Another week, another example of why going to a bank for financial advice is a very bad idea.
A new investigation from the consumer group Which? has discovered a disturbingly poor level of basic knowledge.
Which? placed 180 phone calls to 15 banks and building societies in order to assess the quality of advice given to customers who wanted to transfer their cash ISAs.
They posed three simple questions:
1 – How do I transfer my cash ISA?
2 – Are there any rules about how much I can transfer?
3 – Can I transfer to a stocks and shares ISA?
Big names including HSBC, Yorkshire Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), First Direct and Barclays failed to give correct answers to these three simple questions in more than 50% of the calls made.
Just 16 of the 180 calls made by Which? gave correct answers to all of the questions they asked.
Worst performing were RBS, Yorkshire Bank and HSBC, with scores of 44%, 35% and 33% respectively.
With fundamental knowledge gaps such as these, it is little surprise that we regularly advise here to avoid seeking financial advice from the banks at all costs.
Despite improved minimum qualification standards introduced at the end of last year, it appears that the banks are yet to ensure their customers receive accurate answers to simple questions.
Photo credit: Flickr/cogdogblog
