Local bank account (for local people)

eskbanker

ncarring wrote: »

The fact that it was a subjective matter, rather than a simple matter of reading the "list of the top three accounts" from a comparison site, was exactly why I reached out to what I thought might be a community populated by knowledgeable and (hopefully) friendly people with a common aim of helping each other save money .... whoops, dreaming again ...

All I was after was perhaps a personal recommendation from someone who had a product that matched my needs.

I think the trouble was that your needs as originally expressed were fairly vague and generic (as you rightly said earlier "Simple things like branch facilities and online banking are probably pretty much universal") so there wasn't really anything for people to go on in terms of the specifics of what you were really after, i.e. how to help you narrow down your search. Anyway, not trying to be argumentative here, but just out of interest, what were your eventual criteria for selecting NatWest over the other options?

ncarring

Reasons - er.....

None really concrete. Vague subjective ones were:

- they're long-established and the branch is unlikely to disappear.
- we were previously customers of theirs and indeed had parents and grandparents who worked for their constituent banks.
- no experience of the other big banks to base a decision on.
- nothing to choose probably between the benefits which on the type of account we wanted are negligible.

Now if someone had come along and said - XXX bank has wonderful online banking, special quick deposit facilities for cheques including outside opening hours (remember night deposit drawers?), gives you freepost envelopes to deposit cheques (in fact someone did say this but didn't name the bank) - any of those might have been a more concrete reason, but nobody did. I looked at the Post Office accounts, they might have done the job, but nothing special to recommend them. Very hard to choose. Perhaps they're all equally good (or bad). I was hoping for the collective voice of experience to guide me.

I don't think my requirements were vague, at all. If anything, perhaps some of the argument and patronising remarks were provoked by the fact that I was too specific, and didn't meet what others considered to be the "best" criteria, but I had a specific requirement.

eskbanker

ncarring wrote: »

I don't think my requirements were vague, at all. If anything, perhaps some of the argument and patronising remarks were provoked by the fact that I was too specific, and didn't meet what others considered to be the "best" criteria, but I had a specific requirement.

I think we must be talking at cross purposes here, I was referring to your requirements being stated as

what we need is:

- an account with a provider who has a local branch (we have branches of HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays, TSB and Coventry BS - the last two are recent and may well vanish again overnight, so not great candidates) and possibly others I can't bring to mind right now.
- an account with no monthly fees or regular payment requirements
- an account with internet banking so we can move money to and fro

which unfortunately is a bit like walking into a car dealership and saying you're looking for something with four wheels and an engine!

ncarring

Yup, so effectively saying:

"Of these 6 (really only 4) manufacturers, which makes the best small car with good mpg (no fees) and nice ICE (online banking)?"

What's so hard about that? Let's say each of the providers (some of which are marginal because their branches are likely to come and go within a couple of years) has one or two products in the "basic" category, amounting to maybe 10 in total. Why should I not be entitled to ask which is the best - in people's opinion...?

I think you are perhaps an accountant - you can only work by adding up columns of numbers and saying which column has the highest (or lowest) total . I actually wanted some subjective feedback.

I'm not intending to be offensive, just emphasising the difference between my perception of my question, and yours (and indeed perhaps the other readers also).

mgdavid

ncarring wrote: »

..........I'm not intending to be offensive, just emphasising the difference between my perception of my question, and yours (and indeed perhaps the other readers also).

so is that an acknowledgement that your post was not well enough written because while YOU knew what you meant, we didn't?

ncarring

No, it's an acknowledgement that any sentence, however carefully written, may be subject to different interpretations.

I could have argued black was white, but I didn't. I suggested there were shades of grey.

I think I know you from somewhere else ...

Edit: if you tell me how your interpretation differs from mine, as expressed in my last post, that might help understand where I went wrong, if indeed I did.

eskbanker

ncarring wrote: »

I'm not intending to be offensive

None taken, except for:

ncarring wrote: »

I think you are perhaps an accountant

As it happens, I work in IT too - you may be familiar with the famous cartoon encapsulating the importance of accurate and concise communication of requirements rather than leaving too much down to interpretation:

ncarring

I like dilbert.com/strips/comic/2006-01-29/ - very similar but with a slightly more modern feel.

(sorry I'm not allowed to post real links yet being a "noobie")

polymaff

ncarring wrote: »

Hi,

Our primary bank account is with Santander who, until recently, had a small branch local to us (we live in a small market town not far from a much bigger city). Now that their branch has closed, we have no way of paying in cheques to our current account other than travelling into the main town, which is not a pleasant task, when it's just to pay a cheque into an account and come home again. So, we had the bright idea of opening an account with another bank that does still have a local branch, and we can either use that as a small float for unimportant stuff, or transfer money to our main account electronically when we have enough for it to be worth while. With me so far?

So ... what we need is:

- an account with a provider who has a local branch (we have branches of HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays, TSB and Coventry BS - the last two are recent and may well vanish again overnight, so not great candidates) and possibly others I can't bring to mind right now.
- an account with no monthly fees or regular payment requirements
- an account with internet banking so we can move money to and fro.

Obviously I can walk into all these places and ask, but does anyone have any suggestions up front?

Many thanks

Nick

Tesco Bank gives a Freepost address for paying in cheques and pays 3% on balances up to £3,000. You seem to be OK with internet banking, so the only downside is the need to push £750 through the account each month (open two and play ping-pong between them once a month ) - or pay a £5 monthly fee. Not a bad rate of return at present, BTW.

If you are, or can look like, a business, RBS Business Banking Direct even provides the (1st class post-paid) envelopes and has no throughput requirements and no charges for basic banking transactions - though it doesn't pay any interest on balances.