West Brom Building Society Reviews 105

I have been saving with the WestBrom Shrewsbury for over 20years, and am very satisfied with their customer service.
I have just had an ISA transfer out, which was executed within the official regulatory timespan, and this over the Easter bank holiday! I was kept informed at all stages
I have other products and will consider their new ISAs over the coming months.
Thank you to a great team

Firstly I have dealt with West Brom since 1977.I now have an ISA with West Brom and I noticed I had not received paperwork to say it was maturing and what I needed to do. I rang head office and it turns out that because I was having paperwork in large print it takes an extra TWO WEEKS to generate it. As they do this by the time I get the paperwork I am already half way into the cooling off period so have to rush round to get it sorted but when disabled that is not as easy as it seems. Being partially sighted I cant drive so rely on getting a lift or get taxi which is costly and West Brom wont pay so in theory it could take me 7 - 10 days to sort out transport and by that time the cooling off time has gone and my funds have been reinvested in something that I might not want. The maturity date does not change so why should I be discriminated against just because it takes them two extra weeks to generate paperwork and they dont move the maturity date as they say they cant do that. I asked why it takes longer when other companies I deal with dont take longer and the manager I spoke to had no answer and just said he would feed this back but what will that do. I asked for the request to be deleted from the records and again he said I couldnt. I can now say I have moved my money and again it was a sarcastic reply "thats your privilege"

As recommended on the Martin Lewis money website, I opened a Fixed Rate ISA online. The website was very clear and easy to follow. I had a query, which was promptly answer via the online chat facility. I quickly received a confirmation email, once my application was accepted. I had a further question, which was answered in a telephone call. It was easy to get through to a real person and the lady I spoke with was friendly and knowledgeable. I live in the South West, so nowhere near a West Brom branch, but based on my experience, I would have no hesitation in recommending them to friends and family.

Nightmare mortgage application. Principle offer was perfect. It formed the basis of my divorce settlement. When it came to accepting me, WB said it wanted £5k more deposit despite my financial circumstances being no different to that at the time of it's principle offer. Time progressed with more hoops jumped through. Despite successful effort to reduce my monthly outgoings, it insisted it consider loans I had satisfied. I provided evidence along the way. Ridiculous. WB seemed to apply little weight to hight credit score and zero missed payments for many many years. I still don't understand where it found risk. Waste of my time. Stupid decision making process. No confidence in this lender.

Highly competitive interest rates but slower than average to process applications. Unusual not having 2 factor authentication as additional security is a bit concerning. Easy website to negotiate but would appreciate an app!

West Brom BS have just mailed out to me an 11-page glossy booklet and 6 sheets of A4 paper in the post. One sheet has nothing but the BS logo plastered on to it and the standard regularity blurb etc. Acres of room for both exist within the covering letter ... ergo, one sheet is a pointless waste.

All this paper is generated by the end of a 12-month online Regular Saver (Issue 7) at a fixed rate of 6%, which will auto transfer/renew at maturity into an new 'Access Regular Saver' at a derisory 2.10 % variable rate of interest (from 03.02.26). Vote with your feet when your fixed rate 6% Regular Saver is up and shift the maturity money to something so much better.

For balance, there is a decent Regular Saver in the West Brom 'savings stable' but it is strictly a branch-based application; a product, by default, reserved for the chosen few that can actually get to one. One could, if one where in the line of such speculation, venture to suggest that decision does not appear to align with the broader membership's interests.

WB's promised digital overhaul - partnered with 10x banking and Deloitte's - has the potential to be transformative. It is to be hoped that WB might also want to re-visit some core mutual values at the same time. However, with a 61 % 1-star rating as of the time of posting, I have not yet left the 'hope' stage ...

Never again with West Brom.
They have been messing me around for too long now, I suggested to transfer the valuation from new offer to the old one to extend the offer , I was told no, it’s not possible only for them to try to do it nearly two weeks later anyway! In all that time I was waiting for someone to call me to book new valuation but no one bothered to tell me that things changed even though I called twice in that time to ask when I will receive that call!
First and last time , never again

Absolutely terrible online service it’s so outdated it’s almost unusable. Definitely not for young people

Its okay, went in to make my account and they were helpful.

Poor website for mortgage, not safe login (no 2 step verification? txt message/email?), only way to make overpayment is to call or send cheque? cmon why can't we just make transfer with account number?

