Child & Co RBS Branch to close

EarthBoy

The Natwest Group website now refers to Child & Co in the past tense, i.e. "it was" not "it is", and states that it closed in 2022.  It doesn't say that it was just the branch which closed, it specifically states: "Child & Co closed in 2022."

I wonder how long it will be before they discontinue the fancy cards and stationery?

https://www.natwestgroup.com/heritage/companies/child-and-co.html

WillPS

EarthBoy said:

The Natwest Group website now refers to Child & Co in the past tense, i.e. "it was" not "it is", and states that it closed in 2022.  It doesn't say that it was just the branch which closed, it specifically states: "Child & Co closed in 2022."

I wonder how long will it be before they discontinue the fancy cards and stationery?

https://www.natwestgroup.com/heritage/companies/child-and-co.html

They also say this quite specifically in the closure factsheet:

Customers were disappointed at the closure of the branch, given that it is a historic brand.
We were able to reassure customers that the Child & Co brand will remain, whilst alleviating
concerns by providing further clarity around how we came to make this difficult decision.
We also provided additional support and information on the alternative ways you can
continue to bank with us.

They also committed to keeping the branded stationary, a promise they have made good on by redesigning both their Debit Card and Chequebook since the closure was announced to accommodate the shift to Mastercard. I can't see why they'd bother doing any of this if they genuinely had no intention of holding on to the brand for the time being, at least for existing customers.

EarthBoy

WillPS said:

EarthBoy said:

The Natwest Group website now refers to Child & Co in the past tense, i.e. "it was" not "it is", and states that it closed in 2022.  It doesn't say that it was just the branch which closed, it specifically states: "Child & Co closed in 2022."

I wonder how long will it be before they discontinue the fancy cards and stationery?

https://www.natwestgroup.com/heritage/companies/child-and-co.html

I can't see why they'd bother doing any of this if they genuinely had no intention of holding on to the brand for the time being, 

Yes, "for the time being", but I doubt it will be for the long term.   There's no point to it if it doesn't have a separate branch, or separate staff etc.  I bet it's phased out within 18 months.

WillPS

EarthBoy said:

WillPS said:

EarthBoy said:

The Natwest Group website now refers to Child & Co in the past tense, i.e. "it was" not "it is", and states that it closed in 2022.  It doesn't say that it was just the branch which closed, it specifically states: "Child & Co closed in 2022."

I wonder how long will it be before they discontinue the fancy cards and stationery?

https://www.natwestgroup.com/heritage/companies/child-and-co.html

I can't see why they'd bother doing any of this if they genuinely had no intention of holding on to the brand for the time being, 

Yes, "for the time being", but I doubt it will be for the long term.   There's no point to it if it doesn't have a separate branch, or separate staff etc.  I bet it's phased out within 18 months.

Not so sure. If 15-80-00 was just retail, I'm sure they'd have done it already - but AIUI there's a lot of complex/bespoke private banking activity on that sort code and the card design override exists because of that complexity.

It's not like it's really costing much either in the grand scheme of things now the branch is gone.

[Deleted User]

I think it will go on for a few years. My digital statements now say it’s a Manchester branch but the paper still say fleet st and haven’t been re-designed. I wouldn’t say the Mastercard indicates it has a future. RBS is massive and it’s common at massive companies that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. I have seen it happen with my own eyes, a company decides to change a logo, yet spend loads on a refurbishment and install the old logo, only for it to be ripped out a few months later.

what’s changed in the chequebook?

EarthBoy

Deleted_User said:

RBS is massive and it’s common at massive companies that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. I have seen it happen with my own eyes, 

I've seen plenty of examples of that too.

Marchitiello

I think it is the oldest Brand in the NatWest Group portfolio  and that has survived independently as a single branch for over 370 years, it would be unlikely to fold unless they do decide to rebrands everything in the group to a single brand at some point in the future (this will affect Holts, Drummonds, Child and potentially other live brands).

arguably, the novelty of the brands has attracted many customers that would have otherwise not banked with RBS/NatWest at all and I am sure it may still have a rather large portfolio of virtual clients

gary1312

I think it's unlikely that they'll nix the Child brand, given the branch closure statement and new stationery.

The bigger question is when they'll withdraw the peculiar form and therefore restrict these accounts to anyone except people who rock up to Drummonds with their lotto cheques.

gary1312

ForumUser7 said:

[Deleted User] said:

I decided to test this by opening a new savings account. It would appear that – contrary to what I was previously made to believe – it is indeed your oldest account that determines your home branch, not the latest one. 

I applied for Child’s in 2021 and Drummonds in 2022. The account I opened today – without selecting the SC myself – is at Child’s. 

Ah - that's a shame - looks like I'll be stuck with the standard (now closed) Newcastle branch as my home sort code even when I get the child's select. But still, at least I can get the child's select 🤷🏻‍♂️ It also fixes the child's or Drummond's first conundrum

You could always close your Newcastle account and open another Child one as well if (like me) you keep two current accounts?

ForumUser7

gary1312 said:

ForumUser7 said:

[Deleted User] said:

I decided to test this by opening a new savings account. It would appear that – contrary to what I was previously made to believe – it is indeed your oldest account that determines your home branch, not the latest one. 

I applied for Child’s in 2021 and Drummonds in 2022. The account I opened today – without selecting the SC myself – is at Child’s. 

Ah - that's a shame - looks like I'll be stuck with the standard (now closed) Newcastle branch as my home sort code even when I get the child's select. But still, at least I can get the child's select 🤷🏻‍♂️ It also fixes the child's or Drummond's first conundrum

You could always close your Newcastle account and open another Child one as well if (like me) you keep two current accounts?

Yeah, but I have a Digital Regular Saver with the Newcastle branch too, so it'd just be a bit of a pain to close my current account.

Even if I was to apply for child's, then close the Newcastle branch account, my oldest account with them would then default to my digital regular saver - unless they look at current accounts only to determine it