Not Banking On It

I've been a customer of the Royal Bank of Scotland for the past 25 years.  In fact I started out as being a customer of Williams & Glyns (for anyone old enough to remember them) who were taken over by RBS.  I've been reasonably happy with RBS despite the fact that their branches are few and far between and have never seriously thought about closing my account with them - until recently.  I won't go into the saga in any depth but lets just say it involved a cheque which although received into my account wasn't counted, a further cheque being written by myself to my credit card company, refusal to pay that cheque, rude letters from RBS, disgustingly high charges for what amounted to their incompetence not mine, and no answer to a letter I sent them which was recorded delivery.  Presumably Sir Fred Goodwin's 'sod you' attitude has permeated right through the bank.  (For any non-UK readers Sir Fred was the former chief executive of RBS who is now receiving a pension of £725,000 per year despite the fact that the government has had to bail RBS out to the tune of £33bn.  When asked by the government to pay the pension money back Sir Fred basically told them to sod off.)

After total inertia on my part for two months (something I believe the banks rely on in their customers), I've finally made an appointment with Nat West (and yes, I do know they're basically the same bank as RBS) to transfer all my direct debits and the balance of my account into my Nat West bank account.  No wonder RBS are going down the pan - why don't the government just nationalise them and have done with it?  It would work out a lot cheaper for the tax payer in the end.  Nat West are not a lot better but at least they have a branch on the High Street here and I've never had too much trouble with them - yet!!

To add to my banking woes, I've ended up with shares in the Lloyds Group which are losing value at such a rate that I seriously think I'll just set fire to the share certificates as they're hardly worth the paper they're written on now.  Like many people, I originally acquired Halifax shares free because my mortgage was with the Leeds Building Society (taken over by Halifax) in 1997.  (Halifax subsequently merged with Bank of Scotland, not to be confused with the Royal Bank of Scotland, almost collapsed in October and were bailed out by Lloyds bank to become Lloyds Group.) Loads of people I knew cashed in their shares immediately in 1997 and used the money for exotic holidays or home improvements.  Prudent me thought I'd just hold on to them and for many years felt I'd done the right thing.  If only I'd had a crystal ball and could have seen the future I'd have cashed them in a couple of years ago when they were somewhere around the £10.00 per share mark.  Today they are at 49p each - b*gger!

Comments

[Caroline]

Don't worry, Elizabeth. I've got Halifax shares too (or whatever they are now), just keep hanging on - I'm sure they'll go back up eventually! And if not, well, what I never really had, I'll not miss!

[French Knots]

I thinkyou are right, they are all as bad as each other and the days of any type of customer service are long gone in the era of outsourced call centres.

[Wendy]

I was so upset for you about the bank and your money. You must have been out of your mind with worry as once you get into their system, which says only they are right,(like 'computer says no' in Little Britain) it must have seemed never-ending. Hope that you get on okay with the new bank.