Unfortunately I am still awaiting that call and CBS continue with an unprofessional approach to banking.
Update:16:00 7-8-23 finally contacted by CBS accepted offer to close complaint

Don’t touch this company you will regret it! Support is unbelievable, you call and nobody knows what they are doing, it’s like bad dream.

As it happens, my review went into the finance side of Close Brothers but I would like savers to know that if they wish to put their money into a regulated bank, try to not to go here.

I opened an ISA on 14.04.23 and applied at the same time to transfer my existing ISA from Aldermore. I was informed yesterday by Close Bros in a phone call I made to them that the requsest to transfer my ISA had commenced as part of the application process. I was lead to believe that the request was done electronically however Aldermore haven't received the requst and their ISA dept says Close Bros transfers ar paper based. In other words everything goes by snail mail. I tried today to contact Close Bros by phone but after 20 mins of listening to tinny music i was so traumatised that I gave up. Close Bros cannot be bothered to emply more staff to cope with expected demand from people opening accounts with advertised higher rates. They appear to be creating the illusion that their transfer process is quick. I intend making a complaint about these issues but if you are thinking of opening an account with them please don't. They are not worth a candle.

Do not use Close Brothers savings. I have been trying for 3 months to get my matured ISA transferred out. Their systems and processes are clearly broken. A string of failed promises. It's laughable if it wasn't so chronic. I've wasted hours of my life on the phone and chat. The staff are polite and apologetic but insufficiently trained. My message to the customer service team at CB? Go get yourself a better job with a proper bank who will give you better systems that actually work and better training. I will never use them again and despite how attractive the rate, find someone else.

Well my first experience with Close Brothers is they certainly would not be my first choice to invest my money. My experience of transferring funds to a fixed ISA could have been smoother and a lot more difficult than others. Don't get me wrong the transfer was quick. After all they want people's money as they want to invest it themselves. However, the same could not be said about their service.

1. Online chat system would be ideal.
2. 033 numbers are not cheap. My bill was £30 to resolve this over the phone and it was no mistake of mine so that was waste of my time and money
3. Improve your web site. The password algorithm needs improving. Ive seen other complaints about this.
4. Better service. This should have been resolved from day one. Instead they kept keeping me the same code that we already established did not work.
5. They do not respond to querries or simply do not know so choose to not respond. I am not sure about you but when I ask a question before I invest and dont get a response that instantly tells me how poor their service is and this stems from the senior management level. Poor managent results in poor service and that impacts the customer.

We all live and learn. Would I use them again? Highly unlikely but with 90% of ratings here being less than average I think that says a lot.

Final note: Please do not trust all the reviews on this site. Majority are likely to be fake so do not pay particular attention to high ratings. Trust Pilot have a lot to learn to be honest. They do not seem to understand really basic things when it comes to how things work online.
In my experience Close Brothers are also slower than other providers with ISA transfers. The partial transfer gives me 1% and this works in their favour as they loan it with higher rate than they are now giving me. This is not acceptable guys.

I've been saving with close brothers for a while and even though it's website has problems it is not as bad as it was. Their interest rates are always competitive. So why am I giving Close Brothers Savings one star?
I have been having the most appalling experience trying to move a substantial Cash ISA from another provider to a cash ISA with Close Brothers. I started the process by sending in the completed ISA transfer form on the 13th of January 2023. I set up the new cash ISA online with CB it was a 3 year fixed term ISA at 4.15%. some weeks later when I looked I saw there was no sign of the ISA being transferred, I contacted CB to see how it was progressing. I was told there was nothing on the system to say they had received it!! I said I had sent it by recorded delivery! I fished out the post office receipt and checked it online. The transfer request form had indeed been delivered on the 18th of January. I called again giving the person who answered the reference which she checked with the postal service and saw for herself. She said she would look into it. Eventually it was found I accepted the apology for a failure in the system and thought that would be it! A week or two went by and still my newly opened ISA balance remained at zero.
I called again and was told that they had sent it out to NS&I quite some time ago and on three separate occasions apparently!
Then I had to contact NS&I to see if there was a problem with them! Long story short NS & I said their ISA transfer requests have to be sent to Sunderland. This was not the address I had given on the ISA transfer form to CB. So I called CB to inform them. However I was then told that they either send the requests electronically or email them. Then I called NS&I again who told me that they do not accept electronic transfers or emails for ISAs they have to be sent to Sunderland in the post!! When I contacted Close Brothers and told them this they said they always email them or transfer electronically. I told them that NS&I are not a bank and they can't do that with them and they have explicitly stated the the ISA transfer must be requested by post.!!
I know this story is dragging on, the truth is it's worse than it seems. The amount of time I've spent listening to awful music waiting for both NS&I and CB to answer ( 38 mins for NS&I was the worst and 18 mins for CB). People from CB not calling me back so I had to call them again. It seems that no one is accountable for anything. No one seems to know what is what, the ISA team are referred to but I'm not able to speak to them or a manager! Eventually I spoke to someone yesterday saying that the time had come to let their CEO know about this! ( Maybe they would be glad of that as maybe some staff don't understand their job enough and keep passing the buck! Maybe their tech systems are not fit for purpose along with the training! Who knows. The person I spoke to said I could raise a complaint and should get a response email in three working days! I said ok. ( Thinking why would I think that could turn out well, shouldn't I just start again with a new provider). Today I looked at my online ISA which I set up with the expectation that it would soon be filled and guess what! It's expired. It's over 45 days since it was opened and nothing in it because of the above. I will not bother any more with Close Brothers after this. I'm not going to try and argue that a lady called Jade said that they would keep my 4.15% Isa open because they had a mix up about receiving the form. I have a fixed term savings account with them with a lot of money in. It matures in September. I doubt I'll have trouble removing that! It's a shame I've been saving on and off for many years with close brothers since they started general savings. Please don't bother moving an ISA from another provider it's not worth the stress! If I could leave no stars I would. I'd just like to say that I have had no problems with any of my other accounts. Rate highly Zopa, Tandem, Investec, Atom.