Handelsbanken plc (UK) Anmeldelser 

We have banked with Handels for years. They were very good but now arearogant and never wrong. We have 6 accounts (business and personal) all in credit and some have very substaintial sums. I have had no card to access the on line system since March 2023. Do they care no. I have complained and they deny it is their fault or any issues. One representitive told us that as we are in credit they make no money so no interest.
The worst bank we have ever been with in recent years.

Thanks for the response. You do not mention that the branch reviews the complaints themselves and the response is always in their favour as they deny everything. and refer you to the Financial Ombudsman. Hardly a professional approach and demostrates the way Handels think. We deal with another 5 banks and they are all far better than Handels who do not even have a fully working glitch on-line system.

Jag är nöjd med Handelsbanken som bank förutom två väldigt stora minus!
1. Det finns ingen sökfunktion bland transaktioner, alltså måste man skrolla igenom alla sina transaktioner för att hitta den man söker efter. Detta borde vara en självklar funktion att erbjuda sina kunder.
2. När man ska skriva i chatten förvinner texten och ibland går det inte ens att skicka iväg texten.

English:
I am satisfied with Handelsbanken as a bank except for two very big minuses!
1. There is no search function among transactions, so you have to scroll through all your transactions to find the one you are looking for. This should be an obvious feature to offer your customers.
2. When writing in the chat, the text disappears and sometimes it is not even possible to send the text.

I used to have an account with Handelsbanken back in 2018 and despite having closed it I continue to get Terms and Conditions updates from head office. Despite several attempts to stop these mailshots they continue. I have recently moved house and now this mail is getting redirected to me. It is obvious that the customer database is not being kept up to date. Really annoying.

I've banked with Handelsbanken's Islington branch for many years and have found it an excellent experience. My circumstances are somewhat unusual and I had my account closed by high street banks as their compliance teams are simply not interested in business that they can't easily pigeonhole. The personal touch from Handelsbanken has been great and I always speak to the same branch manager and know several staff by name. Probably the fees, though I find them very reasonable, aren't for everyone - but there are plenty of banks that are all more or less the same, and it's great that Handelsbanken exist.

Har bara positiva erfarenheter av Handelsbanken som
kund i många år,efter att senast blivit hjälpt med
inloggning av Mobilt BankID per telefon vilket har
underlättat en hel del för mig.MYCKET TACKSAM.

I’ve banked with Handelsbank for years. Not the cheapest, but overwhelming support from my branch and all its staff
For example, in USA I received an email from Richard at the branch, just checking that it was me using my card in Florida. Better than a call as he knows I’m deaf as a stone
Today I paid a bill to a care association on line. Email from Richard, asking if I’d checked that the account details were real !
You don’t get that sort of old fashioned support from most banks
Also the branch welcomes a visit if I’ve a problem
So 5 stars and a Thankyou for perfect banking after the poor efforts of the competitors in the past
I’m 80 and recommend them for anyone who values proper banking

AVOID at all costs a waste of time.

Other banks are better and actually value their customers. Don't use this one.

cheat customers out of their money. My mother and I were cheated out of $500 by this bank

I cannot recommend Handelsbanken, based on my experience in trying to open a business bank account with them. They advertise themselves as an old-school bank with values and principles in line with the old days of business banking with a dedicated business lending team with local knowledge and in house decision making. They say that their fees are high but that this will reflect the level of service you can expect to receive. The reality is that after they had effectively harvested all my business information, 3 years of accounts and my personal data - they sent an email to say that they don't deal with any business who has a COVID Bounce Bank loan. A shocking waste of my time dealing with these clowns. Avoid.

I have been with Handelsbanken for quite a few years. I am pleased with the friendly and helpful customer support of the Swindon branch. Everyone seems to be on first name terms and it is always easy getting issues resolved and long as they are not related to technology.

However, the technology side of the bank lets it down significantly.

Firstly the cards do not work with Google Pay (nor I suspect Apple Pay) and I have been told for the last 7 years that "we are working on it". This is a security risk since the cards leak personal information and do not require any user action to extract a payment.

Secondly, when I scan my card using an NFC reader, it list the last 10 transactions, currency, amount and date - anyone can do this, no authentication is required! I do not see why the cards need to present this information to anyone - surely it is not compatible with GDPR.

Thirdly, making online purchases with their debit card seems highly unreliable - I cannot ever get mine to work and have changed cards and methods of authenticating several times but it still does not work - this has been ongoing for several years.

Forthly, online banking does not work properly if you use Linux as a OS. The "connect with USB" to their authenticator does not work. They suggest using Handelsbanked ID but when you try to set it up, it states that you must first connect by USB (which they don't support on Linux), so you end up in a vicious circle!

Finally, when interest rates went down they keep reducing the interest rate until it reached 0% on my account. Now we have had multiple interest rate rises, my account is still 0% but the interest rates on the mortgages keeps increasing! With inflation being high, this kind of approach is really unacceptable.

