Business Banking – some more thoughts.
Posted: Thu 9 March, 2006 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Own Business, Work-related |1 Comment »Over the last week or so I’ve been busy getting together the literature I need for figuring out which bank I’m most likely to go with for business banking. Previously I’ve used Royal Bank of Scotland, but I’m trying to avoid that bunch of shyster twunts this time round. Well, kind of.
Anyway, the three candidates in the running are:
- Nat West (Sister company of RBS, but hopefully better)
- HSBC
- Barclays
Yes, there are others I could choose to check out too, but frankly I wouldn’t trust Lloyds TSB as far as I could chuck the rubble of one of their branches, and most of the building society clowns don’t do business banking at all. (And in Halifax’s case I wouldn’t use themn out of principle, due to their abysmal adverts, even if they did do business banking)
I still need to figure out best deals and so on (and at the moment Nat West are coming out tops on that one, with 18months of free business banking) and get it all worked out in my head, but it has to be said that on gut feel alone, Nat West are at the top of the list.
Barclays, on the other hand, are at the bottom. I went in there, did a bit of initial paperwork, and then “because their business advisors are so busy with existing customers” had to call away to a national call-centre to book an appointment with a business advisor. In the same branch I was in. So rather than walk upstairs, or place an internal phone call, they’ve called a national number to sort it all out centrally. For some strange reason I don’t find that to be a reassuring state of affairs…
I bank with Lloyds and the branch where my account is registered is a couple of hundred miles away ‘oop north.’
I recently needed to speak to someone at the branch but could only contact them via the call centre which is even further away. When I finally got through it was obvious that a further call was required. I asked for a number to call them and this was refused, I could only contact them via the call centre. I made the usual threats about moving my account but, when it comes down to it, I can’t be arsed and so that’s why the scumsuckers continue to get away with it. And how much profit do the bastards make out of us?