West Brom Building Society Omdömen 

Easy to set up an account and contact customer services. Answered the questions at 9am on a Sunday morning.

It's impossible to open an account with this luddite organisation as they insist on use of original paper based documents to verify identification etc. Like many, all my bank statements, utility statements, etc. etc. are online and they will not accept any of these as proof of address.

I tried to open a WebSave account online. They asked for certified copies of identity documents to be physically sent to them. This would have meant paying a solicitor to certify the documents.
I have opened lots of online savings accounts in the last few years and have never been asked to do this.
I didn't bother in the end and just let my application lapse - there are loads of others savings providers who don't ask for physical copies of certified documents,

Like other reviewers here I also had a horrific experience trying to open a WebSave ISA with West Brom. The rate was good, the experience was the worst banking related experience I've ever had. The complaints person blamed the bank that the money was coming from and took no responsibility for the failings, lack of action, lack of follow up, mistakes, lack of response or lack of proactivity - they sent forms by snail mail which got lost in the post, they emailed eventually when I contacted the other bank and got the details, as WB were not willing initially to contact the other bank, they forgot to send forms and basically did a horrible job that only completed because I was in touch with them and other bank on an almost daily basis, racking up 4+ hours of phone calls, losing >£80 in lost interest (they claim that's ok as they give themselves 30 days to do what others take 24 hours to complete). I got a call today from a very condescending Complaints manager offering an insulting and offensive settlement, which has only encouraged me to go to the Ombudsman and to warn as many potential customers off ever using West Brom. That said, the team answering the phones were all lovely, were very embarrassed and seem to be let down by a system and back office team that don't deliver and put them in a very awkward position. AVOID.

Recently acquired our first mortgage through the West Brom. Being first time buyers we didn’t know what to expect. Must say it was nothing other than a pleasant experience from start to finish! Thank you the West Brom!

Terrible experience trying to open a WEBsave ISA and transfer funds from an existing West Brom ISA to their own WEBsave ISA.
As a well established BS i thought this would be an easy experience but far from it. Opened the account on the 21/11 and filled in the online request to transfer funds but for some reason they could not verify my details although I was an existing customer! This went on for 3 weeks and was finally opened on 14/12/23. I raised a complaint through their complaints process and have had no contact.
Still no funds have been transfered on the 18/12/23 and no response to my complaint.
*******I WOULD NOT RECOMEND THEM TO ANYONE*****

We used these for our first time mortgage, whilst the rates were good and the first application process was smooth it turned pretty ugly after that experience especially when we decided to port the mortgage due to moving home. Basically long story short is they nearly left us homeless on the completion date due to them hearing me say something I never said, put huge retention fees against us and then asked us to put the extra up front. They maybe cheap on the market with interest rates but by god I wish I had of gone else where now as they have left me in such a financial mess.

Opened a websave notice account. Found the process efficient and call centre staff helpful and well informed.
Encountered an issue which was dealt with politely and quickly.
The on line application seems to work fairly well too.

Just opened an ISA with West Brom. So easy. Transfer of ISA elsewhere was super fast. Great experience and would recommend

Amazing experience with West Brom for are first time mortgage we find the mortgage tracker so useful we could see everything that needs to be done sometimes we should not always read the reviews because looking back every experience is different so from mortgage in principle, right up to completion day it’s been straightforward and easy, great communication and it made Are stress level so much better so thank you 😊

