LHV Bank (UK) Avis 98

Extremely poor app! I want to open a current account with this bank due to the attractive interest rate but I have a modern Samsung S22 ultra smartphone and app downloaded directly from the play store. Well.. I've never met such a terrible bank with such a poor app. The app upon opening, freezes instantly and I can't sign up to open an account note even use the app. What makes it even more poor is that obviously management team or senior lead team have no clue this is happening and that there are issues with the app. They either don't know and don't care or are completely detached from the issue. I work for a major banking company and if this happened to our app there would be absolute pandemonium! Sort it out! Until then you won't get my money to hold... Also before anyone thinks I'm computer illetrate. My main job at the major bank is to help people with Thier online access and app problems and to problem solve. Contact your app developers immediately and get this sorted out now!

I opened easy access account and fixed rate bond account. I applied the card too. But one day I could not access the app ......
I supplied my email, the sms passcode to my mobile, my mobile number, my instant photo, my dob, my personal pin, fingerprint ....
I still cannot acccess and need to wait cs help, which is not available on Sat and Sun. So how can I move my money to use my card? I already supplied all info. I have to prove myself.
Please set security to a reasonable level, if the customer cannot access the app and need to wait cs service, what is the bank for?

update: 8 Jan LHV solved the access issue. I believed they checked the case and response quickly. I got the access without much time and effort.

I’ve been waiting to progress with the I.D. process but to no avail. I’ll give it until close of business tomorrow then I’ll be looking elsewhere! The onboarding process to date has not impressed me.

The attractive 4% interest rate on the current account initially drew me to LHV Bank, and it has certainly lived up to expectations. I was particularly impressed by the very smooth onboarding process, which took around 10 minutes, as well as the ease of opening easy-access savings products.

The only reason I haven’t given it five stars is the current lack of features. Notably, standing orders and open banking. I also feel the menu system could be improved, as it wasn’t immediately clear that I needed to press the LHV button to navigate.

I do think these areas can be improved though, and so I’m sticking with LHV Bank for now.

I would like to open a fixed rate bond and understand you don't have a funding window. to date I have always opened a fixed rate bond (with other providers) with a 'testing deposit' to ensure the account opens smoothly, and that I have entered all details correctly. I have then had a 14 day window to fund the bond before the window closes. Is this something you're looking into in the near future? BTW I've never opened and run an account from an App before, so printing information could be an issue for me.

I just opened my new account and the process was pretty effortless on my side. It then took a few days for final confirmation but I wasn't in a rush and that short delay was probably because I'm in the UK and this is an EU based bank.

Impressive interest rates on the current account and saver!

It will be great when you develop APIs so we can connect our accounts to our banking aggregator apps. Hopefully this is on your roadmap :)

I have tried to avoid raising a complaint, but the account opening process has become unnecessarily difficult.

Opening a bank account in the UK is supposed to be simple and efficient nowadays. However, LHV’s procedures feel outdated and overly intrusive.

After starting the application through the app, I never received any clear decision. Instead, the LHV team repeatedly contacted me by email asking for additional documents, such as my Tax Self Assessment and even a passport image, despite the fact that I had already provided valid government photo identification.

LHV claimed these requests were required under UK regulations, but they appear to go far beyond what is proportionate. This is inconsistent with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) expectations, which state that firms must not gather excessive or irrelevant customer information.

Because of this unreasonable process, I now intend to raise a formal complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service and request compensation for the time and inconvenience caused, in line with standard FOS guidance.

I opened an account very easily ... 10 minutes maximum with passport. At the moment though despite an excellent interest rate a key feature namely, Standing Orders aren't available. I enquired if there is a projected date for the implimentation of Standing Orders but no date is available. I'll keep the account open for a few month but unless SOs become available I will probably close my account.

I deeply regret applying for an account with this bank.

The experience was extremely intrusive and felt more like a criminal investigation than a simple savings application.

I started the process through their app because they advertised attractive fixed-term rates.

However, within one day they demanded unnecessarily detailed documents, including my previous job titles, employment history.

The most frustrating part is that I actually provided everything they asked for.

