Child & Co Bankers ?

whoevenknows

AlexPF wrote: »

I must say, Child is excellent.
I have a black account with them, which I rate highly. Their branch service is excellent (recently refurbished, beautiful) and my relationship manager is one of the best I've ever dealt with. Everything gets sorted quickly.
The rest is unfortunately RBS, so expect slow transactions update (batch processing during the night) and an average website. However the app is decent.

To answer to the previous enquiry, to get a Drummond card you have to be a private bank client and have an account at their branch. Not many know about the card even within the staff.

Drummonds and Child are sister branches. They share some staff. Holts instead is based in Farnborough and operates on a different model (military bank).


I also bank with Cater Allen (and some others). Their costumer service is awesome, but their online banking is awful. No mobile app. Faster Payments aren't really "faster" (bank giro credits) and take at least one day to appear. They scrapped the deferred element of the debit cards, which was a huge plus for me. The only interesting plus they have is their cash withdrawal limit (£2005 pd).

I suggest Duncan Lawrie as an alternative. Aburthnot Athams if you are a HNWI.

Otherwise the Child&Co (not the RBS) service is awesome or Drummonds if you care about the fancy piece of plastic.. the staff will still be awesome.

Thanks ever so much for this - very helpful! I was worried I was being suckered in to what was a brilliant brand with a great history but which failed to live up to that now. However, based on my limited experience with them already and your comments above, I don't think that's a valid concern.

Pardon my ignorance but is there a difference (even in terms of "glamour") between Drummonds and Child? Does this account for why posters are eager to understand how to get hold of a Drummonds account / branded card? Are they the 'next rung up' i.e. closer to Coutts and Adams than Child? Or is it just a north and south of the border difference, historically ? I'm now wondering if I should pursue a Drummonds account!! Does the Child account not still come with a fairly fancy piece of plastic?!

Also, great info re. Cater Allen although I thought they still offered the deferred Visa Debit.

Re. Arbuthnot Latham - I am defs not a HNWI. However, I reached out to them before I was properly educated and they have been very nice thus far. I was contacted by email personally after a website enquiry and they suggested a face to face meeting, which I'm due to attend next week. Gulp. I have already been honest and told them I don't have any investable assets to bring with me (more typical requirement for true private banking) and the contact said "let's chat in person, I remain open minded and will be honest if we don't think it's the right time to establish a relationship". I'm not holding out much hope that they'll roll out the red carpet, but I do appreciate the straightforward approach. I shall report back.

Finally, and funnily enough, I've already called Duncan Lawrie to enquire about opening an account. I spoke to someone very nice but who was not an accounts opening person. However I have not been called back and I'm disenchanted already.

Thanks again, I'm oddly quite enjoying getting up the curve with this.

whoevenknows

Marchitiello wrote: »

Weatherbys looks to be catering specifically for people involved in horse racing.

If you qualify for premium/private banking from most High Street Banks, I would also look at suitability of equivalent accounts from Barclays, Lloyds and HSBC (which have an attached Premium Credit Card with nice benefits).

Also, if the qualifying criteria are met, have you looked into other proper private banks like Arbuthnot Latham, Brown Shipley, C Hoare & Co and Duncan Lawrie?

Thanks so much for this! Funnily enough though, the more you snoop around re. Weatherbys and their Private / Premier accounts (I qualify for the Premier rather than Private) they are very much trying to attract a broader cohort of customers, particularly City professionals (from the horse's mouth, if you'll pardon the expression!). They have also, thus far, blown me away with just their straightforward responsiveness and friendliness. I am very tempted but can't seem to hang my hat on one provider over another. A final detail that you guys might find interesting is that they do offer "restricted" (i.e. not tied but not fully independent) financial advice and wealth management. Starting from the bottom up too, by which I mean, even if you feel like a financial dunce, they will start you off with simple practical advice to get your every day life as financially efficient as possible but can also offer all the fancy stuff if you become a millionaire overnight And you pay for that service rather than it being linked to commissions etc. Therefore you get a bank and potentially a trustworthy financial advisor, all under one roof. Whereas I think the private banking brands of the bigger banks (e.g. Childs) can only sell or advise on the bigger banking group's products (e.g. RBS).

Also, see my previous reply just now re. Duncan Lawrie and Arbuthnot Latham - I'll report back! Needless to say Hoares and Brown Shipley would laugh me out of the door (sadly) as likely will Arbuthnot!!

AlexPF

They are a bank of brands (Child, Holts, Drummond, Coutts, Adam&co, NatWest, Western Branch...) but they are about to announce changes in the structure due to the 2008 crisis (basically separating risk). It should be known in the next few days.
RBS in England is going to disappear (replaced by NatWest holdings) so I expect a higher relevance of the various brands which won't be renamed in NatWest. It could even be that Child will become a Coutts like entity.
So I'd expect their operating model to have relevant changes over the next year.

About the difference, Child is more related to the law field, while Drummonds is historically related to the royal family and wealthy individuals. Nowadays Drummonds does not really have any particular "glamour", if we ignore an "antique" looking branch (but they have a great art collection and nice dinners if you are lucky enough to be invited to dine there) and their lottery winner department. However they have a closer affinity with Coutts, as some of the staff is shared.
In regards to the debit card and material, Child operates slightly differently as it as a higher exposure of its brand. Drummonds is more related to RBS, and their debit card is not nearly as fancy as the Child one
I'd say the difference is that Child is not commonly known by the masses, while Drummonds is relatively famous as it deals with lottery winners. But as I said getting the branded material is not as straightforward as with Child.
In regards to financial advice, I'm sure that private bankers of both Child and Drummonds can refer you to either Coutts or suggest an independent third party.

