Monmouthshire Building SocietyAvis 

Had conversation with a staff member after problems opening a savings account.
They asked for proof of address to be sent, did not explain why except to say there was a problem with non delivery of a letter.
Did not understand but complied anyway as they had a good deal.
Nothing happens.
Sent a request for contact via their online form but again no reply.
Looks like I dodged a bullet!

My wife and i have been using the regular saving accounts with the Monmouthshire Building Society for an number of year paying in the maximum each month
Yesterday we received notice that one of our Regular Saving Accounts is maturing shortly so we tried to open a new Regular Savings Account only to find that now this can only be achieve by a APP. On contacting Monmouthshire Building Society i was told the only way to now save with them is through the APP or Branch. As we are miles away from any Branch that is not possible.
Thankfully i decided to look at the reviews on Trustpilot and i am pleased i did as the reviews are TERRIBLE.
So now we off to one of Monmouthshire Building Society's Competitors to save.

The app is rubbish always down constantly having to delete and restart. Get your act together

Like many others, I was irritated by the online sign-up process for their Regular Saver Edition 8. I had installed their app beforehand from the Google Play Store. The issues occurred at the end: verification of my bank account and the final part where I was told not to close or refresh the page. I attempted again and had a similar outcome. Eventually, after a few days, I received my welcome email with the details required for registration and easily got the app to work. It has worked since installation and has never crashed.Paying in is much like any other building society—you employ their account through a bank, using the account number as the reference to identify the payment. You initiate payment from your bank. It's all dead easy. The payment takes 24 hours and updates after 9 AM, as do others (not Nationwide, as they use their own accounts).Reading the comments, I hear the frustration, but you just need to be patient. In comparison with others like Coventry, Yorkshire, etc., well, they would be faster and less prone to bottlenecks with their low interest rates, I wouldn't expect a rush to sign up, so I've cut Monmouthshire some slack! With these rates and without penalty withdrawals it was predictable there would be a higher than usual uptake. There were bound to be a few teething troubles at first.

Very poorly designed app and only offers limited functionality, and faster payment is not fast either, every transaction takes a day which is less than ideal. App crushes multiple times. both transfer in/out takes a day (maybe more). Apart from the recent good offer of 6% interest in exclusive reg saver, nothing about this Monmouthshire BS is good. Only dived into becoming their customers because of these saving offers but all this negatives are now making me regret my decision

Absolutely terrible building society. I don't understand how financial companies like this are able to stay in business. Have been trying to open a Regular Saver Account for 6 weeks and still no progress They take days/weeks to answer anything and lose documents you send to them. I think they are stuck in the past and simply cannot cope with online banking. Have given up and cancelled application.

2nd September - App still does not work, despite raising this with them on several occasions. Only option is therefore to use online banking, but this has 2 day delay for showing deposits - 2 **
Update 25th September - Following Monmouthshire's intervention the app. now works. I have increased rating to 4* as customer service and products are good.

Funny how the company is 1 star on here and Google yet glass door is 3… probably because everytime a bad review is posted exposing the company for what they really are… HR decide to put put a fake five star review! Whether you’re a customer or employee looking for work, AVOID this place at all costs. The people who work there are horrible and will go to extreme lengths to cover up the truth.

Monmouthshire Building Society APP does NOT work reliably. To date I have needed to reinstall the APP over 6 times to gain/regain access to my accounts and I have no current access to their online services, despite trying repeatedly and spending time contacting the building society several times. Their 'forgotten details' option does not work reliably. Monmouthshire Building Society have a huge number of technical problems with their processes. Despite the high interest rates I would NOT recommend this building society at this point as they can not/do not provide you with reliable access to your accounts. In a financial market where a person can open a savings accounts in minutes with numerous other Banks and Building Societies they are miles behind in terms of service quality.

Opened the regular saver account on app. at start of this month. Deposited for starters only £10 (thankfully). As app.crashed many times I tried to register on the website as a backup. They failed to send a registration code. App works today so I have withdrawn my £10. Hopefully it will arrive and not be caught in another of their log jams.Monmouthshire does not get zero rating because staff were always polite when I phoned-the only positive.
They are an incompetent organisation.
I received my £10 (plus 4p interest) this afternoon which was in fact good service. Pity they couldn't perform earlier!!

Just tried to open a regular 6% savings account. No problem downloading and opening the app.
Put in all my details then had to wait ages to verify must have been 10 minutes. Had to ring because failed to verify. I was on hold number 5 in the queue for 20mins. They seem to have sorted the problem as when I went back to the app it said Verified please continue.
Pressed continue said there is a problem try again. Tried several times no joy. Complete waste of time.
After reading reviews on here have decided not to open account. Cant think of a reason to give more than 1 star.
Obviously you have major problems with the app still. I hope you haven't paid the developers as they have cost you a lot of customers.

