The RANT thread (often contains fruity language)

[CAMRAMan]

I switched to TSB because I was pissed off with Barclays, there's a branch in town and they paid 5% on balances.

TSB are now closing the branch in town and only pay 1.5% on balances, so I'll be looking to switch soon.

[CrinklyLion]

I bank with Nationwide, and have always been happy with them.  Thinking about it. it must be the best part of 20 years I've been with them!

If you're considering switching a current account to them  it is worth finding someone who already banks with them as they offer a referral bonus - paid to both the referrer and the referree. I think some of the other banks do similar.

I could rant about Natwest, to be more in the spirit of the thread...

[citoyen]

the sheer joy that is PDF markup

Tell me about it. Or rather, don’t tell me about it - I’ve already written the fucking book on this one.

Ps I’ve been with Co-op bank for 25+ years. Never had a single complaint about them.

[Regulator]

I bank with Nationwide, and have always been happy with them.  Thinking about it. it must be the best part of 20 years I've been with them!

If you're considering switching a current account to them  it is worth finding someone who already banks with them as they offer a referral bonus - paid to both the referrer and the referree. I think some of the other banks do similar.

I could rant about Natwest, to be more in the spirit of the thread...

I've been with NatWest since I was at university.  Never a problem with them.

I had previously been with Nationwide and had nothing but problems.

My first bank account was a Girobank account.

[Kim]

I bank with both Nationwide and NatWest.

I've had slightly more hassle with NatWest, but I've had a lot more interaction with them, so more opportunity for them to cock things up.


All banks are incompetent-evil, surely?

[rafletcher]

The annoying thing is, I had a business account with HSBC for years, with no issues, but closed it not that long ago. Apparently it's beyond possibility that they check back on that as well. Aresholes.

[ian]

HSBC are fine until you want to do anything, like, you know, change address, create a joint account, sort out power of attorney etc. Then to bureaucratic Hell you go.

[barakta]

I find it's very variable which banks are shit. Co-op in Brum are terrible and don't want community accounts and will say so. NatWest were great and terrible depending on the local branch. HSBC are atrocious for community bank holders. Santander tried to make me use phones till I complained x2 and then they coughed up compo cos they could do it by online message afterall. Royal Bank of Scotland were just awful awful awful all round, the only thing they did competently was CLOSE the account which I did after keeping it at 0 to piss them off for years.

I've managed to get a new NatWest charity account up and running smoothly which is a fucking miracle, I find once the NatWest accounts are up they're reasonably good.

I think it's worth checking your local branches and seeing which is OK, but even then mileage varies as banks close branches or move staff all the time. HSBC were chosen for another charity account as per above cos local branch were great, then great person left and it's been a clusterfuck since. HSBC do not understand "deaf, only call on certain phone so person can hear" and couldn't stick to times.

[StevieB]

One of our town councillors came out with: "Morbidity issue are not age related at all" on the topic of coronavirus and the elderly...

It's OK - I had a rant at him: "I urge you isolate yourself from your keyboard until such times are you can get a grasp of the basic facts."

Practically all of his posts are irrelevant, incomprensible, annoying or amusing, but finally he has hit on an important topic, and he gets it totally WRONG!

You can ignore a pest, but not a menace.

He finished up his message with "I for one will be continuing to be a community leader, being careful as I must which is a 2 way thing but acting on their behalf!" - doesn't that make you feel safe?!

[phantasmagoriana]

At last, the rain has stopped for now.

Still, the bedroom's in a state, the spare room's also not an option (I've been building bookshelves in there) so tonight we shall be camping on an airbed in the living room!

...and now the bedroom's in even more of a state, because part of the ceiling has fallen in.

So, a month later, and after the roof was apparently fixed a couple of weeks ago (though not the ceiling, yet - still in the process of arranging that) - it's leaking again. But worse, and now it's reached the bike room (next door) as well. I was thinking about going on Zwift for the first time in about a year, and opened the door to find water pouring on to my lovely purple bike.

That means no turbo for me (I'll lend it out to someone, I hope - there's demand for such things at the moment, and given we're already one room down in living space, I just don't have space for it).

Can we cancel 2020 now, please? I've had enough.

