PowerSwitch

If a young person was opening an account to have wages paid in which bank or building society would people recommend? I would ordinarily suggest the Co-op but I'm not confident about recommending them now.

Can anyone recommend a bank/building society which seems reasonably stable, with good customer service?

2¢

First choice for me would be a credit union; second choice a building society which has no policy to demutualise; in both cases, the more local to me, the better.

Banks wouldn't feature in any decision of mine except in the "totally excluded" list.

I'd still go for the Co-op/Smile, despite all.

They are now shareholder owned and no longer a mutual.

I'm with the Nationwide. Everything that you would expect from a bank - chequebook, debit card and online.

At least with a mutual the members get a vote (which they never seem to use) every year where they can approve or disapprove the remuneration of the directors, and even, in theory, eject them from the board.

Thanks for the feedback, food for thought.

I can recommend the Ecology Building Society, especially if they're going to do some eco building/renovation at some time in the future. With some types of building/renovation the Ecology are the only BS which will loan and they offer a cheaper rate for eco work.

Thanks Ken, that sounds very interesting- will check it out.