Halifax Online Banking www.halifax.co.uk

Prepare to spend 1.5 hours waiting on the phone when they stop you spending your own money online.

Then listen to them claiming to resolve the problem.

Then realise they haven't changed a thing and you still can't spend your own money online.

Then write yet another terrible review instead of wasting another 1.5 hours waiting on the phone, and open an account elsewhere.

I have been trying to set up online banking for the last 4 weeks. The whole process is so convoluted, it's a mess. Multiple visits to the local branch, at their insistence, and many lengthy phone calls and they still can't seem to sort out the problems at their end. So much contradictory advice and instruction from Halifax Online Banking customer service, they just keep sending me in circles. The customer service agents have in the main been polite but unfortunately ineffectual. One Halifax Online Banking customer service agent at the UK call centre felt the need to be extremely rude and obstructive.

Setting up online banking with other banks has been a breeze compared to Halifax Online banking. I have had accounts with Halifax for decades but I'm giving serious consideration to migrating everything over to one of my other banks after this experience. Disappointing.

Have been customer for many years but recent service very poor. Been trying to access credit card statement for last few days as have not received paper copy but no response. Want to clear balance but will be penalised as I can't access details.

Last month was the same so will now close account.

Frustrated at waiting 2 weeks for an access code to arrive in the post that was meant to take 3 to 5 working days am not impressed !!!

Almost feel as if I should be on a Commodore 64 or Spectrum to fully enjoy the wonderful experience of Halifax's internet banking system.

The graphics are basic, the functions are rudimentary and nothing is easy to find. Every second click results in an error page. Wow. I can't quite believe that in this day and age some web developer has been paid an absolute packet to produce this sorry excuse for internet banking. Sack them. Now. and get it sorted!

A summary of my recent experience using online banking at Halifax:

I wasn't able to access my online account which I hadn't used in a while. Fair enough. So i followed the instructions to reset my login details. It didn't work but a message told me to call a number if I was still experiencing issues so I did. Technical issues. tried again 6 hours later. Technical issues. Tried again. Technical issues. Finally these issues seem to have been resolved and an automated system answered and gave me the following advice 'to reset your username please follow the instructions on the website', the same website which had advised me to call the number. Then it hung up on me. No option to speak to an advisor, no 'has this solved your problem', just a closed loop of unhelpfulness. I have finally managed to speak to a person and get access to my account but be warned you will be asked questions on your current balance and previous payments before they will speak to you. Questions which are pretty simple if you have access to your account online to view this information but not so much if you don't. Halifax should change it's motto to 'The bank where you can cheque in but you can't cheque out'.

I've used several banks' online systems over the years without any issues. However, Halifax online banking log-in and registration is so convoluted I gave up on Halifax years ago and closed all my accounts. Thinking I could start over I signed up for a credit card only for my old username to be sent to me, which I can't use on the website as their systems have since changed and none of my details are accepted. Completely useless.

I don't know where to start. I used to access the Halifax online website regularly to download my credit card statements, then a few years ago, without warning, they pulled the plug on the website and said they were redesigning it completely. So I had to accept paper statements for several months. When the website returned I had lost interest in downloading my statements as my computer records were too far out of date by then.

I recently logged in and was more or less forced to switch to online statements before I could proceed. So I am now obliged to log in every month in order to retrieve my statement. Tedious but not the end of the world.

However the process of just downloading my last statement in a csv format is cumbersome, irritating and misleading! They appear to fixated on making my statements available in PDF format which is not helpful if you want to search your statements. I can download the statement in csv format but it involves a lot of scrolling up and down and when you find the "Export" link the resulting window always shows the date of the latest statement and not the date of the data you are about to download.

Statements available in csv format only go back about 6 months while pdf statement go back years. Why?

I'm pleased to see so many others find it as useless as I do but why aren't Halifax listening!?

I'm an IT professional and can honestly say this is the worst application I've ever experienced.

I have been a customer of the Halifax for over ten years. The online banking has always been easy to use and effective.

Now, I'm getting missed payments and late payment fees galore.

Why? Because the daft and annoying way they've changed the panels for the accounts - savings, current account credit card etc are a nightmare.

Several times I've accidently missed payments because I've misread the payment date. Other times I've over paid - but hey! You don't get a credit for that.

Halifax staff at the local bank - well, they just tell you to go online.

The only thing I've done to resolve this, is not to use my credit cards and to look for a neater on-line banking format.

The dread I have is that Halifax will screw up the transfer of accounts!!!