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Our survey into the best community and charity bank accounts for charities, clubs and societies was carried out in Oct 24.
"Know your customer" madness. Endless requests for information, involving trustees having to go into branches etc
There was a very broad spread of scores. Almost all banks had someone rate them 1/10 and most had at least one respondent rate them 10/10. Moreover, we had only a few hundred respondents, so our results are not definitive but we have excluded banks with 10 or less respondents and believe that the pattern of rating can be considered to be indicative.
Whilst clearly some banks are providing a high standard of service, the ratings show a very high level of dissatisfaction with charity bank accounts - more than a quarter (28%) of respondents rated their bank's performance 1 out of 10 and 83% reported that they had had a problem with their bank.
changing signatories - not resolved changing payment limits - not resolved renewing credit card - not resolved
More positively, congratulations to CAF Bank who were rated top, both for overall performance and their handling of problems when these did arise.
The lowest rated bank overall was Barclays and the bank rated lowest in responding to problems was HSBC.
Very challenging team of support to work with. Tried to change signatures as the old CEO left. Took months of back and forth. Still not resolved.
The overall winner as the best charity bank was CAF, with 11% (7) of respondents rating them 10/10 and a further 20% (12) rating them 9 out of 10. Charity Bank and Metro weren't too far behind.
| CAF | 7.9 |
| Charity Bank | 7.5 |
| Metro | 7.3 |
If you plan to open a community or charity bank account, here's our guide to what the various banks offer and what you need to know and do.
| Virgin Money | 6.8 |
| Co-operative Bank | 5.2 |
| RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) | 5.2 |
| Santander | 4.9 |
| Bank of Scotland | 4.7 |
| HSBC | 4.7 |
| NatWest | 4.5 |
| Lloyds | 4.5 |
The bank charities rated lowest was Barclays, with 40% (31) respondents rating them 1 out of 10 and 22% (17) rating them 2 out of 10. That's disappointing but we can hope they improve over the coming year.
| Barclays | 3.4 |
If you're having problems with your charity bank account, here's our guide, which includes templates and people who will help you.
Complaints procedure a farce, would not address our actual complaint. It was not resolved to our satisfaction
Despite providing KYC info repeatedly each month for a year, ................. unexpectedly closed our account ..........., so salaries, expenses and bills were not able to be paid, no income was received and standing order donations were cancelled, or missed a month. Hours were spent on the phone every day trying to resolve the issue and they finally reopened the account (after many false promises) on 30 November. It was an absolute nightmare
Respondents who had had a problem with their bank were invited to provide detail. Of the 261 comments received, 11 were not relevant, 2 were complimentary and the rest sometimes quite negative.
............ small organisations that have had trouble getting signatories changed as well as other details. When something isn't progressing as usual there is no communication from the bank and even when asked the customer service has no idea what's wrong either, not to mention the wait times on the phone or chat.
We have included a representative selection of the comments we received through this report to provide more insight to what charities aid to us. Where bank names were included, these have been redacted and the distribution of comments is random and the comments included and their placement does not relate to any particular bank.
........... had us on the wrong tariff, we complained over 6 months, got different messages from each person, they told us they wouldn't resolve, we went to the ombudsman, after which they did change tariff and give us some compensation for time wasted. (This is the latest in a series of incompetencies and miscommunications from ................ over years).
The Best Bank.
Respondents who had experienced a problem of any kind were asked to rate their bank's response to this on a scale of 1 (awful) to 10 (excellent). Again CAF bank came out top - 18% (7) of the CAF respondents (39), rated them 10/10.
| CAF | 6.7 |
The Other Banks.
needed the Ombudesman to end the problem, even then it was a substantial loss to the charity
| Metro | 5.5 |
| NatWest | 5.3 |
| Co-operative Bank | 4.8 |
| Virgin Money | 4.6 |
| Barclays | 4.1 |
| Bank of Scotland | 4.0 |
| Lloyds | 3.9 |
When something isn't progressing as usual there is no communication from the bank and even when asked the customer service has no idea what's wrong either, not to mention the wait times on the phone or chat.
And the lowest rated bank.
Some 40% (16) of their respondents rated them either 1 or 2 out of 10.
| HSBC | 3.5 |
In addition to the banks excluded above, in this section we also excluded Charity Bank because we didn't have enough respondents for it to be included.
