A couple of years ago it would have been too far fetched for a movie or a novel.
Executives in a Very Large Organisation bring it to its insolvent knees. It’s baled out by A Third Party and then the executives say to that Third Party: “Pay us obscene bonuses or we’ll leave”.
Leave, say I! Do we really need to keep in post bank employees who have done such a bad job that without public money baling them out they wouldn’t even have a job? I think not.
Showing posts with label bank. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bank. Show all posts
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Friday, 25 July 2008
The Bank
I joined the National Westminster Bank when I was a teenager. Why? Because my parents banked there. And so it has been throughout my entire life. Mainly I’ve used friendly semi-rural branches and I have to say that at personal level the NatWest (as it became many moons ago) has been very reliable.
It’s at the business level that I have to gripe. Practically every contact I have ever had with NatWest business managers about my business account (now nearly 12 years’ old) have been unsatisfactory. What amazes me is that my experience can be so bad when I ask for so little. I do not go overdrawn, I don’t borrow from them – tried that, see below. No I pay a minimal (but still painful to my mind) sum to them to keep my money safe and to offer me a pitiful interest rate on my reserve account.
Over those twelve years I have discovered that, though I usually keep my current account obscenely buoyant, on two occasions when I’ve needed a quick loan/overdraft it’s been (a) impossible to contact “my” manager immediately because sometime they haven’t even had one assigned to me (b) to enter into any arrangement at short notice, and (c) to do so without putting a charge on my house! I ended up lending my company a couple of grand from my own personal finances the last time. It was far easier.
The Nat West in its catalogue of dealings with me dropped a direct debit arrangement without telling me because they said I’d gone too long without using it and misled me about whether or not other banks would do the same.
The then business manager made an appointment with me to talk about a complaint and failed not only to keep the appointment, but even to contact me to apologise after the event. When I complained about that, NatWest sent me flowers which made me incandescent with rage. I want good service from my bank, not flowers.
They failed to set up a direct debit correctly which made it impossible for me to cancel it when I needed to, despite the fact that two years running they allowed the payee to draw on it. I spent hours and hours over weeks trying to sort that one out. Eventually a very nice lady in a call centre admitted they’d made a complete mess of it. It was so refreshing to hear her admit their error and apologise.
A couple of years back my bank statements stopped arriving. Apparently the Post Office had sent them back marked undelivered despite me being at the same address that I have been for twelve years. When the Post Office takes the letters back, instead of the NatWest contacting me to check if I’m still here, they just stop sending statements. Believe it or not, I had to fill in a form to reinstate the statements.
I received a letter from head office a couple of months ago. It told me of two new accounts. Interested I went onto the web site. Only the details of one of the accounts were there. Never mind, though I, I would ring my business manager. Good news – I had a business manager. Bad news – he’d never heard of these accounts, didn’t know of the letter either
Talking of head office, it always writes to the right company name – ie. my trading name – whereas the bank statements come to the registered company name, which is different. Why can’t they use the right address every time I wonder? That’s presumably why the postage service gets it so wrong. And yes, the statements stopped coming about a month ago. Again same problem, Post Officer returns them, NatWest does not tell me.
The new bank manager did pop up and see me today – that’s a first - and he says he’ll reinstate the statements without me needing to sign anything – which is why my mind has turned to NatWest today. I was thinking of changing banks to one that doesn’t charge me for everyday transactions. However the trauma I envisage puts me right off. I remember when my husband and I just changed branches of NatWest many years ago. All our money disappeared into a black hole for a couple of days because someone had forgotten to set up the new account at the new branch. You remember things like that.
It’s at the business level that I have to gripe. Practically every contact I have ever had with NatWest business managers about my business account (now nearly 12 years’ old) have been unsatisfactory. What amazes me is that my experience can be so bad when I ask for so little. I do not go overdrawn, I don’t borrow from them – tried that, see below. No I pay a minimal (but still painful to my mind) sum to them to keep my money safe and to offer me a pitiful interest rate on my reserve account.
Over those twelve years I have discovered that, though I usually keep my current account obscenely buoyant, on two occasions when I’ve needed a quick loan/overdraft it’s been (a) impossible to contact “my” manager immediately because sometime they haven’t even had one assigned to me (b) to enter into any arrangement at short notice, and (c) to do so without putting a charge on my house! I ended up lending my company a couple of grand from my own personal finances the last time. It was far easier.
The Nat West in its catalogue of dealings with me dropped a direct debit arrangement without telling me because they said I’d gone too long without using it and misled me about whether or not other banks would do the same.
