is Halifax business model racist? [Title edited by MSE Forum Team]

opinions4u

beecher2 wrote: »

I'm pretty sure there were Bank of Scotland branches in England

There are. Not many (and they may no longer exist), but these are focused on business banking, not personal banking. I think they opened a strange hybrid branch in the City of London in 2006 which served Halifax retail customers and BoS corporate ones. But it was on its own.

there were certainly plenty of Halifax branches in Scotland

Yup. HBOS moved to a dual-branding approach and over the last couple of years, since LBG was formed, the "X" has been gradually removed leaving Bank of Scotland branches without the Halifax name.

I think there should be a Halifax in Edinburgh at the very least.

The great and the good of Lloyds Banking Group seem to think otherwise!

I do think Bank of Scotland is the right brand to use in Scotland. But there appears to be a gradual progression towards a Lloyds TSB product range, away from the Halifax product range. I'm not convinced that this is the right way forwards, as this and other threads highlight. Especially when it comes to Kids Regular Saver (which needs replicating in BoS and should be supported by telephone and online and also reintroduce the auto-rollover system on maturity that saved us all so much effort. Oh, and allow multiple accounts where there's a different adult trustee named).

EarthBoy

beecher2 wrote: »

I'm pretty sure there were Bank of Scotland branches in England - there were certainly plenty of Halifax branches in Scotland. There's a BoS branch in London - I think there should be a Halifax in Edinburgh at the very least.

The only Bank of Scotland branch I can find listed on their website is in London. The only Halifax office listed is in Edinburgh, but that doesn't give any opening hours and seems to be a clearing centre, rather than a branch.

Before Lloyds took over HBOS, the management had a policy of merging Halifax and Bank of Scotland. The accounts were all the same and many branches were dual branded, i.e. had both names outside. A special Act of Parliament was passed to dissolve Halifax as a legal entity in its own right, and turn it into a trading division of Bank of Scotland.

Lloyds Banking group have completely reversed this policy. Halifax is still a trading division of Bank of Scotland because, presumably, another Act of Parliament would be required to reverse the merger. But, they now offer different product ranges. Lloyds' stated policy is that Bank of Scotland will be their representative brand north of the border, and the BoS account range is similar to Lloyds' accounts, rather than Halifax's accounts.

atush

jennifernil wrote: »

The problem is that this is the best children's regular saver around, and, certainly as far as I am concerned, there was no info given out in advance of these changes. Even many staff in branches and in call centres are not well informed.

If this was some small local BS, then fair enough, but Halifax has been a nationwide BS/bank for a very long time.

The solution is easy, BOS should be offering a similar account, or Halifax should accept postal applications.

If the account had been in BOS's portfolio previously, and was now unavailable to anyone who could not visit a BOS branch, I can imagine the outcry.

You cannot compare this to the situation with uni fees or prescriptions, that's politics. We are talking about a bank account, one that encourages people to put money by each month for their children.

I completely do agree that you can't compare bank acct provision with student fees- but the student fees are racist and the bank accts aren't- merely a break up into national/geograpical institutions of a conglomerate that should never have been made. And those of us who are not scottish did not hoist the racist flag- remember that.

I agree that some better communication was in order (what you experienced was appalling) and that provison should be made for appropriate offerings in each/all areas.

It is ridiculous to bring up racism in a country that actively practises racism on others.

beecher2

atush wrote: »

I completely do agree that you can't compare bank acct provision with student fees- but the student fees are racist and the bank accts aren't- merely a break up into national/geograpical institutions of a conglomerate that should never have been made. And those of us who are not scottish did not hoist the racist flag- remember that.

I agree that some better commication was in order (what you experienced was appaling) and that provison should be made for appropriate offerings in each/all areas.

It is ridiculous to bring up racism in a country that actively practises racism on others.

Neither is racist. The student fees issue is completely irrelevant to this issue, but if I were a student domiciled in England, I'd be angry with Westminster rather than Holyrood.

atush

You cannot say neither is racist. Either the English are being persecuted by the Holyrood or they are not. But I'll let the court in brussels tell me, not you. I beleive they are, and I am not english.

As far as the banks go, the scottish ones failed. And England is bailing along with the rest (and maybe more so). Lloyds failed only because Gordon talked them into the worst deal of their lives to rescue a failed scottish bank.