Yet for almost a week, they gave me no response at all.

Later, I opened an account with another UK listed bank which offered a better rate, higher stability, and a smoother app experience. It took only 10 minutes to be approved — without any unreasonable checks. They also provide a flexible transfer window, unlike this bank which blocks top-ups completely.

This whole experience showed me one thing: there are far better options out there.

I cannot recommend this bank to anyone. Their onboarding process is slow, intrusive, and completely disproportionate to the amount being deposited.

I’ve been trying very hard to get customer service team to give me a call back and they have now missed the callback on two separate occasions, despite email assurances. It’s like there’s no real system set up for arranging calls. With no way of directly calling or live chatting, it’s a pain getting things actioned. Responses have also drip fed in asking for different things as time goes on (seems to depend who you’re talking to on any given day).

Decent current account, app is laid out nice and they now offer easy access savings accounts which is a good addition. I am a massive fan of digital banks and LHV are up there in my list of decent ones. Only issue I would say is that faster payments are not instant and the longest I have had to wait for money to be credited was 2 days. Other than the faster payments issue everything else works perfectly.

Useless App which is Buggy. No App Chat or Customer Support. Only had my Account for a Few Days & want to Close it. Higher Interest Rates are No Replacement for Competency. My Debit Card does not even Work Properly.

Bank itself maybe ok shame it treats it staff like rubbish would never bank with them.

Just opened a current account with them
The process is quick and swift
So happy with the process

Excellent App offering, at the time, top rates for maturing funds.
'Fast Payments' made funding the required LHV 'feeder' account easy.
The instructions make this perfectly clear, but bear in mind that each 'Bond' you set up has to have the funds already in place in the feeder account; then the Bond is "fed" immediately.
You can't add to that bond; there is no "funding window" - but you can open up as many bonds as you like, up to the maximum holding limit.
It's all very transparent, and funding a bond is simplicity itself.
There's nothing not to be impressed with here.

Opened an account in less than ten minutes, received my debit card two days later. Excellent service.

It would appear that most of the negative reviews here are from people who don't understand how banking procedures work.

A classic is 'we didn't know that we had to fund our current account first in order to open a fix rate bond'. How else did you expect to fund it.

Another was the low withdrawal limit. All banks set a withdrawal limit to protect their customers from fraud. It's normally a simple procedure to contact the bank and request a temporary increase in the limit.

Setting up direct debits. Everyday new bank accounts come on stream across the industry requiring new sort codes to be generated, It's just a case of waiting for the UK banking system to add these new codes to the network to make them live. You can't blame LHV Bank (or any other bank ) if this is not done immediately.

Very smooth account opening process . It’s a simple app which keeps life simple.
Good rate of interest offered on personal banking .
Would recommend.

I've only just heard of LHV Bank and created an account with them, so far very impressed! The app layout is very minimalistic, which I like, and it was very easy to create account and deposit and withdraw. And, outstanding interest rate for a current account! As far as I'm concerned, they're brilliant!

Update no 1:

In fairness, I have increased this review to 4 stars given the fact that at the start of business today (Monday) the below detailed issue was resolved professionally and efficiently and an apology was forthcoming.

I like the concept of this account, and I want the relationship to work out.

Watch this space, we may even see a 5 star rating in due course.

Initial review: Having transferred some funds via the app, I have been instantly locked out of the app/account with no access to my funds, with no ability to authorise debit card payments etc, and I find that my debit card is blocked also.

Now, I’m all for security, but this has happened on a weekend and I find I am completely unable to contact any form of customer support until 9am on Monday morning - thankfully it’s not a bank holiday weekend….. so, here I am on a weekend with no access to my money or any form of banking facility with LHV.

Delighted I didn’t put all of my eggs in one basket.

I look forward to a response from LHV.

Direct debits are now available - but with most companies account verification fails and I am told to enter the ‘correct’ account details. It is such hard work to use this account for my main day-to-day banking. I have given LHV the names of a few companies which refuse to accept my account details. I have also emailed a couple of the offending companies, but I’m getting nowhere fast. Maybe I should try another bank?