The then business manager made an appointment with me to talk about a complaint and failed not only to keep the appointment, but even to contact me to apologise after the event. When I complained about that, NatWest sent me flowers which made me incandescent with rage. I want good service from my bank, not flowers.
They failed to set up a direct debit correctly which made it impossible for me to cancel it when I needed to, despite the fact that two years running they allowed the payee to draw on it. I spent hours and hours over weeks trying to sort that one out. Eventually a very nice lady in a call centre admitted they’d made a complete mess of it. It was so refreshing to hear her admit their error and apologise.
A couple of years back my bank statements stopped arriving. Apparently the Post Office had sent them back marked undelivered despite me being at the same address that I have been for twelve years. When the Post Office takes the letters back, instead of the NatWest contacting me to check if I’m still here, they just stop sending statements. Believe it or not, I had to fill in a form to reinstate the statements.
I received a letter from head office a couple of months ago. It told me of two new accounts. Interested I went onto the web site. Only the details of one of the accounts were there. Never mind, though I, I would ring my business manager. Good news – I had a business manager. Bad news – he’d never heard of these accounts, didn’t know of the letter either
Talking of head office, it always writes to the right company name – ie. my trading name – whereas the bank statements come to the registered company name, which is different. Why can’t they use the right address every time I wonder? That’s presumably why the postage service gets it so wrong. And yes, the statements stopped coming about a month ago. Again same problem, Post Officer returns them, NatWest does not tell me.
The new bank manager did pop up and see me today – that’s a first - and he says he’ll reinstate the statements without me needing to sign anything – which is why my mind has turned to NatWest today. I was thinking of changing banks to one that doesn’t charge me for everyday transactions. However the trauma I envisage puts me right off. I remember when my husband and I just changed branches of NatWest many years ago. All our money disappeared into a black hole for a couple of days because someone had forgotten to set up the new account at the new branch. You remember things like that.
Monday, 14 January 2008
Everlasting cheque clearance
I had the misfortune recently to take an action in the small claims court against someone who owed me a significant amount of money. By a chance of fate – into which I won’t go here – the action is already complicated, having been lodged in one court, then transferred to one halfway across the country, and now probably residing halfway between that court and yet another.
My delight at having received a cheque for the full amount owing, was tinged with caution. I didn’t want to call off the case too early in case the cheque were to bounce. I waited the four working day period after paying it into the NatWest. Because of the Christmas break I was advised to give it a little longer “in case of postal delays”. So I have given it 10 working days – but still the bank refuses to give me a guarantee that the money is irrefutably mine. In other words, at any time in the future, should the debtor’s cheque be returned unpaid, my account could be debited the amount.
What about all those lost letters, the ones that people said they've sent and never arrive, the tales of correspondence that turns up weeks, months - sometimes even years - later? Mistakes happen (we've heard a great deal things getting lost recently). What happens I wonder when returned cheques from ages of yore manifest themselves in rediscovered banking postal bags?
There appears to be no specific time after which a cheque is “safe”. I should have paid it in as a “special”. What’s a “special” I hear you ask? Well a “special” clearance is a service that would have cost me £15, paid to my bank the NatWest, but which would have guaranteed that the cheque had been “cleared”.
We live and learn. What I’ve learnt from this episode is that the cheque clearance system appears still to be dependent upon the banking postal service. Here’s to the digital age – may it not be too long in arriving at UK banks.
My delight at having received a cheque for the full amount owing, was tinged with caution. I didn’t want to call off the case too early in case the cheque were to bounce. I waited the four working day period after paying it into the NatWest. Because of the Christmas break I was advised to give it a little longer “in case of postal delays”. So I have given it 10 working days – but still the bank refuses to give me a guarantee that the money is irrefutably mine. In other words, at any time in the future, should the debtor’s cheque be returned unpaid, my account could be debited the amount.
What about all those lost letters, the ones that people said they've sent and never arrive, the tales of correspondence that turns up weeks, months - sometimes even years - later? Mistakes happen (we've heard a great deal things getting lost recently). What happens I wonder when returned cheques from ages of yore manifest themselves in rediscovered banking postal bags?
There appears to be no specific time after which a cheque is “safe”. I should have paid it in as a “special”. What’s a “special” I hear you ask? Well a “special” clearance is a service that would have cost me £15, paid to my bank the NatWest, but which would have guaranteed that the cheque had been “cleared”.
We live and learn. What I’ve learnt from this episode is that the cheque clearance system appears still to be dependent upon the banking postal service. Here’s to the digital age – may it not be too long in arriving at UK banks.
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