I have been trying to effect an ISA transfer out of West Brom. Firstly they rejected a transfer request they "did not receive" because on the banking details the word Websave appeared (beware of this, which WBBS say is a "common error" causing delays). It then transpired that WBBS is not even on the banking system other than for "websave" accounts so it is easy to select the websave option when there is no other standard banking protocol for WBBS. I then completed 2 more forms of which I was told they "have no record" although my new ISA provider confirmed they had emailed them over. The latest of these has also been rejected because it contains a digital signature...it was a digital form which I had to send to my new ISA provider digitally! It really is time this outfit came into the 21st century. All the time losing interest and risking the transfer not being completed within the funding deadline for the new ISA, I now have to wait for WBBS to write to me and for me to return a form by post. I am extremely dissatisfied by these outdated policies.

completely useless. Tried to open an easy access account. after 4 days of nothing I opened an account elsewhere within 5 minutes. 6 days later I got a request for more information - west brom you are too late. I think you need to look at your systems.... further to west brom requesting more info: I applied 0820 friday 22/8. received auto email saying will open account within 3 working days - if they need more info they will advise. nothing happened until saturday 30th at 1547 6 working (8 elapsed days) later when a quite unfriendly email arrived saying recently sent me an email requesting more info. I assume they meant this email was the email requesting further info. West Brom you need to get a sales person to carefully read what you send out. There is no sense of appreciation for a new customer applying, just factual info relating to your process which you cant even follow. I would prefer to put my money with a firm who appreciate its.

The interest rates on savings are good, but I feel that on-line security could be improved by using 2 factor authentication as part of the log-in procedure (i.e send pass code to a mobile phone or email account). All other banks/building societies that I have accounts with use this before any account details are shown.
West Brom only requires name, dob and pincode to login and then all the savings accounts and balances are visible.
I spoke to WB about my security concerns and was told that further authentication is prompted when moving money etc, but to me I would prefer 2 factor authentication before I was even able to see my account details.

I joined as at the time it was the best rate I could find 4.55%. However the rate they gave me was 4.33! So of course this annoyed me as I already had three accounts (2 in cahoot and 1 in Santander) that were a better rate. Google told me there was an app, but there is not! Double annoyed. But the final step for me was the fact it took 4 days for £20 to show up and 3 and half days for £2500 to show up. When I called in to chase up where the £20 was (Friday 1500 ish) the lady on the phone told me the account staff were not working!
Ive now taken all but £1 out of my account. Not really sure why I left, £1 in as I will never use it again. This is not modern banking. Transfers should be all but instant! % advertised should be the % given. If you want modern banking id stay clear.

Opened a four access savings account with West Brom due to the great interest rate and the ability to receive monthly interest.
The online application was nice and easy and the account was opened within 2 days.
Funding from my linked external account was also easy and transferred the same day.

Dropped a star purely because it would be nice to have an app.
Give me an app and I give you the 5th star.

Staff are extremely rude at this branch. It felt like they didn't want to help me with my transaction, no verbal cues, such as please or thankyou, as staff couldn't demonstrate manners or common courtesy.
Also the bank was empty of customers, and just myself, yet staff acted like they couldn't see me, so I approached them and wasn't greeted with a hello, just silence.
I guess staff are selective with whom they are friendly to, depending on the deographic or their judgement. Piss poor, will stay away from this branch until you can train your staff. By the way this is your Cape Hill Smethwick branch. I have used other branches and this one was by far the worst.

All good with the West Brom, only way to improve is maybe a banking app, like another building society like the Nation****,
so only giving 4 star, give me an app and its 5 Star
Anyway these things take time, so wait and see, I would recommend you, so thank you

I just wanted to point out the fantastic experience and professionalism I received from KYLE in the Company's call centre. This guy is GOOD, and I know, I used to run a call centre!

It's hard work to open an account (a 4 Access Saver Issue 2). After the online application and uploading an ID document, you have to phone 0345 2413785 to ask for a 4-digit code for using the online savings portal. 0345 is not a free number and it's a long call with many security questions. My mobile signal broke down before I could finish this tiresome process. I'll leave West Brom there and use Vida Savings, a more efficient provider without the WB runaround. It's hard work dealing with this odd building society.

cant access new savings account
you have to call to get a login pin but no one answers the call.
Live chat broken and returns "User is not an accepted participant of the conversation" message.
what a joke of a company !