RBS branch sale may be back on with Santander

TheBanker

Heng_Leng wrote: »

I closed my long standing NatWest account as it was due to be moved the Santander.
The staff were always efficient and pleasant enough.
Santander doesn't appeal at all.

Why not, and where did you go instead?

Robin9

Does it really matter whose name is over the door?

Is there any actual difference?

I bank personally with Nationwide and Santander - the need to go to a branch is rare.

I also bank on a business basis with Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds. The good old days when you could talk to a manager are gone - what remains is a counter system which is fine for paying in cash but the help that the staff can provide is quite limited - often just identifying a phone number for you to ring.

SnowTiger

Robin9 wrote: »

I also bank on a business basis with Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds. The good old days when you could talk to a manager are gone - what remains is a counter system which is fine for paying in cash but the help that the staff can provide is quite limited - often just identifying a phone number for you to ring.

Some are not even that now. I popped in to my second most local Natwest a few weeks ago to withdraw some £5 notes - none of the local cashmachines dispense them.

The bank is more like a shop now, with two assistants guiding customers towards machines.

Paul_1977

Santander is not that bad, I don't see the point of moving so soon. See how Santander are and then move if they are bad.

Thrugelmir

chambta wrote: »

Their service reputation locally as opposed to ours? At the time they had three branches already in my town after purchasing A&L and Bradford Bingley branches that were immediately rebranded - two next door to each other. Both are now closed.

Both were dead in the water and had to be bailed out. UK taxpayers still own the residue of B&B's poorly constructed mortgage books.

System

Having worked on the inside, I wouldn't use them.
I even had an A&L current account that was closed prior to moving too.

I didn't move elsewhere formally - just had salary etc paid in another account and setup Direct Debits mandates on a 3rd account - just stopped using and closed NatWest once done.

TheBanker wrote: »

Why not, and where did you go instead?

agrinnall

Paul_1977 wrote: »

Forgot to add Virgin Money are also intrested.

You didn't really need to as Colsten already mentioned them in post #6.

chambta

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Both were dead in the water and had to be bailed out. UK taxpayers still own the residue of B&B's poorly constructed mortgage books.

I know. My point is at the time it was proposed we were to be rebranded as Santander previously it would have made four branches in very close proximity. The sense, locally at least, was that they were 'taking over' to many.

colsten

chambta wrote: »

The sense, locally at least, was that they were 'taking over' to many.

That pre-supposes that the right number of branches were present at the time, and that they were needed for the foreseeable future.

Did the locals have the skills and experience to determine the right number of branches, and did they know anything about the state of A&L and B&B were in? Did they ask themselves why B&B and A&L were up for sale / needed rescue in the first instance? And are you sure there was no hostility against 'foreigners' involved?

JuicyJesus

colsten wrote: »

why?

given that Santander UK is a fraction of the size of the RBSG behemoth, it would certainly be an improvement. Similar would apply if the purchaser was Virgin Money, or some other smaller bank.

Santander have about 10% market share in the current account market. RBS Group and Barclays have 18% each, HSBC 12%. Santander is only "a fraction" of the size if you consider more than half the size of RBSG only "a fraction" and not a really big part of it.

I'm interested to know how you figure Santander swallowing up a smaller competitor, thus leading to a smaller number of competitors overall, helps competition however.