What would you like to have from your bank?

ryantcb

I thought I'd attempt to start a thread finding out what people would like from their bank as in services provided and not just free cash.

obviously ill start

1. Manage my money for me, if I have £1,000 in account 'a' and £6 in account 'b' and a direct debit is due out of account 'b' for £7 auto transfer £1 from account 'a' to 'b' to cover it. Or send me a text or phonecall telling me this may happen. Dont just charge me penalty fees.

2. Update my banks own credit card quicker. It can take days to show recent transactions on my online account when it could be instant.

3. Free drop in financial advisor.

noh

ryantcb wrote: »

I thought I'd attempt to start a thread finding out what people would like from their bank as in services provided and not just free cash.

obviously ill start

1. Manage my money for me, if I have £1,000 in account 'a' and £6 in account 'b' and a direct debit is due out of account 'b' for £7 auto transfer £1 from account 'a' to 'b' to cover it. Or send me a text or phonecall telling me this may happen. Dont just charge me penalty fees.

2. Update my banks own credit card quicker. It can take days to show recent transactions on my online account when it could be instant.

3. Free drop in financial advisor.

How much per month would you be prepared to pay for these services £20 - £25?
Or were you expecting them for nothing?

itsgazza_2

More Branch Counters open between 12-2

YorkshireBoy

ryantcb wrote: »

Or send me a text or phonecall telling me this may happen.

Take a look at NatWest's "act now alert" service.

Update my banks own credit card quicker. It can take days to show recent transactions on my online account when it could be instant.

Not necessarily the bank's fault. Other's could be slowing down the process, ie the retailer, their merchant acquirer, the 'system'.

Free drop in financial advisor.

For general, ie budgeting, matters? If so, do NatWest still run their moneysense program in branch?

alanq

If funds are to be automatically instantly moved from an interest bearing account to a current account then in effect you want an interest bearing current account. If you don't need a cheque book there is Coventry First which pays BoE base rate + 0.85% Gross (currently 1.10% ) for one year Thereafter 0.25% or 0.85% depending on the balance.
http://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/current-account/coventry-first/at_a_glance.aspx

noh

alanq wrote: »

If funds are to be automatically instantly moved from an interest bearing account to a current account then in effect you want an interest bearing current account. If you don't need a cheque book there is Coventry First which pays BoE base rate + 0.85% Gross (currently 1.10% ) for one year Thereafter 0.25% or 0.85% depending on the balance.
http://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/current-account/coventry-first/at_a_glance.aspx

Or Lloyds Current account with Vantage that will pay between 1.5% and 3% on up to £5000 depending on the balance. £1000 pm deposit required chequebook available.

http://www.lloydstsb.com/current_accounts/vantage.asp

meer53

Most banks these days offer text messaging alerts.

The time debits take to come through on credit and debit cards are not down to the banks. It's down to when the retailer completes the processing of these transactions. Some take weeks, sometimes months to put them through.

ses6jwg

I expect you want all these extras for free as well?

jfh7gwa

Opening hours to suit my family. On the occasions where I need to go into a branch, it's a total pain in the neck some days - my "home" branch opens either at the time I start work (9am) or an hour after I start work (10am Wednesdays) and closes half an hour before I finish work (5.30pm last time I looked on the branch opening times). Meaning the branch might as well not exist.

The only time I can get to the branch is the Saturday opening hours, closes at 12.30pm - but this means I then have to take a special trip out from it, despite passing it 5 days a week on the way to and from work! madness, not convenient in the slightest when I'm passing it 10x during the week days.

Didn't used to be a problem when I was at home or even when I worked part time, but now that we're both fulltime, it's household chores like going to the bank that all add up and make for a manic Saturday when it needs doing.

So... more flexible opening hours would be fab. Such as a late night opening or something like that. Anything, frankly, that reflects that keeping to the 9-5 and half day Saturday is something that a good chunk of working customers don't find helpful.

lolavix

ryantcb wrote: »

I thought I'd attempt to start a thread finding out what people would like from their bank as in services provided and not just free cash.

obviously ill start

1. Manage my money for me, if I have £1,000 in account 'a' and £6 in account 'b' and a direct debit is due out of account 'b' for £7 auto transfer £1 from account 'a' to 'b' to cover it. Or send me a text or phonecall telling me this may happen. Dont just charge me penalty fees.

Can be done by some banks, although they will charge you for it. They're not there to manage your money for you.

2. Update my banks own credit card quicker. It can take days to show recent transactions on my online account when it could be instant.

Most of the time this is down to the retailer, not the bank. No card transactions show instantly. A debit card may remove available funds, but will still not show on the account immediately.

3. Free drop in financial advisor.

Offered by most of the Natwest larger branches

It does amaze me though how much people want for nothing :rotfl: I really think our banks should start charging for day to day transactions, people may not expect the impossible then :-)

lolavix

jfh7gwa wrote: »

Opening hours to suit my family. On the occasions where I need to go into a branch, it's a total pain in the neck some days - my "home" branch opens either at the time I start work (9am) or an hour after I start work (10am Wednesdays) and closes half an hour before I finish work (5.30pm last time I looked on the branch opening times). Meaning the branch might as well not exist.

The only time I can get to the branch is the Saturday opening hours, closes at 12.30pm - but this means I then have to take a special trip out from it, despite passing it 5 days a week on the way to and from work! madness, not convenient in the slightest when I'm passing it 10x during the week days.

Didn't used to be a problem when I was at home or even when I worked part time, but now that we're both fulltime, it's household chores like going to the bank that all add up and make for a manic Saturday when it needs doing.

So... more flexible opening hours would be fab. Such as a late night opening or something like that. Anything, frankly, that reflects that keeping to the 9-5 and half day Saturday is something that a good chunk of working customers don't find helpful.

MetroBank are open longer hours as far as I know? And the larger Natwest branches are open til 6pm.

Could you not pop in during a lunchtime?

I know it's not ideal, but the people who work there have families to get home to as well, and unfortunately most banks are cutting staff and wouldn't be able to cope with the change in opening hours - there just wouldn't be enough staff to keep running, hence why online services are so good now.