The building societies and banks in the UK are letting customers down more, and more each year. They really are not able to dish out trust worthy advice on how to invest your hard earned cash. The result was part of an alarming survey conducted by Which? In fact it left reporters questioning if it was worth using UK banks and building societies for financial advice at all, given the fact that they gave such terrible advice.

In a secret investigation, the Which? researchers found that only 4 out of a terrible 37 banks and building societies that were visited were able to offer out good advice to investigators when it came to investing a cash lump sum, and to be frank the figure is a joke.

The biggest scandal revealed in the research was that banks that the government had helped out FAILED! Halifax, and Lloyds TSB didn’t prove to be better than anyone else. In fact they offered up dodgy advice on investments, and simply had not learned from the recession at all.

The other thirty three banks that were investigated by Which? and failed, were found to recommend products without talking through the risks, or simply because they themselves didn’t have a clue about the info they were dishing out.

Out of 37 advisors inside the banks, only 21 suggested the reporters put some of their cash into capital guaranteed products, and eight out of them said that the products didn’t contain any risks, which couldn’t have been more wrong if they had tried! Six of the ‘advisors’ even went as far as to recommend opening up an investment bond, although they didn’t talk through the risks of the extremely complex product. The very banks and building societies that we put our trust into, when it comes to all things financial simply didn’t have a clue about what they were doing.

A further 14 advisors, simply forgot to mention about the Financial Compensation Scheme, and only one of them advised a which? researcher to divide savings with 2 investments, to prevent going over the UK’s 50, 000 pound limit. The advice handed out was totally shoddy, and unprofessional.

So next time you are looking at getting an investment, perhaps you should do your own research! The banks and building societies are but novice it would seem.