Child & Co RBS Branch to close

WillPS

Marchitiello said:

WillPS said:

Deleted_User said:

WillPS said:

Marchitiello said:

Deleted_User said:

Deleted_User said:

Marchitiello said:

I have not received the letter yet, which sounds strange.

Mine is a rewards account, so pretty active, with good volumes and values of transactions…

So is mine but I got the letter. I wouldn’t meet the requirements for RBS private however. Do you?

They may well transfer Child to the Drummond branch and operate it from there.

They've already said the accounts are being transferred to the Royal Bank branch in Victoria.
Given Drummonds is already a mix of standard and private; they could have just moved all there. 

I fall around their Premier Criteria but not officially premier. 

The Personal Bankers were already shared between the two branches. Some of Drummonds’  (I know the branch manager as well) Private Bankers are shared with Coutts. I start to think that probably anyone that were not assigned /liaise directly with a personal banker have been issued the standard letter and moved to Victoria. The one with personal bankers (not private) will potentially receive a later communications with different instructions. 

Very much doubt the 15-80-00 sort code is being split between different branches.

Apart from anything, that'd involve informing at least one set of customer's their sort code would be about to change, I'd expect more than 6 months notice of such a thing.

I doubt that the Drummonds brand is that much more secure than the the Child brand. They are clearly simplifying their brands and phasing the Royal Bank brands outside Scotland. Adam and Co is their Scottish wealth brand; Coutts elsewhere.

That's kind of beside the point though - whatever brand they choose to use and not, they can't split a sort code between multiple banking licenses.

If they want to move the posh customers to Coutts, the only way is to move them off 15-80-00 or move all the peasants off 15-80-00. It can't be both Coutts and RBS.

That kind of restructuring falls outside the normal playbook for closing a branch down - which is why I doubt it'll happen at this juncture (at least).

But Drummonds, Child & Co, and RBS are all operating just under the RBS Banking license, these are simply branches. So some customers could be serviced by the team at Drummonds (effectively the same personnel was already servicing customers in both branches for the last few years) whilst customers without personal bankers will be simply told to use the Victoria Branch (so if you do need to see someone in Branch, you will be officially told to go there, although as the letter says, you could use any other NatWest or RBS branch, thus Drummonds as well) 

Again, as I frequent the Drummonds branch very often, that branch is still quite active and just went through a massive and costly refurbishment, so pretty sure that for the fore sable future it will still be there.

Yes, Drummonds and Child & Co could be merged operationally. There's nothing to suggest that is actually what's happening though - moving the 15-80-00 sort code to notionally be registered at Drummonds would certainly have been a strong clue.

The RBS branch in Nottingham was also fitted out only 5 or so years ago, as was the Child & Co branch and no doubt others among the list of branches that are closing.

The high street banking market is shrinking extremely quickly currently - it's notable that Nationwide are running an advertising campaign marketing their commitment to the high street - and yet even they are only committing as far as January next year.

[Deleted User]

WillPS said:

Deleted_User said:

WillPS said:

Marchitiello said:

Deleted_User said:

Deleted_User said:

Marchitiello said:

I have not received the letter yet, which sounds strange.

Mine is a rewards account, so pretty active, with good volumes and values of transactions…

So is mine but I got the letter. I wouldn’t meet the requirements for RBS private however. Do you?

They may well transfer Child to the Drummond branch and operate it from there.

They've already said the accounts are being transferred to the Royal Bank branch in Victoria.
Given Drummonds is already a mix of standard and private; they could have just moved all there. 

I fall around their Premier Criteria but not officially premier. 

The Personal Bankers were already shared between the two branches. Some of Drummonds’  (I know the branch manager as well) Private Bankers are shared with Coutts. I start to think that probably anyone that were not assigned /liaise directly with a personal banker have been issued the standard letter and moved to Victoria. The one with personal bankers (not private) will potentially receive a later communications with different instructions. 

Very much doubt the 15-80-00 sort code is being split between different branches.

Apart from anything, that'd involve informing at least one set of customer's their sort code would be about to change, I'd expect more than 6 months notice of such a thing.

I doubt that the Drummonds brand is that much more secure than the the Child brand. They are clearly simplifying their brands and phasing the Royal Bank brands outside Scotland. Adam and Co is their Scottish wealth brand; Coutts elsewhere.

That's kind of beside the point though - whatever brand they choose to use and not, they can't split a sort code between multiple banking licenses.

If they want to move the posh customers to Coutts, the only way is to move them off 15-80-00 or move all the peasants off 15-80-00. It can't be both Coutts and RBS.

That kind of restructuring falls outside the normal playbook for closing a branch down - which is why I doubt it'll happen at this juncture (at least).

I didn't say they would split a sort code across branches nor banking licenses...Any Coutts sort code that works with a modulus check for 15-80-00 would work ; moving across only the HNW leaving the dregs with RBS Victoria . Rinse and repeat with Drummonds further down the line. 

WillPS

I understand what modulus checking is but I don't understand this concept of having both a Coutts sort code as well as 15-80-00. Have I misunderstood or is that actually what you're suggesting?

gsmh

Not sure I completely understand. When Lloyds and TSB merged, my TSB branch closed and my account was serviced by a Lloyds branch. That Lloyds branch used sort codes in the 30.xx.xx (Lloyds) and 77.xx.xx (TSB) range - and that is still the case today. Given that a branch doesn't usually communicate directly with a customer these days I'm sure branding based on sort code is completely feasible.

WillPS

gsmh said:

Not sure I completely understand. When Lloyds and TSB merged, my TSB branch closed and my account was serviced by a Lloyds branch. That Lloyds branch used sort codes in the 30.xx.xx (Lloyds) and 77.xx.xx (TSB) range - and that is still the case today. Given that a branch doesn't usually communicate directly with a customer these days I'm sure branding based on sort code is completely feasible.