[Mrs Pingu]

That's rotten

[Canardly]

Sorry to hear that hope it gets sorted soon.

[SoreTween]

NatWest were great and terrible depending on the local branch.

NatWest local branch - I remember those.
There's no longer a single branch in the Forest of Dean district, they closed the lot. Even the big towns just outside the forest, Chepstow and Monmouth, both closed. If I put my postcode into the website Stroud is my nearest, about 15 miles distant if I recall correctly. Only if you're a very strong swimmer, due to the small matter of the river Severn it's actually 45 miles. Central Gloucester is my nearest, that's about an hour to get to.

[Cudzoziemiec]

NatWest were great and terrible depending on the local branch.

NatWest local branch - I remember those.
There's no longer a single branch in the Forest of Dean district, they closed the lot. Even the big towns just outside the forest, Chepstow and Monmouth, both closed. If I put my postcode into the website Stroud is my nearest, about 15 miles distant if I recall correctly. Only if you're a very strong swimmer, due to the small matter of the river Severn it's actually 45 miles. Central Gloucester is my nearest, that's about an hour to get to.

Wow! But are there branches of other banks in eg Lydney or Cinderford? Or at least Chepstow and Monmouth? Ross?

For me NatWest is my nearest physical bank – Barclays, HSBC etc all closed. But central Bristol so quite a different situation.

[SoreTween]

Ross, I forgot about there.  Also closed.

Yes, Lloyds is still here (Lydney, Coleford and Cinderford) and the branches were extremely busy with people switching in the run up to the NatWest branches closing.  There may be others, I don't notice.  I'll move my personal account to Lloyds when I find a correctly shaped tuit. 

[Edited to add] Annoyingly I find myself at a loose end at the moment, this would be an ideal time to sort this out.  Except that I want to do it in branch not over the phone to add my small few points to the branch usage statistics.

[Jaded]

Big Bank "This branch is not profitable"
Me "You made £4.3bn profit last year. Does not compute"

It's far too late, but I wish we'd been more proactive with bank closures.

Four towns, four banks. One branch in each town, surely, not all four in one town. 

[ian]

We still have a Natwest, Barclays and Lloyds, though HSBC closed (and the Post Office, just about to return). I presume that reflects the older demographic.

[Basil]

When we came here, we had all four big banks and a Proper post office. They all closed about three years ago within a couple of months of each other. The post office did the re-location into the back of a shop thing.  There is still a sign in the window of the ex Lloyds directing customers to the Newcastle Emlyn branch, which also closed last year.   
We do, however, have a bank for two hours on a Wednesday morning in the town car park, which I use when someone annoyingly sends us a cheque.

[Greenbank]

We do, however, have a bank for two hours on a Wednesday morning in the town car park, which I use when someone annoyingly sends us a cheque.

Most banks allow you to pay cheques (up to a certain value) in via an app on a phone.

[Cudzoziemiec]

We do, however, have a bank for two hours on a Wednesday morning in the town car park, which I use when someone annoyingly sends us a cheque.

Good job you're not an audax organizer! 

[Cudzoziemiec]

We also have a credit union, who seem to be a bit like a building society, maybe, as far as I can make out.

[Kim]

I've found myself cycling along behind a mobile Lloyds bank on the B-roads of Worcestershire a couple of times.  I'm sad to report that it isn't horse-drawn.

[Tim Hall]

We do, however, have a bank for two hours on a Wednesday morning in the town car park, which I use when someone annoyingly sends us a cheque.

Good job you're not an audax organizer! 

SO at X
L into Grand Union Canal

[Cudzoziemiec]

We do, however, have a bank for two hours on a Wednesday morning in the town car park, which I use when someone annoyingly sends us a cheque.

Good job you're not an audax organizer! 

SO at X
L into Grand Union Canal

Nah:
SO at X
Control on LHS, Country Girl
R from control
Info question: depth of Grand Union Canal

[Basil]

We do, however, have a bank for two hours on a Wednesday morning in the town car park, which I use when someone annoyingly sends us a cheque.

Good job you're not an audax organizer! 

SO at X
L into Grand Union Canal

Thank you.