Child & Co Bankers ?

Marchitiello

Hi Paul,

We discussed this before and I am not sure why you still questioning the reasons RBS consider the two brands differently.

Based on what I touched on before and additional consideration I have made, I would personally summarise it as follows:
Child is the oldest brand in the RBS portfolio, and in their view, operating from the one branch, has been worth keeping semi independent for as long as they have own it. On their literature they also clearly state to have a strong customer base in the law profession, which does not mean that they are all extremely wealthy, but probably also covers a large base of £35-70k pa lawyers.
Drummond instead, has an heritage linked to a king and the queen mother as well as other aristocrats and wealthy historical people. They want to keep the brand exclusivity, not entirely accessible to everyone and so it is used as an RBS outpost, and in the same way they would have a black card for wealthy customers, At the Drummonds branch they get a Drummond cards.
However, both branches as well as Holts, comes under the umbrella of RBS private so even normal customers get the correspondence from that department. And as I previously shared on the "RBS cheque" thread, I got issued a RBS Private 20 cheques book, with London Drummonds and address printed later with the account holder name, rather then the Drummonds branded one. Statements comes on standard RBS paper with the old Drummond Logo (the bird...) printed over it at the time of printing the customer details, whilst Child's comes on his bespoke headed paper.
You can see how they also approach the differentiation in the Cheque book above:

Drummonds at the Royal Bank of Scotland (as the logo)
Vs
Child & co Bankers
The Royal Bank of Scotland plc incorporating Child & Co Bankers

With regards to be called in the branch while on previous occasions I can also easily see the reasons:

If you indeed closed the account few months ago and now have reopened it, they may want to ensure they can offer you the right level of service and not loose you again and or your income is similar to low/middle level lawyers making up a large proportion of their customer base.
If you never closed the account but just start using it again, this may have triggered a review.
I joined Child&co/RBS shorthly after closing the NatWest account, so this may have been a contributor factor in being invited in.

However, when I will really qualify for premier/private banking, I will rather go to HSBC or Barclays as their investment products/service are better then the one on offer at RBS, and if I had £500k plus in cash to invest, I would try to get into other proper private banks, including the Swiss ones with branches in London.

Paul_1977

So we must conclude that Childs is not a private bank. Where as Drummonds is. Neither is of course a separate bank. Both are RBS.

I always assumed Childs was private in some way, and that us getting accounts was some sort of loop hole. Whereas now I see Childs as just a brand, like Smile is to Co-Op bank. A posh and very private "looking" brand still however!

Drummonds, on the other hand, is still very much private, even though still an RBS brand. You can't just "join". However, they have sent out private cheques to not private clients. It seems to me that not even RBS knows what it wants to do with the brands.

After all, what is a point of a private bank if it's not private.

Still, Childs is our little secret. :beer:

AlexPF

Paul_1977 wrote: »

So we must conclude that Childs is not a private bank. Where as Drummonds is. Neither is of course a separate bank. Both are RBS.

I always assumed Childs was private in some way, and that us getting accounts was some sort of loop hole. Whereas now I see Childs as just a brand, like Smile is to Co-Op bank. A posh and very private "looking" brand still however!

Drummonds, on the other hand, is still very much private, even though still an RBS brand. You can't just "join". However, they have sent out private cheques to not private clients. It seems to me that not even RBS knows what it wants to do with the brands.

After all, what is a point of a private bank if it's not private.

Still, Childs is our little secret. :beer:

That's an interesting explanation, but still bear in mind that Child and Drummonds are part of the same division within RBS (Private and Commercial banking, where you also find Coutts and Adam & Company).

That could be the reason for the chequebooks. In regards to debit cards, I still believe in the explanation I gave earlier

jinkster

I'm Private customer with Natwest and the debit card they issue is standard.

Marchitiello

jinkster wrote: »

I'm Private customer with Natwest and the debit card they issue is standard.

Not sure, but I believe that if you have a reward black current account they may give you this:

jinkster

I dont think those exist anymore.

Marchitiello

jinkster wrote: »

I dont think those exist anymore.

Do you have a black account and/or a special sort code (e.g. 60-30-30) ?

jinkster

Standard Sort code from where I opened the account with Natwest in branch. Spoke to NW via online chat and was told they dont offer the Private branded debit cards anymore.

Marchitiello

jinkster wrote: »

Standard Sort code from where I opened the account with Natwest in branch. Spoke to NW via online chat and was told they dont offer the Private branded debit cards anymore.

Thanks for checking, but still you have not confirmed if you do have a black account. The private debit card may have been discontinued as ideally all Private customers should have a black reward account with the branded debit card, however it is still possible to be a private client with a standard select account and get a personal banker and bespoke financial planning, which I guess it is not what they really want to support.

jinkster

Marchitiello wrote: »

Thanks for checking, but still you have not confirmed if you do have a black account. The private debit card may have been discontinued as ideally all Private customers should have a black reward account with the branded debit card, however it is still possible to be a private client with a standard select account and get a personal banker and bespoke financial planning, which I guess it is not what they really want to support.

No, i'm not a black account holder.