Worst Bank / Building Society TV advert

Jlawson118

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Same experience here, as I've said before. They seem to think they're amazing and you should be grateful for being allowed to bank with them, rather than them being grateful for your custom.

I found a nice apartment in the village that I live in and wanted to buy it. Being 22, I wasn't sure where I went to next, and phoned First Direct as I do consider them to be my main bank. So the lady went through the mortgage quote with me. But she was talking really down to me the whole time.

But she seemed to be getting really clever with me regarding my income and outgoings. I understand that they have to be very careful with these kind of applications. She was going through my last few months worth of statements, and I'd done the odd transfer to my Club Lloyds accounts for my credit card bills.
An example such as;
£4.80 - AMEX
£0.20 - Save The Change (into a savings account)

And she was asking me "What does save the change mean?" I explained that to her I rounded up my purchases and save the money that builds up, long-term. She seemed to sarcastically just reply "okay then.." Like it wasn't obvious what I was doing though.

Two months prior, it was my birthday, and I'd had little transfers from my mum or grandma and she was asking me who they were and why they were sending me money.

And then I was explaining to her about some difficulties I'd had regarding my health and things and I'd cut my hours down at work from 40 hours to 25 for around a month whilst I got things sorted. She didn't quite believe me when I told her I could provide my employment contract, six months worth of wage slips etc, as well as whilst she was going through all my statements, she could see my full time wage coming through!

After all of this for over an hour, she offered me just short of £85,000. Which is how much the apartment was going to be anyway. She told me they required my last four weeks worth of wage slips (I'm paid weekly) But after that service I really didn't want to continue with the application. I'd explained to her that my last two weeks were SSP, and two weeks before that were at 25 - 30 hours. Could I provide supporting evidence such as a doctor's letter or provide proof of previous week's wage slips, every week for about six months, at 40 hours? She said no :eek:

Somebody else made an offer on this apartment anyway, but I found a much nicer one for £15,000 more, but it comes with furniture and it's perfect. I therefore spoke to a mortgage broker and he found me a mortgage with Halifax. He was able to get me this with one week's wage slip at 40 hours when I returned to work, and as much as his fees were expensive, I didn't mind paying them because he made things so much more easier for me than First Direct did!

In conclusion:
To cut my long story shorter, First Direct claim to have the best customer service and always meet their customer's needs, they clearly weren't interested in my business at this time as they were unable to consider my health needs. After struggling with stress and depression for the last year after losing my grandad and still picking up the pieces at home helping my mum and grandma out, I just needed those few weeks off work to try and get my head straight. I understand that they didn't want me to struggle financially if I wasn't working full time and so they need to know every income and outgoing. But I was able to prove that it was only for the sake of a few weeks and they weren't interested.

And then it just annoyed me all the more when I had that trouble with my secure key and it took me three days to get through to somebody! Like I said, First Direct were once ahead of their time, but now it's like they don't care for their customers at all. I posted on another thread a few days ago saying when Metro Bank branch out over the country more, it wouldn't surprise me if they take over First Direct on the polls!

NaughtiusMaximus

Jlawson118 wrote: »

Oh wow, Howard! Completely forgot about that guy. He'd be in literally every Halifax advert for no reason whatsoever :rotfl:

I quite like the original Halifax Howard adverts as they were a rare example in advertland of someone speaking with a real Brummie accent as opposed to the exaggerated p*** take version you usually hear. Halifax then decided to replace the ads with a cartoon version of Howard, complete with the usual fake caricature of a Brummie accent advertisers seem to love.

londoninvestor

NaughtiusMaximus wrote: »

complete with the usual fake caricature of a Brummie accent advertisers seem to love.

"We want to be...together."

I'm sorry to remind you of that but thought you should suffer with me, as you brought it to mind with your post...

Jlawson118

NaughtiusMaximus wrote: »

I quite like the original Halifax Howard adverts as they were a rare example in advertland of someone speaking with a real Brummie accent as opposed to the exaggerated p*** take version you usually hear. Halifax then decided to replace the ads with a cartoon version of Howard, complete with the usual fake caricature of a Brummie accent advertisers seem to love.

I can't remember the cartoon version myself, though it was a shame to see him disappear from the screens.
I don't know, but back then the adverts were repetitive but didn't seem to get annoying like some silly adverts today. They were fun and cheerful!

NaughtiusMaximus

londoninvestor wrote: »

"We want to be...together."

I'm sorry to remind you of that but thought you should suffer with me, as you brought it to mind with your post...

That was the main one which sprung to mind when I made the post but there have been others, can't remember what any of them were for though.

veryintrigued

The Ghostbusters one is currently grinding my gears!

Jlawson118

The Barclays advert now with that lady on the bus who's lost her card and so she freezes it.

I just don't know what annoys me more. The terrible and cheesy acting? Or the fact they're making the whole 'Freeze your card' feature seem like it's new and they've invented it. I mean, Metro Bank have had this for years.

IanManc

Jlawson118 wrote: »

The Barclays advert now with that lady on the bus who's lost her card and so she freezes it.

I just don't know what annoys me more. The terrible and cheesy acting? Or the fact they're making the whole 'Freeze your card' feature seem like it's new and they've invented it. I mean, Metro Bank have had this for years.

I know what annoys me more - the fact that she's sitting on the aisle seat when the other is empty, and so blocking people from using one of the pair of seats.

This is increasingly common, and even on very packed buses, trams and trains the perpetrators will ignore everyone standing and have to be asked to move so that the seat can be used.

Apart from that, the entire advert is utterly lame.

JuicyJesus

Jlawson118 wrote: »

The Barclays advert now with that lady on the bus who's lost her card and so she freezes it.

I just don't know what annoys me more. The terrible and cheesy acting? Or the fact they're making the whole 'Freeze your card' feature seem like it's new and they've invented it. I mean, Metro Bank have had this for years.

I don't like the bit where she's like "all £82-something of it!" like it's making a virtue of having no money. Or worse, being like "hey, guys, you're all broke right? Isn't that funny, rather than really quite troubling for a society in general?"

greatgimpo

londoninvestor wrote: »

"We want to be...together."

I'm sorry to remind you of that but thought you should suffer with me, as you brought it to mind with your post...

"we want to enjoy...the gardin" (sic)