If you have ever suffered the frustration of being led down a telephonic cul-de-sac by your bank’s automated answering system, you are not alone. The latest research into standards of customer service by Accenture, the technology consultants, suggests that 90 per cent of consumers are unhappy at having their calls answered by a machine and that four out of five people say that they are kept on hold too long.

In a separate survey by Britannia, two out of three bank customers said they would like to see overseas call centres closed; language difficulties were cited as the biggest problem. Half of respondents said that they delayed making major financial decisions because they couldn’t face the irritation of calling their bank.

Another study has also revealed that many banks’ websites are no better. Researchers from Transversal, a software company, searched the leading banks’ websites for answers to ten everyday questions, such as: “Do you have a zero per cent balance transfer offer?” and “Which mortgages have an early redemption penalty?” Astonishingly, half of the websites did not contain enough information to answer a single question, although there was a large disparity between the best and worst providers.

Almost two thirds of the websites also failed to provide an e-mail address for customer inquiries. Those that did took an average of 22 hours to respond to questions. The slowest response was 69 hours — more than enough time to travel to an offshore call centre, ask the question in person and fly back again.

But despite the poor service, fewer than one in five bank customers bothered to switch accounts last year. Nick White, the head of personal finance at uSwitch, the price- comparison website, says that most customers stay loyal to their bank because they worry about the switching process.

“People think that switching accounts is more hassle than it’s worth and that there is no point because all banks are as bad as one another,” he says. “But nothing could be further from the truth. There are some really good banks, such as First Direct, which has built its reputation on customer service.”

Mike Naylor, principal researcher at Which?, believes that anyone who has an account with one of the main high-street banks should consider switching. He says: “Barclays, HSBC, NatWest and Lloyds TSB all pay pitiful rates of interest on current accounts while registering below-average levels of customer satisfaction.”

Mr Naylor adds that customers looking for a current account with good rates and better-than-average service should consider Nationwide or Smile, the Co-op’s online bank. “Switching is so easy that there is no excuse,” he says. “All the banks have to comply with the banking code, which is clear on the time it should take to transfer an account.”

The Banking Code stipulates that banks must provide all that is necessary for a new customer to operate their account within ten working days of their application being approved.

The research revealing poor service could not come at a worse time for the Big Five banks, which are already under pressure after announcing combined record profits of £20 billion in the first six months of the year. The industry has been criticised for profiteering and the Office of Fair Trading is considering investigating account charges, a move, HSBC said, that could lead to the end of free banking.

But Brian Capon, of the British Bankers Association, defended the industry. “People often assume that big, profitable companies are acting against their customers’ interests, but with banks, that is certainly not the case. The UK is one of the few places where you can get free banking and the only place where you can get credit interest on a current account.

“If anyone is unhappy with the service they get, they should tell their bank. Senior managers take complaints seriously because the only way they can retain customers in such a competitive industry is to deal with any problems.”

The demand for better standards of service has encouraged uSwitch to commission a survey questioning more than 15,000 bank customers on their experiences. Each bank will be given an overall percentage rating that will appear on uSwitch’s current-account comparison tool later this year.

Mr White says that the results will help consumers to make an informed choice. “Our research indicates that customer service is more important on current accounts than any other financial product,” he adds. “But customers who regularly go overdrawn should always compare banks on the basis of their interest rates and charges first.”

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CASE STUDY: PAYING MORE FOR LESS

FIONA ROONEY, a PA from Ealing, West London, was fed up with the customer service she was getting with her Barclays Additions account so she moved to Nationwide’s current account that pays 4.25 per cent gross.

She says: “Despite paying a service fee of £10 a month with Barclays, I was still getting bad service. It was frustrating to pay a premium and not have my calls answered straight away. When I eventually got through, the call centre staff were unhelpful or got things wrong. Once, I asked them to change a standing order, but they entered the wrong date. I ended up getting charged after the money went out at the wrong time. They later refunded the fee — but it was a pain trying to get them to do it.”

Ms Rooney finally decided to move banks when Barclays messed up the simple task of changing her address. “It was a nightmare,” she recalls. “Barclays demanded that I went to a branch with written notification of my new address. After doing this I was astonished to find that the new card I had ordered still went to my old address. The problem took weeks to resolve.”

How to switch accounts

IF YOU ARE unhappy with your current account, you can investigate alternative providers using a price comparison website. Moneysupermarket.com, uSwitch.com and Moneyfacts.co.uk all compare current accounts.