A pretty small branch with limited technology and modern banking facilities, that pretty much sums up 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* read more