I'm curious to see exactly how Child and Drummond will be differentiated once RBS retail disappears and NatWest holdings will be in place.

About Cater Allen, they recently announced the changes about the deferred element of the cards being strapped. Their site is not up to date.

Arbuthnot Latham, they are extremely nice people :P their requirements and fees are high, but you get the best boutique service around. Fancy debit card.

Brown Shipley has a very fancy credit card. Damn difficult to get hold of it tho :P

ALL banks are willing to compromise depending on your particular situation. For example if you come from a wealthy family, if you are an entrepreneur with a promising business or if you are young and on a high salary. Potential earnings and willing to use more services from the same bank can go a long way

whoevenknows

Thanks so much for this @AlexPF - very interesting and a quick Google does indeed confirm the news trickling out as we speak about how the new structure will look. I shall add that to my list of questions for Childs!

But good to understand slightly more about the current differences between the brands of Childs and Drummonds (given I'm a lawyer, incidentally, I might take that as a sign towards Childs), and yes - it will be interesting to see if this takes on greater emphasis as part of this shake up. In case it's indicative of anything - I feel that given Childs has recently-ish completed its big re-furb of its 1 Fleet Street HQ, that perhaps betrays an intention to push it as a brand going forwards? The lady from Childs I spoke to couldn't stop gushing about it...

I also spoke to Drummonds today but they require me to come into branch rather than have an initial chat on the phone. Nice touch but a bit useless given they don't have appointments around work hours i.e. before 9 or after 5. I've got a lunchtime appointment scheduled for a week on Monday so will let you know what I glean.

Great info re. Cater Allen, especially as the deferred debit card was appealing to me, I'm slightly less interested now.

Thank you also for your comments re. Arbuthnot - I agree with your view (despite not knowing anything)! Even the small interaction I've had has been very sensible and pleasant. Really makes me keen to try and 'get in'. Let's hope that such pragmatism is indeed the order of the day. As I must admit, if they are interested in taking me on, despite their crazy current account fees, I'd be too curious to say no.

I am going to, just for the fun of it, take a similar approach with Coutts too. In other words, I fall far short of their advertised eligibility requirements but will be interested to see whether they are able to demonstrate the same degree of pragmatism and flexibility. For completeness, I fall mainly in the "young but good earning potential" bracket. No likely huge inheritances coming my way etc. etc.

I'll try and report back without boring anyone!

p.s. still feeling oddly torn between Childs and Weatherbys.

AlexPF

Cheers @whoevenknows.

Most of Child's clients are lawyers and barristers (the royal court of justice is incidentally just across the street :P) so that's their main type of client and expertise field.

Definitely we will see the array of Coutts, Drummonds, Child&Co, Holts becoming more relevant as RBS disappears, now that the changes are public. I'm quite excited about it

Curious to know what Drummonds will tell you during your visit!

Cater Allen: the deferred debit card was the main push for me too. Was fun while it lasted, but there are other providers out there (think Duncan Lawrie or Investec).

Arbuthnot - curious to hear what they say there too. Criteria were more relaxed some time ago.. they have been pushing for big deposits recently. Would be curious to see if you'll have a different experience with them. High fees but still less than Coutts! And a lot of their private bankers are ex Coutts, which is good, as well as senior management. Current account fees are scrapped if you have a decent amount invested with them however.

Coutts is worth a call, lighter requirements if you are under 26 (no account fees for example). Let me know

Weatherbys seems interesting. I might request some info as well as I never had a look into it!

Paul_1977

I wonder why they allow people who are not entitled to private banking (like myself) the option of getting a child card? It's great but does not make much sense.

whoevenknows

I wonder too! However for reasons known only to themselves, they do differentiate between "personal" and "private" clients and offer different services to each. I do wonder if those who have banked with them for generations but who don't meet the private requirements have prompted the need for them to offer a personal account too? I shall try and find out more.

Paul_1977

One of the reasons I left Child, is being of the fear they would turn around one day and say you are not rich bye bye. So you waste years banking with someone and they throw you out. I would rather use a standard bank for that reason. Among others.

taccy

Interesting. I've been banking with Coutts for 10 years. I opened the account when I took out a mortgage with them so didn't have any bank charges, and also used the Silk charge card enough to have the £350 annual fee waived. The online banking has been great plus the 'Coutts 24' telephone service. Don't really use the Concierge service but do use the travel insurance and airport lounge pass cards. However, my mortgage has ended (sold the property) so now I pay full fees, and from December they're 1) increasing banking fees to £1000 pa (!) and 2) Dropping travel insurance and airport lounge pass.
Whilst I've had a Private Banker over the 10 years I rarely have cause to speak to them. It's always quicker and more efficient to use Coutts 24 or online.
I'm wondering about switching to Child & Co (I share the same surname...). Particularly if the online/telephone service part is as good. Not sure what the annual charges are? Or I just pay the £1000 pa to continue with Coutts. It's not that I can't afford the £1k, it's more I don't like paying for things unless there's sufficient reason! Perhaps the kudos of the Coutts debit and chargecards are? Thoughts?

Paul_1977

If you switch to Child, you will basically be getting an RBS current account, unless you qualify for the private side ie black account. But this is still an RBS account.

£1000 per year is a bit much.