After maintaining a joint bank account for an impressive 46 years, my spouse Tricia recently received a concerning notification from NatWest. They demanded that she visit a nearby branch with either her passport or driving license to undergo an identity check. Failure to comply would result in her being locked out of the joint account.
The issue, however, was that our local NatWest branch in South West London has been closed for the past couple of years. In fact, it has been replaced by a Pilates studio. This closure is not unusual, as other major banks such as Barclays and HSBC have also vanished from the area. Even the local building societies have gone extinct.
Given that my wife is registered disabled, it was a significant inconvenience for her to drive to Richmond town center to present her papers, especially considering the dreadful parking situation there. Nevertheless, she managed to make it to the branch just in time, only to discover that there was a discrepancy in her date of birth that needed correction.
It is perplexing how this issue, which had lain dormant for several decades, suddenly became a problem in 2023 without any explanation.
The closure of bank branches has become an enormous inconvenience for older customers, individuals with health challenges, and even sole traders who still rely on cash transactions. Since 2015, a staggering 5,699 branches have been axed, and this trend shows no signs of stopping. NatWest recently announced the closure of 36 more branches, further exacerbating the situation.
Bad service: The customer, the main source of banks’ income, is ranked well behind shareholders, executives and other stakeholders in a self-serving system
Banks take advantage of customer inertia to profit at our expense by offering meager interest rates to savers even when interest rates are rising. Unfortunately, the customer, who is the primary source of their income, is not given priority and is instead ranked lower than shareholders, executives, and other stakeholders in a self-serving system.
Banks used to prioritize customer service, but over time, they have lost their way. I can still vividly recall a visit to my father’s National Provincial bank manager on North Street in Brighton, the branch which later became NatWest after a merger. The bank manager greeted us like old friends, personally set up my account as a young 17-year-old, and even offered us tea and biscuits during the process.
However, our current experiences with NatWest are vastly different. Despite paying a monthly fee of £31 for a Premier account, our personal dealings with the bank are almost non-existent and often shrouded in mystery. The sudden demand for my wife’s credentials after four decades of being a customer and the bizarre security check request I received earlier this year are clear examples of this deteriorating customer experience.
Moreover, NatWest seems more interested in monitoring and mining our financial activities for its own gain rather than offering quality financial services. Several years ago, they stopped providing stock broking services and ceased offering safe custody for important documents. Even forex services have been significantly reduced, causing longer wait times for those in need.
When it comes to online services, reliability can be an issue. A recent incident involved a payment I made to a colleague’s NatWest account. While my online account showed the funds leaving, the money disappeared from my colleague’s account as quickly as it arrived. It took numerous phone calls and 24 hours to resolve the issue, as we had to navigate through a maze of computer-activated voice prompts. Even the online representative, Cora, seemed baffled by the situation.
Nowadays, if I want to conduct a personal transaction, I have to visit our local sub-post office, which is often difficult to access due to the abundance of returned parcels from online retailers like Amazon and M&S. The only remaining free ATM on our high street is located at the post office, resulting in long queues. The disappearance of banks from our local communities is disheartening, leaving behind only coffee shops, exercise studios, and hairdressing salons. There is an opportunity for banks like Metro Bank or Handelsbanken to fill this void and provide quality banking services to the community.
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