Sticking with Natwest?

cpj1987

Alright then, my turn to jump on in with a Natwest question....

I'm very happy with Natwest. I've been messed around by banks before, and I can definitely live through this 'crisis'.

However, whilst one day was fine, I'm worrying about the long-term impact now things are going on until at least Monday.

I know nothing about this, so it's a basic question...if all the people who say they're leaving DO leave, what does that mean for Natwest? Are they on the way down, and should I jump ship as well? Or will Natwest recover from this?

Sailmakers

Shatwest have just made an absolute mess but they're not in trouble. you can stay , you can go. What have they ever given for your loyalty?

cpj1987

Good customer service. I've been with banks that have treated me badly in the past, and I appreciate Natwest for just...existing normally. They've done nothing exceptional, but I've never faced any problems with my day-to-day banking until now. Just having a bank account that sits there quietly and does what it should is enough for me.

If this is a one-off incident I'd like to stick with what I know, but I don't want to find out that hundreds of people leaving after this fiasco will put them in a mess and put my money at risk.

Sailmakers

As long as you don't have over 85k with them you are ok

cpj1987

Most definitely not!

premiere

I have personal accounts with Halifax and Natwest.

My business account is with Natwest but that is being sold to Santander (eek!). That's the one I am going to move. Not because of the technical balls up but because of the thought of Santander!

Gentoo365

I think that as said above people would be willing to understand that these types of things can happen.

The judgement will be made by how Natwest (or RBS) deal with the aftermath.

While most complaints and requests for compensation will be valid, some will be either without value or even fraudulent.

RBS will need to treat it's customers with absolute respect while processing their refunds, compensation and complaints.

The people who feel that they have been treated fairly will stay. They may even become more loyal, as they know that their bank has handled a challenge well.

The people who feel that they have been treated unfairly, or without respect will leave.

Especially with banks such as First Direct and Santander offering signing up bonuses.

The possible worry really is with the 'new' banks. Metro Bank, M&S Bank, Tesco Bank, Virgin Bank, Project Verde etc.

With the dependency people have now on banking people will look at the size of a bank and it's capability before trusting it with their money.

One thing I would say is that one lesson learnt is that it is always worth having a 'spare' account somewhere with emergency cash in it. Especially people that do not have credit cards.

Gone a bit off topic (sorry)

cpj1987

Gentoo365 wrote: »

.

Thanks for your detailed response. Very true, and it has made me re-think. I've always been the kind of person to keep all my accounts in one place. I'm very detailed with my money and budgeting and liked having access to everything at once. This has made me re-think and sign up to an instant access savings account elsewhere, but I wanted to be sure I wasn't going to see Natwest fail miserably when everyone left.

I still can't fault Natwest beyond my slight disappointment at seeing automatic Tweeting going on today, so I want to just be sure that my account is safe and I'm not going to face a panicked switch-over later in the year, risking some direct debits not being transferred and the like.:beer:

coldhandoff

In spite of all the negative things I hear about the bank on a daily basis, and the fact I work for Natwest, I've still never had one problem in all the years i've been with them.

AdamJK_2

To be honest it's a one-off incident that could hit any back given the complexity and sheer volume of traffic on their systems. Anyone beating the drum and calling for heads to be lost is over-reacting in my opinion.

I personally think that the one lesson to take away from this is to diversify your finances a tad and try to have two accounts with different institutions (i.e. different banking groups - not brands). There's no penalty to having two current accounts so it makes sense to reduce the risk of falling foul of one of these errors.

Macca83_2

Id like to hope that people would appreciate the sterling job that frontline RBS/Natwest staff are doing to try and make this as painless as possible for their customers. Yes things do go wrong, but its how the problem is dealt with that really makes the difference. Hats off to the girls at my local RBS