So-called Current Account "Reviews"

theclaud

Would like to hear from other (frequently overdrawn) people who have been called in to their branch for a so-called "review" of their account. My bank (NatWest) claimed they are now obliged to conduct these sessions as directed by the FSA, ostensibly to help customers better understand their finances and the options open to them. As it turned out, mine was a barely-disguised attempt to sell me unnecessary and indeed ill-advised financial products.

The bank manager runs a specially-designed computer program into which your answers (or her sometimes fanciful interpretations of them) are entered. A sample is "are you confident you will be comfortable in your retirement?". Needless to say there is no opportunity in these sessions for a political/economic analysis of the reasons so few of us can be confident in such a thing. The upshot of it all was that I (about £9K in debt excluding student loans and currently earning less than £15K) was recommended an Advantage Gold account, life insurance, a pension plan, a savings account and (this is the best bit) a loan of £9K with interest and insurance that would cost £14K in total. As I now make NO major financial decisions without consulting MSE, I of course refused all of it, but a more impressionable or ill-informed person could well have walked out in substantially worse financial trouble than they were in before, and (to add insult to injury) lost an hour of their time to Nat West into the bargain. Am I the only one who is furious about this?

double_d77

Very true they are a waste of my time and they as you say only try to sell you products you dont want or worse cant afford!!!

When they phone me to make a new session of how to screw more money out you then I just say things are fine thanks bye!

But now when I go into a branch they say 'oh you haven;t had a review for a while' My reply yes I know, I dont need anymore debt!!

I'd avoid going to any of them unless they are giving FREE money out!

Dave

asandwhen

I had a nice telephone call the other day (while asleep after a night shift) from Lloydstsb saying that I needed a review of my account - I answered "I review my account every day thank you very much".

johnmoney05

Thank you every one info. If next time they call me, I might tell them "well, my GF/BF is financial advisor, so I normally go for her/him for advice. And my father is a lawyer, he insists any major decision has to sort his advice. So if possible, I might need to arrange a meeting with all of us at one time. Say, how about 3 months later on a sunday?"

Just wondering if they will close my account.....

hobo28

Just a sales pitch. I simply refuse to go.

JohalaReewi

I agree about these so called 'reviews' being a sales pitch. However, a long time ago mind you, I had such a review and found out that the bank had introduced a new current account with more interest, a free overdraft buffer and lower overdraft interest rates at no cost to me. This account was not being advertised and was only offered at a review. So sometimes it is worth turning up.