It absolutely is - and the branch on Fleet Street had been doing this for a while by using 16-00-80 for new private customers and 16-00-11 for customers wanting RBS accounts. Sending 16-00-80 customers to one of their private brands and 16-00-11 to a random branch of RBS would have been simple enough.

The issue is that the 15-80-00 sort code predates either of those sort codes, and wasn't closed off to new applicants - so it's a mixture of some of the older extremely wealthy Child & Co clients, clients who Child & Co genuinely looked to woo but were not yet themselves particularly wealthy and the riff-raff like most of us who just applied through the RBS website and selected the branch we wanted carefully. The latter 2 categories are particularly troublesome to separate as they're likely to be using the same product types (Select/Reward etc).

Time will tell what happens - but I'm pretty convinced that moving customers off 15-80-00 en-masse won't be part of what happens. My best bet is the address on the cheque changes but everything else stays the same.

Marchitiello

I think you are overthinking this… sort code will be “registered” to a central location in Cheltenham, customer profiles could still be serviced from various places.. my own Barclays Branch closed many years ago, and my sort code got moved twice already to different branches, so on paper they now serve multiple sort codes at the same branch. However, that branch never had a Premier counter, so when I was upgraded to a Premier account, I received a letter about the benefit of using the nearest Premier counter at another branch… that is effectively what I was saying, no matter where they register the sort code, some customers will be invited to liaising directly with their Personal Banker at a chosen location. Most of this will happen over the phone nowadays, but surely you could get an appointment in branch.

PS: wife and a friend that had Child’s account but effectively never use them, have received the letter. Myself and my teen son (has had an account somehow linked to mine) that use regularly our account, have not had the letter. Also, both of us have accounts at Child and Drummonds, and recently have used Drummonds as a visiting branch, so not sure if that is also a factor. 

[Deleted User]

WillPS said:

I understand what modulus checking is but I don't understand this concept of having both a Coutts sort code as well as 15-80-00. Have I misunderstood or is that actually what you're suggesting?

You leave the riffraff on the 15-80-00 as RBS and open up a corresponding Coutts sort code.
The HNW people move to the new sort code keeping the same account numbers.

Barclays did similar during ringfencing and Santander to absorb A&L...

WillPS

Deleted_User said:

WillPS said:

I understand what modulus checking is but I don't understand this concept of having both a Coutts sort code as well as 15-80-00. Have I misunderstood or is that actually what you're suggesting?

You leave the riffraff on the 15-80-00 as RBS and open up a corresponding Coutts sort code.
The HNW people move to the new sort code keeping the same account numbers.

Barclays did similar during ringfencing and Santander to absorb A&L...

Yes, they could forcibly change the sort code of all their private customers.

I can see why they'd be keen to avoid that if they can though.

And in any case that doesn't really answer the question of why customers with standard RBS products get Child & Co branded cards when those at Drummonds do not (unless they specifically have that card type assigned to their account, which can only be done in branch by all accounts). Either it's a massive oversight which has gone on for decades, or it is a deliberate policy - not to allow riffraff but to allow the premium brand to engage with customers who do not yet meet the usual Premier banking requirements.

[Deleted User]

It was mentioned further up the thread, someone had a Drummonds card, only available by request at the branch. It was always assumed on here no such card existed in modern times except we now know it does.

Also some people on 15-80-00 did not even receive Child branded cards. Interesting mess! The plebs (of which I am one) have always been on 15-80-00. We are classed as retail customers of Child branch. Others are private customers and on another sort code. It was stated a few years ago those retail who received the Child card had passed an internal RBS check and those that didn't had failed it and just received RBS standard. Nobody knows what the check is, but it isn't related to income. This was evident from the threads a few years back.

One assumes going forward, the retail customers of Child will be moved over to standard RBS and private customers will remain on the brand. I noted a few months ago some changes had been made to the sort code, the address moved to central RBS. I was told I was wrong, but as I suspected changes were occurring. I can't see them allowing us to stay on it, if they do, pretty cool! it will be an account no other pleb can get

WillPS

[Deleted User] said:

It was mentioned further up the thread, someone had a Drummonds card, only available by request at the branch. It was always assumed on here no such card existed in modern times except we now know it does.

Also some people on 15-80-00 did not even receive Child branded cards. Interesting mess! The plebs (of which I am one) have always been on 15-80-00. We are classed as retail customers of Child branch. Others are private customers and on another sort code. It was stated a few years ago those retail who received the Child card had passed an internal RBS check and those that didn't had failed it and just received RBS standard. Nobody knows what the check is, but it isn't related to income. This was evident from the threads a few years back.

One assumes going forward, the retail customers of Child will be moved over to standard RBS and private customers will remain on the brand. I noted a few months ago some changes had been made to the sort code, the address moved to central RBS. I was told I was wrong, but as I suspected changes were occurring. I can't see them allowing us to stay on it, if they do, pretty cool! it will be an account no other pleb can get

It's a little more complicated than that. 15-80-00 is the original Child & Co sort code.

16-00-80, which is the 'private customer only' sort code was implemented at some point more recently, along with 16-00-11 which is the 'retail customer only' sort code at 1 Fleet Street.

There are private customers and retail customers on 15-80-00.

The check was not on whether or not a Child & Co card would be issued, it previously related to whether or not the customer would be allocated an 'online only' debit card (which would have been a Solo card historically). AIUI there simply was no Child & Co branded Solo or online-only Visa Debit card, so if you were such a customer you received an RBS branded one (but your chequebook and statement would still be Child & Co branded).

Since nowadays all customers receive an 'online only' debit card, I don't know if there is a differentiation - it's a long time since I've seen reports of 15-80-00 customers receiving RBS branded debit cards.