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NatWest in 'MoneySense' shocker...

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  • Blah99
    Blah99 Posts: 486 Forumite
    Myrmidon_J wrote: »
    I have no problem with this at all. The people you see are evidently professionals and understand the nature of their line of work.

    However, I would feel rather cheesed off if I was (effectively) paying for this service to be offered by untrained 'MoneySense' advisers, which I take it your chaps aren't!

    Yep, they're definitely not the untrained advisors. However it's worth noting that I pay a £200 (or something, can't remember exact amount) yearly subscription to have a private banking account. It comes with some benefits (legal advice, free travel insurance, concierge service, the usual rubbish), but the subscription means the advice & service I get is "less free" than the in-branch advisors. I'm happy to pay it because I find it useful being able to call my account manager and get him to do stuff/fix problems that I'd normally have to make an appointment and sit in a branch for, but it's worth bearing in mind.
    Mmmm, credit crunch. Tasty.
  • I still cant get over the fact that they only have 8 hours training.
    atypical wrote: »
    A customer kept even for only a year because of it would be worth the ~£7 (?) spent on wages surely.
    Is that all they're paid a year? :eek: ;)
    You've never seen me, but I've been here all along - watching and learning...:cool:
  • sons_2
    sons_2 Posts: 97 Forumite
    Have to say this thread proves a point to me, Financial Advisers have to state they are FA's in their sig, I also think that people commenting on an organisation should have to state they work for that organisation before giving thier massively biased opinion.
    I am a Financial Adviser.

    Anything posted on this forum is for discussion purposes only. It should not be considered financial advice. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser who can advise you after finding out more about your situation.

  • The fact that 60% of the advisors (from a not particularly robust sample of 5) provided free and impartial advice suggests that this is a case of poor training or implementation on a branch level rather than an "evil scheme" by head office.

    Can you imagine the outcry if IFAs and other financial services professionals had a success rate of just 60% - or, to put it another way, if they were somehow corrupt in 40% of cases?

    Some regulars on this site would have a field day if the figure was just 10%!
    sons wrote:

    Have to say this thread proves a point to me, Financial Advisers have to state they are FA's in their sig, I also think that people commenting on an organisation should have to state they work for that organisation before giving thier massively biased opinion.

    I completely agree. :)
    For the avoidance of doubt: I work for an IFA.
  • Myrmidon_J wrote: »
    Can you imagine the outcry if IFAs and other financial services professionals had a success rate of just 60% - or, to put it another way, if they were somehow corrupt in 40% of cases?

    Some regulars on this site would have a field day if the figure was just 10%!

    That's not really the point I was making - I was pointing out that rather than being an 'evil banks' scheme to trick people, it's more likely down to bad training. Is it implemented badly? Perhaps. Is it a scheme from head office to flog more Natwest products? I doubt it.
    sons wrote:
    Have to say this thread proves a point to me, Financial Advisers have to state they are FA's in their sig, I also think that people commenting on an organisation should have to state they work for that organisation before giving thier massively biased opinion.

    Not sure who you are directing this at, but being a dissenting voice doesn't count as a massively biased opinion. Everyone else in this thread is smugly chuckling about the 'evil banks being evil' which is just rather simplistic and banal.

    For the record, I don't work for Natwest and don't work in finance at all. I just find some of the posts in this thread rather tedious.

    "LOL BANKS TALKING ABOUT BEING SENSIBLE :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:"

    Give it a rest.
  • Inactive
    Inactive Posts: 14,509 Forumite
    That's not really the point I was making - I was pointing out that rather than being an 'evil banks' scheme to trick people, it's more likely down to bad training. Is it implemented badly? Perhaps. Is it a scheme from head office to flog more Natwest products? I doubt it.



    I still find it somewhat ironic that Natwest, part of RBS, the bank with the worst track record for mis-managing it's own financial affairs in the UK, are employing staff to specifically help customers and no doubt potential customers with advice on how to run their financial affairs.