UPDATE:
Thank you for the reply, however, I have no idea how to DM you since I am not on Twitter or any social media. If you would care to provide an email or phone number I would be happy to discuss

UPDATE:
It's now August. 2024...so how have things gone on?
Well, my debit card still cannot make any online purchases - so no progress there.

The debit card still does not support Google Pay - so no progress there.

I tried opening another account savings account but it was very long winded, required enormous amounts of justification and ended up being told that it wasn't possible since it was viewed as too risky?!?!?! Only been with them in excess of 15 years.

The technology issues with this bank remain, not supporting Goodle Pay in this day and age is completely unacceptable, not being able to get debit cards to work is not acceptable. Interest rates are still pretty poor - typically half of what you would get with challenger banks like Revolut or Aldermote.

I think it is time to change

I opened this account because my old Manager at Natwest had moved to Handelsbanken. He told me it was a more personal bank, and all decisions were made locally and so they could provide fast decisions. This did not prove to be correct.
If you are considering opening an account, I would think twice and read these reviews. In my experience, most of them are very accurate.
I am closing all my accounts with Handelsbanken now. I have found them not to be truthful, and in chaos.

Unless you are a serial, racketeer, or fraudster, this isn't the bank for you.

Successful entrepreneurs and high net worth indeviduals and businesses need not apply.

Jag och min familj får alltid ett mkt bra bemötande och kunnig och tålmodig hjälp av Samira på Handelsbanken, Marievik, Stockholm. Katarina

I called the Bristol branch to book an appointment to open an account. The individual who took my call was presumptuous and entirely lacking in self awareness. For some reason, he felt he needed to explain that they would only open an account for me if I deposited or borrowed “a large sum”, which he elaborated as “more than £2M” and £500k, respectively; he noted, further, that their fees were “high” and that a high street bank might suit me better. It's unfathomable that a customer-facing Handelsbank employee would have been instructed to speak in these terms to a prospective account holder. Make of that what you will. I thanked him for his time and granted that Handelsbank was probably the wrong bank for me.

Long on promises and short on delivery.
My experience of the Islington branch is that the Manager will smoothly make all sorts of promises and then the credit analyst will say "No" to everything.
Not a joined-up bank. They claim to be different and offer a service which understands entrepreneurs and business owners, but this is total rubbish.
I have had an appalling experience with these people and will recommend anyone who might be interested in banking with them to stay away. I lost a house purchase because they changed their minds abruptly and communicated dreadfully.

What a complete shambles!! Avoid them unless you are willing to accept account closures for no rational reason and staff who no longer seem to have a clue about anything.
We have been customers of Handelsbanken in Chelmsford for nearly 20 years and originally they were a breath of fresh air - a personal bank manager and staff who knew you and provided excellent service and a ‘can do’ attitude. However over the last 5 years they have seriously lost their way with a team that appear to spend most of their time box ticking and hiding away from their customers.
There is now : NO personal service ; opaque decision making ; they have become awkward indifferent and deliberately unhelpful and are giving notice to customers of account closures with 8 weeks notice and no explanation . This includes fully regulated profitable businesses with substantial turnovers employing and supporting numerous staff and companies with mortgages on commercial property which they have had their loans terminated at short notice and incurred substantial costs to refinance .
If you are happy with uncertainty in your banking arrangements then you may be a good fit .
To treat long-standing professional customers who have never had any banking issues and at all times have been financially solvent with such distain is despicable and leaves those who are victims of such treatment with feelings of anger and disbelief.
The response from Handelsbanken asks to message them privately - despite the fact that this seems pointless wht are your contact details?

Mina kontakter med Handelsbanken i Marievik initierades av att jag behövde hantera ekonomiska förehavanden kopplat till min mors dödsbo. Mycket snabbt fick jag intrycket av att den handläggare/placeringsrådgivare (Samira) min mor haft tillgång till som kund i Handelsbanken, var jättebra och förtroendeingivande. I jämförelse med den bank jag var förmånskund i var detta en stor skillnad. Efter att Handelsbanken presenterat lite mer utförligt vad dom skulle kunna bistå mig med om jag valde att byta bank och även lägga om mina bostadslån så var valet enkelt. Jag är numera kund hos Handelsbanken och hitintills är jag verkligen nöjd med det professionella bemötande jag genomgående fått i kontakterna med banken samt all hjälp jag fått när jag bytte bank, med allt vad det kan innebära.

Hi I have to say my branch in Cumbria can only be described as excellent. customer service is second to none- I can phone them and actually be dealt with by a human not an automated system. I have both business and personal accounts with them. They supported us totally through the Covid crises. Great service

I was interested in opening an account with Handelsbank Wrexham. I met the manager at the time, Nicola Hughes, and provided information for them to do their due diligence. I didn't get a response, chased them up and was told they were very busy and to bare with them. One year later I still haven't heard. What a waste of time.

The worst bank. Avoid one minute support the next they will screw you with costs and increasing interest rates