I'm a pretty happy customer! (Natwest Bank)

Member Name: dippykitty

Product:	Natwest Bank
Date:	11/06/09 (190 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Convenient to check balance by telephone or internet, haven't had any major problems in five years

Disadvantages: Frequently pestered about review meetings, online banking temporarily disabled telephone banking

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I'm adding a note in here as some of you may recognise this review from a couple of months ago and may think that I'm trying to post the same review twice. This review was previously in the wrong section (I put it in the online banking section for Natwest instead of here). As a result, I'm adding this review here and am writing a new review on the actual online banking section of Natwest where this wrongly categorised review previously was.
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I've been banking with Natwest for around five years now. When I wanted to open my own bank account in my teens, I went with the bank that my parents had accounts with. I don't have any accounts with any other banks, so all of my banking is done with Natwest. I currently use in-person, telephone and online banking to manage my accounts, so I will be covering each of these areas within this review.

***Current Accounts****

I have the bog standard current account, which is free. I usually keep less than £500 in this account for everyday spending, and transfer the rest to my ISA or other savings accounts. Even back when interest rates were higher than they are now, I would usually only get pennies every month so it isn't a great account if you're hoping to top up your money with some interest. This isn't really the intention of current accounts though. The current account has a Maestro cash card (previously a Solo card) which allows you to withdraw money from ATM machines around the country. I only tend to use Natwest ATM machines, but I think that you can withdraw cash from other banks' ATM machines too. You can also use the card to pay for purchases at shops that accepts Maestro cards.

If you want to pay extra every month, you can get an Advantage Gold current account. When I was approached about upgrading my account to this on one of my trips to pay money into my account, this cost would have cost me around £12.95 per month. For this, you get all kinds of extras including mobile phone insurance. Whenever I go into my local branch to pay in cheques, cash or loose change, I am always asked if I want to have a review meeting with one of the staff so it seems that they are quite keen to encourage customers who haven't upgraded.

***ISAs****

An ISA is an Individual Savings Account that you can pay £3600 into during a single tax year and not be taxed on the interest. I opened my ISA two years ago and always make a point of adding any extra money into this (rather than one of my other savings accounts) due to the tax free advantage. Opening the account was very simple. I applied online and was called back later in the day by someone from Natwest, who took my details and then sent out paperwork for me to fill in and sign. You can open an ISA with a balance of just £1, which you can have transferred from your current account. To open a Natwest ISA, you need to already have a current account with Natwest.

***Visiting a Branch****

Whenever I go into my local branch, there is usually quite a considerable queue. On average, I would say that I probably wait for around five to ten minutes for my turn, and this seems pretty good considering how long the queues can sometimes be at other banks (or so I read!). At my other local branch, the queues are longer than this and it can take up to half an hour to be served, so it probably does depend on the branch in question.

The cashiers tend to be quite friendly at my branch, and the customer service desk is helpful on the occasions that I have had to deal with them for queries. One of my main gripes is the fact that I am almost always encouraged to have an on-the-spot review meeting about my account. As my account is healthy, I find this quite annoying as it usually turns into an opportunity to try to persuade me to upgrade my current account or transfer surplus cash to one of their other savings accounts.

***Telephone Banking***

Natwest have an Actionline service, which is part of their basic customer service package. When you phone the number, you can manage your account via the telephone. This allows me to check the balance of my current account and ISA, along with the option of transferring money between those accounts and pay bills. I used to have a Savings Direct account that I couldn't manage using this service so it seems that not all accounts are accessible on the Actionline service. If a particular account isn't accessible, you can phone up and actually speak to someone to get your transactions done. This is still fairly quick as you usually get through more or less straight away, although it isn't quite as convenient as the Actionline service as that just involves keying in account details and numbers when requested.

***Online Banking***

I signed up for online banking a couple of months ago as I like the option of being able to check my balance whenever I want to. Logging in allows you to do this, carry out transfers between all of your accounts and manage bills and direct debits. This seems to include all of your accounts, as it included my Savings Direct account before I closed it. One disadvantage of online banking for me was the fact that signing up for it actually stopped me being able to use the Actionline service as I hadn't realised that I need to order the Card Reader and activate that first. Once this is done, I'm presuming that the "activation" for Actionline also becomes complete but I haven't had chance to test this yet.

The Card Reader is designed to increase your security, especially if you are going to be using online banking to pay bills. It requires you to put your card into the Card Reader and enter your PIN number before you can carry out the transaction. For added security, you can also download Natwest's Rapport, which is supposed to make it more difficult for your account to be hacked. Rapport can also protect other websites (particularly passwords and log-in details) as well as your online banking.

***Investments***

I had filled my ISA earlier this year and had surplus cash that I wanted to put somewhere rather than wait for the new tax year to begin. After consulting with one of Natwest's financial advisors, I decided to put this money into a savings bond. This is designed to be a long-term investment as you would lose money if you were to withdraw money within the first year of the investment. As it is an investment, there is the potential to lose money but this is likely to even out over several years or longer. My savings bond is actually with Norwich Union, even though I took it out through Natwest. You get statements updating you on the status of your savings bond every six months or so.

Summary: Overall, a good bank that hasn't caused me any financial grief!