>but both Citi and JP Morgan recorded their most profitable quarter in their entire history this morning.
Does this say anything about their ability to provide a decent user experience, or good customer support though?
A few years ago, I had no choice but to use a bank like RBS for my business account. It was rife with unreasonable fees, a terrible website and a ridiculous sign-up process. They got my custom because there was no alternative.
Monzo, Starling and e.g. Tide are doing pretty well here as a result of the poor show that other banks have been putting on for years.
>If you are complaining about their customer service, don't hold your breath when it comes to startup bank customer service. Chime, the largest funded neo bank in the US, had a 3 day outage in the fall when nothing worked (app, transactions, ATM) and could not handle the volume of calls or chat requests at all. People were literally stuck at the grocery store or gas station. That can't be the future of finance, either.
Not all challenger banks are like this, though. I've found Monzo to be much, much more reliable that the various incumbents in the UK (who don't operate a status page, don't inform customers properly when things are broken and _still_ schedule multiple-hour maintenance windows every year when BST begins/ends).
Customer support can be variable, unfortunately, but I think this is a problem which has arisen mostly as the bank has grown. It's still better, for me at least, than a legacy bank.
I assume you're not US-based. I'm a long time Chase customer and am completely happy with the user experience and customer service. I've found the Citi, Amex, and Capital One digital experiences to also be good to very good.
The app is fast with an intuitive UI and does the job. If you don't believe me check out the app store rating.
My understanding is banks outside the US have not invested as heavily in their IT, and totally understand why challenger banks in other countries might have more success there. I've used in the HSBC app once, for example, and it's slow and terrible.
I agree with you completely -- I switched from a local CU to Chase because the experience was, almost uniformly, better:
- The iOS app, website and other digital tools are significantly better. My local CU's app is some whitelabeled third party app that barely works
- With nationwide set of branches, I'm able to get individualized support for whatever I need in most cities in the USA
- Chase offers significantly more functionality in general - wiring money via their website, longer transaction history retention, etc etc
OTOH, my local CU's customer support is horrendous, most of their branches don't even deal with cash, and if you're outside of the metro they're based in, you're SOL.
I've experienced the same with Amex, Capital One, etc. They were slow to ramp up, but their digital properties and tools are excellent in 2020.
Fully agree. My experiences with Chase as a small business and personally have been great for over a decade. Local branch bankers get things done if need be; their email support is great and prompt; the app on iOS is fast and works well; transactions clear quickly; ATMs are modern and do everything I need.
There's a value to in-person banking when you need it, though I think retail banking has become too prevalent in NYC. No complaints otherwise.
Same experience here for Chase and BofA. BofA is a bit trigger-happy at detecting fraud when I try to buy videogames or computer parts, but otherwise no issues in over a decade.
> Monzo, Starling and e.g. Tide are doing pretty well here as a result of the poor show that other banks have been putting on for years.
We're going to see a serious decline in the number of challenger banks in the UK soon. Monzo has yet to post a profit. Yep, the bank we trust with our deposits is losing money every month, and Monzo is the poster child of the challenger banking movement. How healthy do you think the other banks are?
The strength of a retail bank is on the back of the strength of it's loan book. At historically low interest rates, that doesn't make for great profit opportunities for retail banks.
It usually is a problem, companies need to make a profit most years so that they can use it up in bad years. Also, investors at some point would like to see a profit. There's a lot of "free" VC money at the moment but that's (hopefully) gonna end at some point.
Consumer accounts is a very small fraction of the activity their provide.
Having worked at JP Morgan, I think it's exclusively B2B or very wealthy individuals (for which the support is top notch). Chase, the US consumer bank is a separate entity.
> Chime, the largest funded neo bank in the US, had a 3 day outage in the fall when nothing worked (app, transactions, ATM) and could not handle the volume of calls or chat requests at all.
That's a problem, but not a customer service problem. No company can handle that many calls, and those calls were all pointless.
Does this say anything about their ability to provide a decent user experience, or good customer support though?
A few years ago, I had no choice but to use a bank like RBS for my business account. It was rife with unreasonable fees, a terrible website and a ridiculous sign-up process. They got my custom because there was no alternative.
Monzo, Starling and e.g. Tide are doing pretty well here as a result of the poor show that other banks have been putting on for years.
>If you are complaining about their customer service, don't hold your breath when it comes to startup bank customer service. Chime, the largest funded neo bank in the US, had a 3 day outage in the fall when nothing worked (app, transactions, ATM) and could not handle the volume of calls or chat requests at all. People were literally stuck at the grocery store or gas station. That can't be the future of finance, either.
Not all challenger banks are like this, though. I've found Monzo to be much, much more reliable that the various incumbents in the UK (who don't operate a status page, don't inform customers properly when things are broken and _still_ schedule multiple-hour maintenance windows every year when BST begins/ends).
Customer support can be variable, unfortunately, but I think this is a problem which has arisen mostly as the bank has grown. It's still better, for me at least, than a legacy bank.