Terrible app and experience. Opened the regular saver. The experience is shockingly bad. The app is rubbish. But more concerning is that funds sometimes goes in but takes upto 3 days. Other times it doesn’t go in. Very worrying. So for £190 interest a year I just can’t face the hassle and have chosen a bank with slightly lower interest but instant transfers and a far better app. Getting my money back was equally slow. I may lose a few quid in interest but I’ll sleep better

"What went wrong this time?" your site asks.

The answer is "nothing has gone right yet"

Today 13 August a detailed mail was received explaining how to resolve my issues, those instruction were followed and what I was told to enter (personal details ect.) were never asked for, the system will still not let me log in.

There was brief period of optimism, when letters arrived from MBS with details of how to register for internet banking. They didn't work either.

I do hope my request to close the doesn't get lost.

I have suggested they get a refund from whoever they pay to run their IT systems.

A further update on painful experience and further to painful experience. Despite a call that gave me some brief glimmer of hope over a week ago, are still.no nearer to a fully functioning account. This is now day 11 waiting for this activation letter.
If I could give less than 1 star I would.
I just want my £1 back now after reading the past reviews

Well I now wish I’d come here first to read the reviews before signing up for a savings account.
During the signing up process it all froze ,like others here have already mentioned.
I then received an email saying that I’d been successful and to follow the instructions for setting up my direct debit from my bank.
I did this and my bank said that my new Monmouthshire account number didn’t exist. I went back to app which was still frozen! So…I went to their web page in an attempt to log on there only to be told that my password was incorrect. I then went back to the app which now said it was down for maintenance!!
The unfortunate thing is that they have all my personal details which means I’m going to have see what happens, otherwise I would drop them like a hot brick. Absolutely appalling.

I applied online for a 6% Regular Saver near the end of July 2025. I called up about 2 weeks later & I was told there was no record of an account for me. They recommended I apply using the App. I did this today & I managed to open my account immediately. After you've submitted the application details, it will take a few minutes to process - but just wait until it completes. When asked to enter a verification code, it's best to use another device (e.g. laptop) to access your email & open the attached document (I did this) - this will prevent problems (no need to leave the MonBS App). Also if you opt for a 2-factor SMS code, you can receive your code from your smartphone notifications - this prevents the need to leave the MonBS app. Despite the initial problem, I was able to open my account (same day) fairly easily using their App, so I've given 5 stars.

I noticed it's possible to transact using their App (once the account is funded). You should be able to transfer money to your Nominated Account, if/when required.

Their app keeps freezing (is it new)? ... I type in my pin then it asks for a code and I
have to request it via my
Mobile sms. It gets generated multiple times as the app keeps freezing and not allowing me to move forward and actually put in the code into the box!. This issues happens about 99% of the time and I have to keep refreshing the app and wasting my time. It's also down for maintenance regularly all day long! Thank goodness I only paid in £1 to a regular saver to test out the app. (No money has reached my account hours later). Won't be using too flakey and impossible to use. Surely this app must have been tested before launch. Shocking. Will try to close but can't seem to work out how to do this!

According to an email I just received from Trust Pilot Monmouthshire have requested more information to ascertain if my review is genuine! Well Monmouthshire haven't written to me or corresponded beneath my review so at a loss as to how I know where to provide more details. What details do they want? I'm not telepathic! I'm also disgusted that I'm being asked to prove myself. I thought this was a democratic review site!

After I wrote my previous review I received a telephone call from the Monmouthshire Building Society saying they were adjusting their rates. However when looking at the discounted deals now being offered I have noticed that there is a 'floor rate' of 3.5% on both residential and holiday let mortgages. There was, however, no, ceiling rate when the rates went up so dramatically. I feel the Monmouthshire Building Society should explain this double standard.

I'll keep it brief this by far is one of the worse banks I have ever come across, wanted to open a regular saver but after reading some of the horrendous reviews my thoughts turned to "absolutely not" avoid like the plague.

Just tried signing up to a regular saver and downloaded the app. Put all details through and been stuck on we are reviewing your application screen for an hour. So guessing it hasn't worked. Yet I've given all my bank account details to the app.
Not a great start.
Update today Friday phone has been stuck on getting things ready since last night. So much hassle to open an account
Again nothing works. Reinstalled app tried again and frozen yet again. Given up as this is a shambles and your chief executive needs to take some action. Appalling.