Always busy. With a simple explanation. Halifax have closed all other branches around chester and…read morenow just have 2 in the city center. I think they have shot themselves in the foot by doing this as it means that small buisnesses in the area simply cannot use them. It is near impossible to go into town for the sole purpose of banking. There is no where to park, and even if you find somewhere you will end up walking for a while and then having to join the legendary halifax queue. In which, i can assure you that a woman will walk up to you and try to get you to use the quick deposit box. Because everyone wants to post their hard earned cash into a box in a paper envelope and trust the staff to get everything right I would say don't go at peak times and you might get a good service, but then banks are only open at peak times. So it's a lose lose situation in my opinion. If you want convenient banking, go with NatWest or Llyods, both of which have small branches on the chester outskirts with outside parking. And friendly staff. And no huge queues.

ok first off the person above me must have the worst experience there ive ever heard becuase in my…read moreopinion halifax are the best bank out there. I transfered my savings from the abbey to halifax, and the service i got prepared to the abbey was 5 star, the abbey treated me like a child always trying to offer me deala and all that rubbish. When i joined halifax they had things sorrted out within 48 hours that abbey couldnt do in 5 months. Store is well heated or air conditioned during the summer, some of the staff can be naggy but compared to other banks i have experienced theyre not half as a bad as others liek matwest and lloyds, but lloyds tsb basicallly own hbos now. All in all yeah they may have closed some branches but at least theyre still open for business

A pretty small branch with limited technology and modern banking facilities, that pretty much sums…read moreup The Co-operative Bank in general, and this location which is on Northgate Street in Chester, close to the Market pretty much sums that up. There were no indoor cash machines and they didn't seem to be pushing any digital banking services here, which considering the Co-op Banks attempts at online banking are pretty poor anyway, I didn't find it surprising. As someone who has been with every major UK bank including challenger banks, I must say Co-op Bank's online services are probably amongst the worst I've had to use alongside HSBC. The store opening hours again are pretty poor between 9:30 am and 5 pm, closed at weekends. This is in comparison to Natwest who open earlier during the week (other than Wednesday's) and do have Saturday openings, which is a much larger bank a couple of minutes walk away. It seems the Co-op Bank is one of the only banks in Chester as a whole not to open on weekends as other banks nearby including TSB, Halifax and Santander all have Saturday openings. The extra star is mainly for the friendly staff member who helped me close my account, even though the bank's processes again were rather confusing which involved setting up a security code to identify myself which is what I needed to close my account. I struggle to even explain the concept. - I had to create a code which would be used to identify myself to close my account - That code would be created by me in store and used as identification 60 seconds later BUT... How can they use something as identification anyone could have set up? I mean, I can't begin to even grasp the concept to explain it. 2*

Located on Eastgate Street, this is probably the largest bank within Chester city centre, although…read morethe facilities in-store really don't compare to other Natwest stores even of the same size, I'm sorry to report. They sadly don't have an ATM which allows paying in coins, even though they do have the pretty old-fashioned ones compared to what the newer Natwest stores have, the only coin machine requires you to have to go to the counter anyway, where I find service to be much slower than average, which basically ruins the convenience of paying in money in the first place, especially if you don't have a lot of coins. The opening hours are pretty average, generally between 9 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon, other than Wednesday when they open an hour later, presumably for staff training, and on Saturday where they shut at 4 (This is still better than other banks in Chester who shut really early on Saturday's or Co-op Bank which doesn't bother opening at all!) 2* - Location and being one of the larger banks in the city, but still service seemed slow with staff seeming unhelpful, which caused me to just walk out in the end as I hoped to deal with my banking after getting off the train when I got home to Manchester.

A very traditional building that suits a bank such as NatWest. I think it is a challenge to review…read morea particular bank. Everyone has to judge a bank on their own terms. And as everyone is different banks often treat people differently. I myself was fined by NatWest at 15 years old when itunes made my account go 10p overdrawn. The £40 fine completely put me off the bank and subsequently i have my main account elsewhere. However i kept the account and occasionally use it. With more experience under my belt, i now see NatWest to offer generally uncompetitive rates BUT an unmatched branch number. There is always a NatWest close to you in the north west. Which is much more than i can say for halifax, which seems to have closed so many down over the last 5 to 10 years. This particular branch offers about 5 counter slots (with an illogical queue system), general enquiries and it has plenty of private offices for discussing anything that should require them. Just book ahead.

Santander is a pretty large bank branch in Chester city centre, located close to Wetherspoons,…read moreMcDonalds and Primark on Foregate Street, they had a good amount of ATM's for paying in and withdrawing cash, as well as a few basic sofas. This was a pretty typical Santander store in the sense - They had coverings over the ATM, which I don't like as it's transparent so anyone can still see and it allows less room to enter your pin - It's a pretty long store, meaning you have to walk to the end of the store to see a staff member and it just feels like empty space, Natwest who also have larger branches seem to utilise their space more, making it a little nicer and more modern - as expected the staff didn't seem too warm or friendly in the store, I would say from a service point of view in Chester city centre, Co-op Bank is probably the best. (I never thought I'd utter those words) The opening hours are pretty good compared to other banks nearby, while it opens half an hour later than average at 9:30, they remain open until 5 in the afternoon, closing half an hour early on Saturday yet remaining closed on Sunday. Strangely - I received multiple unsolicited emails from this bank which I had never received from a Santander store before, asking about my in-store experience, even though I mainly only came in to pay in some cash I had. I've never had this before from a Santander Store so I found it to be rather puzzling why this branch was different. 2* - Pretty average bank, it doesn't stand out to any other bank within Chester and multiple improvements are certainly due.

I have my children's accounts with the Chester branch and they have twice allowed the other trustee…read moreto withdraw money without my signature. The second time happened the day after I went to the branch to make sure it didn't happen again. The bank have totally washed there hands of it and after the manager saying they would repay it they are now refusing to do so. The Customer relations gave a lame excuse that the person who stole it said they used it for my children which was never the case but it was enough for them to get out of it. My 6 year old daughter has now lost all her savings. Mr R Owens.