Natwest, Questions!

dadofdaisy

Hello Everybody!

I have been a Halifax customer for about 8 years with an Easycash account. I have had multiple offers in the past for an account upgrade but have always refused as I never needed a full account. I have since decided that a full account would be beneficial to me so decided to upgrade only to be told "computer says no!". I have always run my account well and have never been charged and have savings (albeit not much) with them.

After that I decided to switch to Natwest.

I applied online for a Select silver in my sole name (which has been opened no problem with verification of I.D online)
I was offered all the accounts apart from the Black..

The same evening I applied for a Select account in Myself and my wifes names to replace the joint account we have for spends with the Halifax. It came back with a successful application message and told me an application pack was in the post.

(Sorry about the long post )

I received the application pack on friday and promptly filled it in ready to return it when I noticed a leaflet reading "opening the account in branch" so I decided to bring all the relevant documents and application into the branch.
After waiting for about 15 minutes to see somebody we finally did, we found her to be very abrupt!
She told us that because our application pack had a letter "D" at the top, it couldn't be opened in branch and proceeded to re-apply there and then. Her attitude then changed towards us acting very polite and asking various personal financial questions about insurance policies etc whilst taking notes.
After assessing our "insurance needs" she finished the current account application, she then told us that we need to switch our Halifax current account or provide a closing statement from Halifax because the FSA don't recommend split banking it was against Natwest's policies to open a new account where the customer had an account already with a different institution. (I feel that these are lies)

After all that, All she could offer was the Basic account or the Select Silver credit restricted version!!
I asked her to proof our documents and send them anyway with the original application....

Since, I have done a new application online (not to the end though) and it offered us all the accounts again besides the Black...

Can anyone shed any light on this for me please?

Thanks for taking your time to help!

Sorry for the long and poorly constructed post...:rotfl:

madgagoo

Think the adviser you saw could do with some training...

On a sensible note, consider switching the select silver onto the joint account once it is opened. Both of you will then have the benefits but still only pay 1 subscription.

dadofdaisy

Thanks for your reply, Do you know of any reasons why she couldn't open it in branch? And more importantly why I was only offered the basic accounts whilst there?

Thanks again..

pmduk

I had much the same problem. I believe it comes down to branch staff trying to claim the application towards their own target. I ended up just posting the original form to the admin centre. A great deal easier than dealing with their branch staff

madgagoo

I expect it was as the other poster says.

There is no reason that they couldn't complete your application, letter D is rubbish. As for the split banking thing, yes we would Like to be your main bank but AFAIK there is no policy, certainly not from the FSA. As I said above I'll (optimistically?) put your experience down to a lack of training.

As for the basic account, I expect down to the information that the adviser put in. Ie she may have put in a lower income than you did on the web, or maybe that you were unemployed when you're not. Did you actually see the screen that offered the accounts? Or did the adviser tell you what options you had?

dadofdaisy

Thanks for the replies!
She did show me the limited accounts I was offered but suspect it was to railroad me into another fee paying account!
I'm really regretting my decision to switch to Natwest!
So, the letter "D" at the top of the form doesn't mean anything then? I was told by her there was a range from A to D....

Thanks again guys!

dadofdaisy

I've just spoken to the accounts opening department and they've never heard of this before either! I'm so angry....

What a great first impression, I'm considering just sticking with the devil I know.

pmduk

They're ok once the account is open. Just beware all the banks incentivise their branch staff so much now that you need to be aware.

lolavix

letter D means the account needs verification, unfortunately not all members of staff know what this means so may not know how to check it off and will rekey instead - have you had any accounts with Natwest before? It normally happens when they already have your details on file and they need to be merged with the new application

dadofdaisy

lolavix wrote: »

letter D means the account needs verification, unfortunately not all members of staff know what this means so may not know how to check it off and will rekey instead - have you had any accounts with Natwest before? It normally happens when they already have your details on file and they need to be merged with the new application

Oh, right. I'm feeling a little bit silly now...:eek:

What's the extra verification? Extra ID etc? And, can it be opened in a branch if they know "how to check it off"?
Could it be that I have a select silver account too?

Thanks

willo65

dadofdaisy wrote: »

Oh, right. I'm feeling a little bit silly now...:eek:

What's the extra verification? Extra ID etc? And, can it be opened in a branch if they know "how to check it off"?
Could it be that I have a select silver account too?

Thanks

It is a 2nd member of staff checking that the application is attributed to the correct customer ID number and that it has been signed by the correct number of people, in your case 2 people. The member of staff you saw wouldn't have been able to progress the application until it had been checked and if they are not aware of this then the only other way would be a second application.

Once it has been checked it can be opened in branch.