Info requested by new bank for switch

[ten0rman]

Back whenever, I had come close to the end of a fixed rate cash ISA, so on looking around I discovered that the Halifax offered the best fixed rate so I went to see them. Needless to say I got the "we can make an appointment for you sir" treatment. My response was along the lines of "why?". "It's so that we can make sure it's the best product for you". At which point, I loudly said, this being in the open office, that I knew what I wanted, but to no avail. I then asked if they were seriously telling me to go away, kill four hours, and then return? Needless to say, I went elsewhere, Nationwide I think.

On another occasion, I was advised that as my youngest was now 16, the account held "in re" for him had to be closed etc. I went to the local branch of the Halifax, and discovered that my son also had to attend. What followed was, I admit, a misunderstanding by me in that I thought that we could complete the job at our local agency. When we got there we discovered the truth at which point I exploded. We went home, and after I had cooled down somewhat, I rang the nearest Nationwide branch, some 28 miles away. The conversation went like this:
Me: "Can my 16 year old son open a Flexaccount?"
NBS: "Click, click, click. (keyboard clicks) Yes he can"
Me: " Ok, how do we do it?
NBS: "Click, click, Click. (Keyboard again) We can send you all the forms."
Me: "Can we then take it into our local agency?" (This, of course as a result of the Halifax fiasco.)
NBS: "Yes, of course you can."

And two days later, considering that the above took place at 12.15 Sat am, everything dropped through my letterbox. So, filled in the forms, son & I went firstly to the Halifax, closed the account and got a cheque. Secondly, we walked 100yards along the road, into the Nationwide agency and set everything up. Just like that. And whilst we were there, I asked about his identity requirements as all he had was a birth certificate. The answer, most pleasingly, was "We'll use yours, especially as you are already a member."

Since then, I have never used the Halifax for anything like normal banking, although I do use Iweb, which actually seems to work quite well for me.

ten0rman

[didds]

years ago in a similar son turning 16 scneario the halifax were equally inept for us. The details are shaky now but despite thenm closing old accounts and opening a new one solley in his name "the system" kepty insisting I had to be inattandance, even though he had a normal adult account etc. The teller couldnt do anything and she becasme as frustrated as we did, so in the end wew just closed that account (with me inattendance) and like yourself my son just walked a couple of hundred metres and opened a HSBC account instead.

[dave559]

All this talk about the Halifax has reminded me that I had a Halifax CardCash account when I was a teenager, which I opened mainly on the strength of their "Easy Like Sunday Morning" advert, which seemed to me at that time/age to be the height of impressively casual sophistication…

Possibly about the only time an advert has ever worked on me. And what do they have these days? Very déclassé brash adverts with singing and dancing… (Is that Howard still around? I genuinely wouldn't know, as I very rarely watch tv channels with commercials nowadays, much to the chagrin of the banks in online surveys, I'm sure, when they ask if I have seen a certain advert of theirs ("Nope, nope, nope"), and then as well as wasting all that money on making the adverts they then pay me for the privilege of telling them this! And it's very noticeable that HBoS seem to do far more of these surveys (and therefore presumably far more adverts) than any other bank. If they actually wanted me to see their adverts it would, I'm sure, be far cheaper to advertise on bus stops and buses, there's some advice they can have for free…)