I do feel that there should have been better communication and better syncing of current and past offers for Scottish halifax customers. This was handled very poorly. I am right behind you or I was, until you hoisted the racist flag. Was a pill I wasn't willing to swallow.

AS far as student fees go, wake up and smell the coffee. Wait til the brussles ruling comes in. You'll be paying in spades incl past compensation.

beecher2

atush wrote: »

You cannot say neither is racist. Either the English are being persecuted by the Holyrood or they are not. But I'll let the court in brussels tell me, not you. I beleive they are, and I am not english.

As far as the banks go, the scottish ones failed. And England is bailing along with the rest (and maybe more so). Lloyds failed only because Gordon talked them into the worst deal of their lives to rescue a failed scottish bank.

I do feel that there should have been better communication and better syncing of current and past offers for Scottish halifax customers. This was handled very poorly. I am right behind you or I was, until you hoisted the racist flag. Was a pill I wasn't willing to swallow.

AS far as student fees go, wake up and smell the coffee. Wait til the brussles ruling comes in. You'll be paying in spades incl past compensation.

Very silly argument. A Scottish person who has been domiciled in England will pay fees, while an English person who has been domiciled in Scotland will not. As I said, neither issue is an issue which has anything to do with race, or even nationality (you seem to have the two mixed up), but instead they are down to domicile, or place of residence.

atush

I am not silly, and you are an !!! for saying so.

I did not raise race or nationality here (nor domicile) but was countering the arguments of others who have. I have not mixed up anything, only said that the OP was racist in their own racist blatherings.

I was going on the BBC argument that scottish students domiciled in the the UK outside of scotland would still get free tuition. Don't know if I should beleive you or them. At least they are publicly accountable. What I do know is that the scottish wikll not charge other EU menbers citizens, which is clearly a breach in ewuality laws and perhaps human rights legislation and I look forwards to it coming to court and for Holyrood to have to acknowledge their mistake/prejudice.

What I do know and is plain for any to see here by reading back is that the Scottish here raised the racist/nationalist flag in this discussion- not me. And should be hoist by their own petard in doing so.

I backed up the fact that the inefficent and flawed seperation of H and BOS has been stupidly and badly handled and has not been equal. but never was racist and should not have been portrayed so.

jennifernil

atush wrote: »

I completely do agree that you can't compare bank acct provision with student fees- but the student fees are racist and the bank accts aren't- merely a break up into national/geograpical institutions of a conglomerate that should never have been made. And those of us who are not scottish did not hoist the racist flag- remember that.

I agree that some better communication was in order (what you experienced was appalling) and that provison should be made for appropriate offerings in each/all areas.

It is ridiculous to bring up racism in a country that actively practises racism on others.

I did not mention racism.

As I understand it, the Scottish government did not want to provide free tuition for anyone other than Scottish residents, but were forced by the EU to allow students from other EU counties to have free tuition.

If it was free in Scotland for absolutely everyone, and £9k in England, we would be overwhelmed by fee refugees from England. All that would happen then is that the free tuition would have to be withdrawn entirely.

What is the situation in Wales? Does the Welsh Assembly not pay, or cap, fees for Welsh residents?

There are other differences for students up here too.....lower loans, lower cut off point on parental income for bursaries etc.

I think that higher education in all of UK should be free to UK citizens, but that we should have far fewer students in universities. Some "degrees" these days are not worth the paper they are written on..........but that is a discussion for a different time and place.

beecher2

atush wrote: »

I was going on the BBC argument that scottish students domiciled in the the UK outside of scotland would still get free tuition. Don't know if I should beleive you or them. .

Source please because you have clearly misunderstood the Scottish system. It would indeed be discriminatory if the situation you describe was the one used but it is based on domicile and not place of birth. Granted it is not helped by the media using shortcuts such as 'the Scots' and 'the English' but it is worth remembering that the Scottish Parliament represents those who live in Scotland, not those who happened to be born here.

jem16

longleggedhair wrote: »

My god it sounds like a quote from another deluded Labour politician, is that you Prescot???

Truth hurts then?

However seems an odd choice to use a Welsh born Westminster MP to try and score a point.