I applied for an online 'WebSave' account,the automated opening process went pretty smoothly & my account was opened pretty swiftly,thereafter it went downhill RAPIDLY & my experience of this so called building society has been frighteningly amateurish.As another reviewer has mentioned they CLEARLY have major problems with their onboarding systems: as soon as I was told my account was opened I was sent another email advising that I must fund the account (which I obviously expected) I funded the account with a nominal £5 to begin with and this was from my 'nominated bank account ' using the details that they advised.The very next day I received another email stating that my electronic transfer had been rejected & the £5 would be returned to me)as it wasn't from my nominated bank account (it was!) and that my nominated bank account hadn't been sanctioned yet because I hadn't received the code in the post!! Fast forward 3 days later....letter received (shame they never mentioned this in the very beginning prior to requesting that I fund the account!!) and I get an email stating that my nominated account has been "approved".Fast forward 14 days and still no refund on the rejected payment,nothing heard from WestBrom so I fire off an internal message direct from my WebSave account....no acknowledgment,no response...NOTHING !! I rechecked everything as I began to think I'd lost the plot ,I checked all the original account numbers,all was exactly as requested by WestBrom,so as a test I sent another nominal amount (£1) .... nothing showing for days in my WebSave account,then I receive an email again requesting that I fund the account AGAIN !!!! By this time I'm starting to lose the will to live & bitterly regretting my choice of savings account,today I received another rejected payment & that this was again stated because it wasn't from my nominated bank account (it is from my nominated account....I checked yet again!!!).I sent another nominal £1 only this time putting in my actual WebSave account no in the reference field rather than the application reference which is what WestBroms original payment request email told me to do.....I am literally FLABERGASTED at the sheer incompetence of this useless & utterly shambollic 'Building Society'......the lack of customer service on ANY level speaks volumes and thankfully my initial payments are small (thankfully!) ....Can you imagine how I'd be feeling right now if I'd deposited a couple of thousand as my initial payment & it just disappears into the ether....?? An absolutely disgraceful way to run a financial services company.DO NOT ENTRUST YOUR SAVINGS WITH THIS INCOMPETENT SHOWER!!

Update 28/1/24:

Still no reimbursement of funds sent to my websave account!! What a way to run a building society.... surely this is illegal?? I'm well aware the amounts we are talking about are minimal & this was done on purpose.....thank God I didn't send thousands (which was my original intention!) Absolutely unbelievable....

Fantastic! We have just completed on our first home with a mortgage from West Brom, from DIP to offer & completion we had absoltuely no issues with them at all - they have been brilliant.

Interest rate was better than high street lenders & all paperwork was sent to us on time - for something as life changing as a mortgage i couldn't of had a better lender.

Thank you so much!

I went in to register my husband's death and to seek advice on our investments. I was treated with empathy and compassion at Redditch branch and I really can't praise the staff enough. Teresa, having assessed my wishes, sat me down with coffee and Stuart then took me into a private office to discuss my requirements. I received sound advice & left with everything sorted - what a relief. The wonderful staff followed it up by sending me a Sympathy card, signed by them all, which arrived today. What a wonderful team - the Westbrom should be very proud of them.

opened on line websave,straight forward opening a joint account,funded it next day ,got message funds received have been funding regular no problems,nominated bank authenticated soon after joining websave,all in all happy chappies,derby

Current tenant.

Very poor - not had hot water for over 2 years now & they sent me a section 21. They hide behind a lettings agency when you make a complaint too.

Always been a decent bank until today. Went to the Walsall branch, waiting 20 mins in a queue to get told I had to make an appointment for a name change as recently got married. I had all documents with me but there was too big of a queue to do admin. So happy to take money off you but when you need admin, they don't want anything to do with you. Even after waiting in a queue for so long.

Absolutely appalling and disgusted by the lack of negligence this bank has shown. I go to a branch to open an account on the 13th July 2023 the lady specifically said no credit checks are done I opened not one but two accounts with them. I deposited cash on the day of opening. Gave all my documentation. Next day I transferred money from my other account. After trying to check my balance online and over the phone I couldn’t log in. I phoned the bank today only to find out my account has been closed by the bank without any explanation to me and I’m putting money in the account thinking it’s open as it didn’t bounce back. The lady on the phone was rude not cooperative and after asking why wasn’t I emailed which would be faster than you sending a letter in the post. She said we don’t do emails! They also don’t take any complains either. So in short ridiculous not trustworthy. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone. Please don’t waste your time and money with this bank! It’s not a safe bank to trust your money with.

Awful, shameful and totally unprofessional,
Do not and I repeat do not use these.
Absolute waste of time.

Absolutely horrendous experience. Never had the sort of issues we had with them with any other mortgage provider.
We secured a deal with them weeks before interest rates increased and when it came to application they started picking up on all sorts of random issues including my husband’s name, permanent residence card; we rang Home Office, did what they suggested and West Brom still refused. They have wasted so much of our time and we have ran out of time so have to go on a standard variable rate (which we can barely afford) while trying to find a new deal.
Do not recommend them. We never had such an awful experience with any other lender

Great service once again from the west brom! Slightly complicated case got offered in record time, app submitted on the 14th of June and offered today so very happy client and myself! Thanks again team and will be back.