I've been thinking about how to not indirectly invest in killing the planet (or cartels), so thinking about switching away from HSBC. From looking it around, it seems that Triodos is the only explicitly 'ethical' bank in the UK; Nationwide and Co-op are just 'not-unethical'. It has a £3 monthly fee, though.
I've also switched my pension fund to UK renewable infrastructure funds, though at present there's so little money in it's not a huge deal.
Last year when all the news came in about people not being able to work, the triodos people phoned me up to double check that I'd be able to pay their bank fees. I don't know what they were planning to offer me if I said I couldn't afford the monthly fee. But I assume it would have been reasonable.
The biggest drawback I've found with Tdos is that the debit cards fall apart after a year or two. Not in a catastrophic way, you can just see the plastic layers slowly coming apart.
The customer service is excellent, no long queues or endless robot voice loops: right away they put you through to a knowledgeable human being with useful decision-making powers. That alone would make them worthwhile, to me.
>>8379 I saw they said the card is made out of corn, but that's not a huge issue really as I tend to pay for everything on my amex and pay that off at the end of the month, so the debit doesn't get much action.
