How can a bank be so incompetent?! (Natwest Bank)

Member Name: carlz2001uk

Product:	Natwest Bank
Date:	11/11/09 (101 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Absolutely none whatsoever

Disadvantages: Too many to list.

As far as Banks go, Natwest is pretty much as bad as the rest of them. Our experience with Natwest has been pretty appalling for a variety of reasons, so rather than explain all the services which they offer (which 99% of the time are exactly the same as every other bank), I'm going to highlight the problems we have had with them so you can judge for yourself whether or not they are worthy of looking after your hard earned dosh.

We have held our bank account with Natwest jointly for six years and my husband has banked with them for over 15 years. After we fell pregnant with our first child whilst starting to get a new business off the ground, we fell into financial difficulty and struggled with our every day finances. This was a terryfing time for us as a new family, and we thought our bank would be able to offer friendly help and advise about what we should do to try and get ourselves out of the mess we were in. However this was not the case, and although they provided us with an informal chat about how to reduce any outgoings we had, they were unwilling to stop charging us the extortionate rates they were applying to our account. We were not being unreasonable, we simply asked for three months of no charges to be able to give us breathing space, however the charges they applied were just pushing us deeper in. We have since found out that they were actually in the wrong as we had declared hardship but they still didn't help, in fact they offered us a loan!!!! "Yes of course Mr Banker, that's really going to help us in the long run!!"

The next problem we had with them was after the birth of our second daughter, when for some very strange reason we decided to open her savings account with them. We took along her birth certificate and all the relevant documentation to our local branch and tried to open the account, but were told if we left everything they would do it for us, and post us the account number. Fab, we had a two year old and a newborn baby, so this was great..... Until we got the documentation. My youngest daughters name is Isabelle May, but her bank statement said she was Isabelle Kevin!!!!! My husbands middle name! How could they possibly get this wrong?! We had filled in all of the application form correctly and they even had a copy of the birth certificate! I complained in writing to the bank manager and didn't even receive a reply. Thats what you call service.

The next problem we had was only a few weeks ago. My husband has his bank account with Natwest, and we also hold our joint account with them. My husbands card for his single account had stopped working at the chip and pin service as it was getting old, so we went into our branch to order him a new one. 5 working days was the time we were told to wait, which was fine, we could manage without for a few days. 3 days after ordering his card (for his single account may I add!), I was in Morrisons paying for my weekly shop when I was told my card had been cancelled. I was asked for another form of payment, but I didn't have any on me, so had to leave my shopping which had taken me over an hour to put in my trolley. Totally flustered, and embarrassed to say the least, I made my way to my branch to find out why it had been cancelled. I knew for a fact there was more than enough to cover the transaction, so really was bewildered. I was told that my old card had been cancelled to replace my new one (in quite an abrupt 'silly woman' kind of tone)!!!! So let's get this right, my husband orders a card for his single account, they cancel mine for the joint one and order me a new one! Absolutely unbelievable. When I told the woman behind the counter what had happened, she told me that she would now order my husband a correct card, but that left us with no cards between us for over 6 days due to the weekend. I didn't even receive an apology.

Our finances have changed over the last four years since having our first child, and now we have no debt and the choice to bank with who we want, we have closed all our accounts and are in the process of moving to a competent one.

Rant over.

Bank elsewhere!!!

Summary: Big fat zero stars (only gave it 1 because it didn't let me leave none!)