Next Bank Promotion

RG2015

EachPenny wrote: »

RBS and Barclays are the two banks sitting very quietly in a corner not doing much to attract current account customers.

It remains to be seen if NatWest's toe in the water of a switching bonus was some kind of pilot for RBS to follow with later.... but if lots of people make a fuss about late payments, and switch away immediately, then it might be a warning to RBS against doing the same.

So that leaves Barclays.... often near the top of the switch 'net loss' table, how long can they sustain that without it impacting on the business? (with no decent savings accounts to tempt people in either).

According to the RBS Group website, NatWest have 14 million customers and RBS has 1.8 million personal customers.

I cannot say how accurate and comparable these figures are but they are what I would have imagined. Therefore, it would appear odd to perform a pilot this way round. Therefore, I would expect RBS to steer clear of any potential minefields.

Ulster bank last year offered a (then) market leading 1.25% internet saver. As a toe in the water it should have told them that their customer services were woefully inadequate. Sadly, they learned nothing from that and now appear to be in the middle of another PR disaster as the £125 payments are likely to be delayed for many.

ValiantSon

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I'm on record on here as speculating that in the past, several times. Indeed, I thought they'd do that instead of cutting the rate last time.

It would make more sense, if they really felt they had to tinker with the account any further. Of course, I'd prefer it if they didn't do so, but the result would just be that I moved some money out to an easy access account and have to accept a little bit less interest (I get the full 1.5% due to cashback covering the fee).

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

I hope you're right, because it's my main hub account and also a feeder account for many regular savers. I'd have some major admin work to do if I was forced to close it due to a 1.23% rate.

I hope I'm right too! Similar situation to you.

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

That's where my money is for the next switching offer (that I'd qualify for), and I have several accounts ready to switch if the T&Cs are lax!

I hope they're lax enough that it doesn't matter if you have previously had an account with them!

EachPenny

RG2015 wrote: »

According to the RBS Group website, NatWest have 14 million customers and RBS has 1.8 million personal customers.

Maybe 'pilot' wasn't a good choice of word

What I meant was RBS are still under something of a cloud, its a brand that people attach some quite negative feelings towards. At some point I'd expect RBS to do something to rehabilitate themselves and finally throw off the pongy odour still lingering on after the Goodwin years.

A generous switching offer might be one way of achieving this... but a risky strategy if it goes wrong. Hence my feeling they are testing the water (aka doing a pilot) to see what the effect is. If they went in all guns blazing with an RBS offer and it went wrong, the damage to the RBS brand would be far greater than the impact the same mistakes might have on NatWest.

msallen

RG2015 wrote: »

My tip is for Virgin Money to launch a full personal current account. Okay this is not news but to succeed it will need a worthwhile USP. I have just found a new crystal ball so let’s see if it’s any good.

I work for a company that provides automated cash management systems to banks (until my redundancy in a few weeks) and I was involved with some early stage talks with Virgin about running a pilot of our product about 5 or 6 years ago. It was put on hold for 6 months "while they rolled out their innovative new current account". This still hasn't happened so I wouldn't have any great confidence in them doing anything "exciting".

YorkshireBoy

ValiantSon wrote: »

I hope they're lax enough that it doesn't matter if you have previously had an account with them!

I have had an account with them previously, for which I was paid an incentive (to open and fund £1K per month for 3 months IIRC, not switch), although long before the CASS.

They were so lax then, that they paid the £100 twice. When I wanted to close the account a short time later I asked them by telephone to take it back - they didn't. When I went to branch to close it, I asked them to give me £1 of the £101 balance - they didn't/couldn't...and said, not in so many words, have it on us!