They phoned repeatedly asking for personal information and when I wouldn't provide it, closed our account; twice.
account closed by ............... with minimal notice - endless hours trying to resolve - chaotic lack of communication - now use ................... bank - brilliant service
A total of 271 respondents reported that they had had a problem with their bank, out of the 326 who took part in the survey.
..................... refused to update our trustee details and signatory details, told us they didnt want our account anymore as we were small, they were uncontactable and rude when we finally got in touch. We complained to the ombudsman who ordered them to make the changes and handle out account properly
It may be that those who have experienced problems were more motivated to complete the survey but that is still an extremely disappointing 83%. Of the 271 respondents, 19 rated their bank's response as 10/10 and 91 as 1/10.
........ had us on the wrong tariff, we complained over 6 months, got different messages from each person, they told us they wouldn't resolve, we went to the ombudsman, after which they did change tariff and give us some compensation for time wasted. (This is the latest in a series of incompetencies and miscommunications from ......... over years).
The problems experienced were covered a broad range of areas from poor communications and failing to action transactions, to closing accounts and difficulties in changing bank signatories.
Difficulty in changing bank signatories. Took 3 months to get resolved folowing a formal complaint.
But there's good support being provided too.
Changes of trustee names, changed easily. Helpline are amazing.
Although included in the survey, we have not published the results for Mettle, Monzo, TSB, Reliance, Starling and Triodos. Each had 10 or less ratings and we did not feel that these would be statistically reliable.
Barriers against opening new accounts. ........... requiring repeat ID for all signatories or lose the account.
Accuracy of Findings. Compared to the overall size of the sector, the number of respondents is (inevitably) very small. Therefore, we do not think our findings are conclusive and the margin for error in individual scores is probably quite high. Nonetheless, the overall findings fit with other (admittedly anecdotal evidence) and we believe these can be considered to be indicative. We would welcome constructive criticism from anyone that would enable us to improve our work and we would be happy to publish any counter arguments provided by the banks to make this report more balanced. Responses should be sent to ian@charityexcellence.co.uk.
Respondent Numbers. The survey was carried out in Oct 2024 with the survey sent to Charity Excellence community members but also promoted on social media and by other organisations. A total of 326 organisations responded.
Sector Comparison. Compared to our sector model, this appeared to be representative of the sector, excepting the number of micro charities (under £10k pa income) appeared to be significantly under-represented. For simplicity and clarity, numbers above have been rounded to one decimal point.
Impact of Charity Size.
Looking at the income bands of charities that completed the survey, the ratings by larger charities was much higher. However, taking into account the small number of respondents, we do not think that we have adequate data and, therefore, are unable to say if different size charities rate the service they receive differently.
| Income Band | Average Rating |
| More than £3m | 6.5 |
| £1m - £3m | 4.5 |
| £501k - £1m | 4.8 |
| £100k - £500k | 4.7 |
| £11k to £100k | 5.0 |
| Less than £10k | 4.9 |
Potential Bias. We recognise the risk of response bias. That is people who are unhappy may be more inclined to respond to a survey than those who aren't. This is not reflected in the findings as we are unable to identify if it's an issue, let alone quantify it.
In an attempt to mitigate response bias, we made the survey anonymous and offered to send a copy of the results to anyone who completed it but were unable to use follow-up reminders or financial incentives to further mitigate this. We have neither the capacity not funding to do so.
Data Use. Should anyone wish them, here are our survey and data management policies. This survey was anonymous with respondents only sharing their e mails, if they wished to be sent a copy of the survey. These e mails will also be registered for our newsletter, as per the terms of the survey but will not be shared or used for any other purpose.
Ethics. We have not been paid or received donations from any of the banks in the survey and none of the Charity Excellence team have commercial or loyalty links to any of the banks, other than (inevitably) being account holders of some of them.
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This article is for general interest only and does not constitute professional legal or financial advice. I'm neither a lawyer, nor an accountant, so not able to provide this, and I cannot write guidance that covers every charity or eventuality. Please also note the small sample size, which means our results are not conclusive and also that all banks had charities who thought the service they provided was excellent. In using this resource, you accept that I have no responsibility whatsoever from any harm, loss or other detriment that may arise from your use of my work. If you need professional advice, you must seek this from someone else. To do so, register, then login and use the Help Finder directory to find pro bono support. Everything is free.
