GB Bank

I am trying to open a 6 month savings bond with GB Bank but after nearly two weeks of trying and getting nowhere I have decided to look elsewhere. I have a large deposit to make and it is costing me £200 per week in lost interest so better set up an account that does not take so long with slightly less interest. After reading the reviews on Trustpilot, I have to agree with the 1* reviews as this was my experience also. It pays to read 1* reviews as these are the most genuine because people mainly only leave reviews after poor experiences. GB Bank had better shape up if they hope to make it in the banking world!!

Their poor customer service quickly became apparent during the application process. I applied for a 2 year bond online. I received a confirmation email to say that a second email would arrive with instructions to upload my ID etc (bank statement, passport and driving licence) as I was told there was a name mismatch with my nominated linked account (I was confused as there was no mismatch - all the name information I supplied was a perfect match). However, that second email never arrived. I phoned up and was told to ignore that information and email my documents instead of using a secure portal. I was also told that the name matching system could be extremely pedantic and sometimes made no sense). Reluctantly, I sent the documents by email but 3 days later I had heard nothing. I phoned again and was told a button just needed to be pressed at the GB Bank end and this would be done shortly. I waited a further 5 days but heard nothing. I phoned again and was told that my application was now in the hands of the Compliance Team. I was told that this team are a law unto themselves when it comes to timescales and there was no guarantee they would complete the security processes before the first deposit deadline (failure to make a deposit within the deadline period would close the account). I ended the call with no idea how long the Compliance Team might take. Fed up, I applied for a 2 year bond with an alternative bank and I was able to have a fully setup account with 10 minutes with no documentation having to be sent in. What a contrast. If the alarm bells are ringing during the application process with regard to abysmal processes and non-existent communication then I was going to take no chances as to what the bank would be like to deal with further down the line. I will not use them again. What a waste of time. If GB Bank's procedures introduce delays into the application process then good, clear communication is all the more important. Their communication was anything but that.

I was blocked from transferring money from my Lloyds account to a savings account with GB Bank and had to discuss with Lloyds fraud department before they would release my money. During this call I was told that Lloyds didn’t recognise the bank otherwise known as clear bank and they suggested it was an unsafe transaction. The fscs site also suggests the bank is not recommended risk. I dropped out at that point, don’t like the risk.

Awful bank! Set up an 'instant' access account to find it's far from instant when you want to withdraw. They'll accept payment immediately but can't withdraw on a weekend or bank holiday. You have to request money on the morning of one day to actually get it by the end of the following day and this MUST be between Monday and Friday. They even debit the account immediately even though you don't get the money that day. They don't even pay the interest on time. HIGHLY UNRECOMMENDED.

Easy to open an account. Takes a few days before you are fully set up and ready to go. A very nice and easy to use website. Easy and quick to pay into and withdraw from with a decent interest rate. It's all good for me so far.

It was easy to open the account, however paying money in was problematic. We didn't realise you can only pay in FROM the linked account. When we paid money from another account they rejected it but we haven't yet got the money back and they say it can take several days. Not happy about that at all. Used to accounts having a nominated account to pay money TO but never had a restriction about where you can pay money FROM. They need to be clearer about this I think.

Don't use them. As soon as I opened the savings account they dropped the rate but offered a higher to new customers. What does that tell you having dealt with many different savings banks, Their customer service on this point stank, they didn't care or see it as imoral.

They’re great, just check them out - properly! GB Bank is clearly a very successful, new, rising star in the banking world. I did my due diligence, (including a fleeting look here on Trustpilot), before doing any business with them and I quickly determined that while GB Bank were very well worth dealing with, there is little value in the 1* reviews found here on Trustpilot. So far, that has proved to be the case and I have been extremely pleased with how easy it has been to get everything set up and running.

Excellent instant access savings rate. My experience was actually excellent. Easy to open account, instant confirmation of money paid in and current account verification arrived in 2 days. So far so good.

Opened savings account yesterday. Needed to speak with a customer service advisor as my current bank wouldn’t accept them as a bona fide account, quickly sorted, account up and running within a couple of hours, no documentation needed. Instant confirmation of deposit by text and email. Downloaded app and works really well - brilliant start. Thank you GB Bank.

Why do you need to supply bank statements to open a savings account?

Poor communications. Sent verification details numerous times inc passport, driving licence, council tax bill. After 21 days of messing about they say timed out and not opened account. Wonder if its because they have been unindated from martins Money Market. Dont waste your time

Competitive rate however it takes a whole working day to withdraw money from my instant access saver which had left me in afew hairy situations and close shaves. A withdrawal request on Friday arrives Monday which seems old school. My account also took ages to get up and running due to not receiving online login details I almost gave up but then they arrived after chasing up. So you need to plan carefully ahead to make sure you withdraw your cash in time for when you need it.

I don't really understand the negative reviews here but I can accept that it is not a perfect world. Having a fixed interest bond mature I was looking for somewhere to reinvest the money & GB Bank came out head & shoulders above anyone including the bank the bond was already with. Having run checks on them I opened an account. The process was easy & very straightforward. It is true that there is no app to upload but they have only been incorporated since Aug 2022 so time will tell how they evolve. Due to my current account provider policy limit of only being able to transer a set amount, the bond account had to be done over four days. Each time a deposit was made, within seconds a text was recieved to confirm the deposit followed up by an email. I am therefore very happy with GB BANK even without the app.

They don't return the initial deposit of 1000 pounds citing KYC problems...which is absurd because it would be enough to cancel the deposit and cancel the application

Opened an easy access savings account on 21 Jan. To withdraw, you need to “authenticate” your linked bank account using a code they say they will send you in the post. By 29 Jan, this hadn’t arrived so I decided this wasn’t a bank I could trust. I therefore messaged them that day asking to exercise my right to close the account within 14 days with no strings attached as per their T&Cs. They replied on 1 Feb with a nonsensical “computer says no” response, saying I had to continue waiting an indefinite period of time for the authentication code to arrive in the post. Essentially, they decided it was appropriate to put me in a catch-22 position. I therefore raised a formal complaint on 1 Feb and this eventually led to them actioning my request to close the account but it took them till 12 Feb to do this. Please avoid. The interest rate is not worth this combination of antiquated methods and poor service.