30 mins in the bank

I had the unfortunate experience of a trip into Natwest to pay in a load of business cheques. Normally there are massive ques so it can take 10 mins but today only an old man being served, a young bloke waiting and myself, I reckoned out in 5 mins.

The old Guy was simply withdrawing £60.

At the end of the transaction whilst clutching the blokes paying in book the cashiers conversation went like this:

Cashier, Due to the current financial climate we are carrying out a review of customers accounts, when can we book you in Mr Spencer.

Old bloke, I don't want a review.

Cashier, But its important we do so we can be sure your money is working for you.

Old bloke, I'm not worried.

Cashier, But are you gaining the maximum interest, shall we book you in for early next week.

Old bloke, look i only have the savings account to cover my funeral costs, the other account for my pension, I'm not interested in a review.

***By this time two more people had entered and we were all looking at our watches pointedly. All this time the branch manager was sat at his desk reading the paper with now 5 people waiting.

Cashier, whats your date of birth?

Old guy, does it matter?

By this time the woman next to me and myself were making loud comments about lack of service.

Cashier, Mr Spencer, we need to take your date of birth so we can book you in.

Old guy, look luv if i want a financial review ill ask, at the moment I'm happy

Cashier, but don't you want your children to gain the maximum of your money after you die

Old bloke, look, I don't want an account review and I'm late to pick my wife up, can I have my paying in book please.

Finally she gives up and the old guy goes.

Next up the guy in front pays his cheque in only to get, have you ever considered an ISA!!!

The woman next to me could see that i was on my very last bit of fuse and about to really lose it.

The cashier then started to mention Natwests financial health cheque, alas I interrupted and announced that unless she or the manager can be bothered to give me some ***** service I wont be paying £1800 of cheques in but closing my account.

It worked, the lazy manager had to take a break from reading his paper and I was out the door two mins later.

To think that not only do they charge me exorbitant fees for this non existent service but my hard earned taxes given as a bail out are paying for it.

Suffice it to say ill be writing a letter to the head office to complain about the branches attitude and the haranguing of an elderly customer to try and flog unwanted services.

 

My bank is now a trendy wine bar. Natwest, There is another way.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

You are right, it is shocking the way banks torture us. HSBC once sent me a colourful booklet showing me how my outgoings were £6000 per year more than my income. If I could have been bothered to spend half an hour on hold I'd have phoned them to ask how come I was in credit if that was the case.

They occassionally phone me to ask if I'd like to switch from their normal current account to one where I have to pay £12 per month and get an extra 0.1% interest or something.

The best one though was when I went to Barclays to close an account I no longer used. I knew it to be about £30 overdrawn so I went in, armed with my cheque book, debit card, paying in book etc and my cheque book for my main account (with a different bank) so I could settle the overdraft and close the account. I gave the lady my Barclay's branded documents so she could get the account number to pull it up on her computer. She looked at me and so 'oh, this account number is not recognised, are you sure it is with Barclays?'. I just looked at her with what I hoped was a sarcastic sympathetic look. She never did find the account but she gave me a signed letter acknowledging that the account was settled and closed.

 

I went to our usual Building Society the other Saturday and while being served the cashier said to me

Cashier...'I see you have your mortgage with another Company,can I give you some info about changing from them to us..

Me,No thanks,my hubby deals with all that sort of thing...{I always say that to cold callers at the door or telephone cold callers and tell them I am blonde so can't possibly know about such things and they usually walk away smiling or hang up}

Cashier smiling,Ok thanks no problem....

Two days later a package comes through the letter box from said Building Society with literature and a note saying...

Thank you for your request for information on all our Mortgage Services and the best Mortgage to suit your needs.:(

Bxxxxy cheek,if I wanted their literature then I would have requested it, and with that I threw it in the recycling bin unread.What a waste of time and postage

 

I hope you shredded it first, otherwise some nosey parker could use it to help them nick your identity. Its apparently the fastest growing crime in the UK is identity theft.

 

Clueless, I made sure first that anything with my name on it was removed and the recycling bin I was talking about is the one that goes over to our allotment where the stuff is well mixed with the sweepings from my Guneia pig cage after I have cleaned her out so if someone wants to go through her poo and wee and the worms etc that live in there,then they are more than welcome.:D

The only literature that goes into my proper recycling bin for the dustmen are the magazines that are on the glossy side which I don't want polluting my compost

 

I wondered why that suspicious looking man was going through the compost bin the other day. He had a striped suit on and a mask, and he was carrying a sack that had 'SWAG' wrote on it, and he was picking through someone's compost bin

 

Got a phone call from my bank yesterday telling me I had been "selected for personal accident cover". I tend to tell them politely no and hang up. No point in being rude to call centre staff. But the wording winds me "you've been selected". Sod off!!

Pro, I'd have gone over to the Manager and told him to get off his or her **** and do some work!

 

Paul,

I changed to Abbey National so that I can pay cheques and cash in at their ATM. I generally use it in the evening when I can park outside the bank and it takes all of two mins and no hassle and no cashiers.

HBC

 

I'm glad that someone else has 'nice' experiences in a branch of Natwest!

Fortunately I don't bank with them anymore, they did my head in! But the other banks that I use are just as bad!

 

Yes HSBC are as bad even the post office , a great long queue and they go through everything they sell from Holiday insurance to savings accounts with every customer trying to get you to book an interview.

 

My mum works at a post office. She said that one of the older cashiers actually had a nervous breakdown and had to leave because of the pressure they were under to sell things. Apparently this cashier had worked happily for over 20 years, until fairly recently when they changed their policy and required the cashiers to become sales people, with tough targets to meet, ranking their staff by how much they'd sold, and their take home pay suddenly became largely based on what you sold so they could never be sure of exactly how much money they'd be collecting each month.

 

I was looking into get an account with abbey national but they almost wanted to know what I had for breakfast lunch and dinner the previous day:(

 

I'm in the process of moving my accounts from HSBC to Nationwide. It is not that either of those organisations are any better or worse than any other, it is just that one is a bank and one is a building society.

Basically, banks are there for their shareholders. Any company on the stock market has a legal obligation to act in the best interests of their shareholders. They actually have to try to rip us off as much as they can get away with. Building societies on the other hand are there for their members (ie the customers). A building society can not (by law) float its shares on the stock market so there can be no shareholders that they have to keep happy. And just for the avoidance of doubt, Abbey National was a building society but no longer exists. It became a bank a few years ago and rebranded to 'Abbey', and then was bought out by Spanish banking group Santander.