    Clearly they cannot even get this basic task right.:rolleyes:
  • sons_2
    sons_2 Posts: 97 Forumite



    Not sure who you are directing this at, but being a dissenting voice doesn't count as a massively biased opinion. Everyone else in this thread is smugly chuckling about the 'evil banks being evil' which is just rather simplistic and banal.

    For the record, I don't work for Natwest and don't work in finance at all. I just find some of the posts in this thread rather tedious.
    .
    It wasn't aimed at you, my point is that willo has come on this thread and been agressively pro Natwest and left a few people thinking that they work for Natwest. My point is if you are going to do something like this it should have something in their sig saying they work for the company and their view is not the view of that company. Like us Financial adviser have to do. It would make sense and be a little more reasonable.
    I am a Financial Adviser.

    Anything posted on this forum is for discussion purposes only. It should not be considered financial advice. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser who can advise you after finding out more about your situation.
  • Blah99
    Blah99 Posts: 486 Forumite
    Inactive wrote: »
    I still find it somewhat ironic that Natwest, part of RBS, the bank with the worst track record for mis-managing it's own financial affairs in the UK, are employing staff to specifically help customers and no doubt potential customers with advice on how to run their financial affairs.

    Clearly they cannot even get this basic task right.:rolleyes:

    I think that's a bit of a cynical view. You can absolutely guarantee that none of the retail-service focused financial advisors, fund managers or whatever had a single thing to do with management of the RBS Group's finances. I'd be seriously scared if Trisha at the Bognor Regis Travel Money counter was co-ordinating CDOs for the group ;)

    It's perfectly possible for a good company with good staff to fail due to upper management failures - Enron is a perfect example.

    I don't work for NatWest, I'm just a customer.
    Mmmm, credit crunch. Tasty.
  • willo65
    willo65 Posts: 1,012 Forumite
    Added a Sig so you all know that I am biased in my posts.....
  • Myrmidon_J
    Myrmidon_J Posts: 287 Forumite
    Update:
    Which? challenges impartiality of NatWest's MoneySense service

    ...

    The new study by Which? found that just four out of 20 MoneySense sessions attended by researchers provided the imp!artial information advertised, without any attempt either at or after the meeting to interest the customer in NatWest products.

    During six of the visits, Which? says the adviser spoke exclusively about NatWest products and in two of these, there was no mention of shopping around.

    In the other 10 visits, the researcher was passed on to a customer service adviser or the MoneySense adviser ended the session and went on to speak exclusively about NatWest products.
    Full story:

    http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=185838&d=340&h=341&f=342&nl=MM_BN&dep=webops&dte=060509

    Yet more evidence (as if it were needed) of institutional corruption on the high street.

    Cue outrage; cue trolling. :p

    I was pointing out that rather than being an 'evil banks' scheme to trick people, it's more likely down to bad training. Is it implemented badly? Perhaps. Is it a scheme from head office to flog more Natwest products? I doubt it.

    Whilst I am not of the tin foil hat wearing, conspiracy theorising, che guevara worshipping persuasion, I would respectfully suggest that there is more to this than "bad training".

    In its marketing materials, NatWest describes the service as “completely focused on helpful guidance” and “not linked to endorsing or selling products”.
    ... and yet, this was the outcome in just four of 20 cases. Is it more likely that 80% of MoneySense 'advisers' have been poorly trained, or that the proposition itself is shaky? If it is, in fact, the case that 80% of 'advisers' are poorly trained and are specatulcarly failing to implement NatWest's altruistic aims and objectives, surely the bank itself should step in to restore its 'good' name?

    Again, I'd point out that if IFAs were found to be offering genuine, impartial advice in just 20% of cases sampled, the profession would be utterly finished - and several members of this board would have a field day.

    Why is it that the regulator is so obsessed with chasing and persecuting IFAs, when banks are permitted to act as irresponsibly as this, on such as scale?

    (And why are we still subjected to those awful adverts?)
    For the avoidance of doubt: I work for an IFA.
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