Child & Co Bankers ?

Hi there @taccy

Interesting quandary re. Coutts -v- Child. In case helpful background, whilst I would qualify for Private banking at Childs due to income, I spoke to Coutts to satisfy my curiosity and was promptly dismissed I was then advised, with a whiff of condescention, that I might be better suited to Childs. The point being, one account / bank clearly (at least in the view of Coutts' staff) is not interchangeable for the other....

I agree with all @Marchitello said - in short, you are getting an RBS account, even if you qualify for the "Black Private" account. Having spoken to someone at Childs recently, they then sent me all of their marketing material and accounts information. What's so interesting is that none of the accounts related documentation bears any Childs branding. It's all RBS. The only Childs specific stuff I received was a brochure about its history and about the refurb at Fleet Street. I am, concurrently, speaking to Drummonds and I am awaiting their printed info and will update.

However, as @AlexPF notes below, RBS is currently undergoing some fairly radical changes. This can already be seen on RBS' main website: [sorry, I'm not allowed to paste links yet] where Childs, Drummonds, Holts and Coutts are split out as distinct brands but lumped together as private banking brands. This may indeed be the beginning of a big change that would mean that each of the brands above really does reclaim an individual identity and the odd hybrid pack of info I received will be a thing of the past. However, only time will tell. The other key point to note is that whilst on the main RBS website Childs, Drummonds and Coutts are all listed together, Coutts does have its own banking licence from the UK regulators. That is very valuable and even when a private bank is acquired by a big group, they almost never want to lose the additional licence (Cater Allen is the same).

So, to cut to it, Coutts is still, in the current world, quite distinct from RBS more generally and difficult to 'get in' to. I can't imagine Coutts sending you info about its accounts that are RBS branded?! Maybe Childs will become the same with time. However what is almost guaranteed is that the Coutts brand will remain strong and distinct. As such it's really down to you as to whether the £1k per year (which does seem high) is worth it. However, to get the RBS Black Private Childs account is £28 per month. Still vastly cheaper but not free! Finally, a close friend of mine also banks with Coutts and is relatively unimpressed. But I think that's because she too, like you, is fairly on top of things and so just does her online banking without needing the more bespoke services. However I do tease her that despite that I think she'd be a bit shocked if she didn't have at least the option of speaking to someone helpful, immediately should something go wrong

Seems like we are starting to see some of the changes to RBS brands already.



I like this new design! Holt's is following a similar path to Childs.

Hopefully they will strip the RBS logo from the Drummonds debit card as well, not a fan.
I really appreciate that the "accessible" design is by default now.

starM wrote: »

How can I open up a Child & co personal account?

Thinking to apply for one.

Go to the RBS site, apple for a normal current account, near the end of the application, you will be asked to select a branch. At this point select Fleet Street.

Depending on an internal RBS score, you may be given a Child branded debit card. If not, it will be a normal RBS one.

It's to insert the card from the right side, useful if your eyesight is not the best (or, I'd say, if you are drunk on a night out )