Natwest has never struck me as the best bank for students in the UK. Nonetheless, like most of the students particularly in the Nottingham Uni, opening account with them seem to be the most convenient choice. This is due to the fact that they have the most branches throughout Notts. They even have 1 right inside the main campus for crying out loud. My friends recommended me to open my bank account with them on the convenience ground.
So I did. I opted for Student Account which last for 1 year and with a fee of GBP7 paid monthly. Under the account, I have 2 debit cards (under the new regulations, international students are not eligible for either credit cards or cheque books) and free overdraft up to GBP1000 (I think). On top of those, I also got a Railcard (which gives me 1/3 discount on british rail services), discount on concert tickets, international call sim card, insurance on 1 gadget, insurance on laptop and many others.
As months passed by, I realized only the Railcard really benefited me. I only used it once actually. I only use 1 debit card because the other is effectively redundant and I never overdrafted. GBP7 per month proven to be a waste. According to the contract, I could terminate the account after 9 months but I can still continue with the basic account which is free of monthly charges.
"Impatiently, I told the lady, never mind terminating the Student Account, how about terminating the whole Natwest account altogether? This quickly followed by another lady who brought me into the office.."
I never saluted Natwest's customer services. You see them saying hi but at the very same moment you know right away they don't mean it. They just wanna go back home at 3 (yeah, that's the time most branches close) and get this over with. If you wanna deposit money, time is not a problem. But, if you wanna do something other than that, say, if you sponsor wanted bank address or IBAN. They sure took a long time to process it and say 'we don't do that, they are in your bank statement'. Or, when you wanna buy the card reader you required to transfer money online (my HSBC doesn't require this btw), they just say 'we don't have that, you'd have to apply online'. In the whole branch, they don't keep it. This mean you have to wait for 2 weeks before you get the card reader delivered before you can transfer money online.
"She asked why do I wanna terminate the account, I just told her I got my HSBC.."
Anyway, I went to my branch to terminate my Student Account. The lady said I need to bring all the packages they given me when I first opened the account 9 months ago. What? The package included mostly all the pamphlets about the account. Plus, I paid GBP7 every month for 9 months. That amounted to GBP63. I thought I owned them. So I told the lady. Took her long time to discuss this with her colleagues. I have to stand aside to let queue moving. And I have a class waiting. Impatiently, I told the lady, never mind terminating the Student Account, how about terminating the whole Natwest account? This quickly followed by another lady who brought me into the office and asked only for the Railcard. What? Never mind, I don't really use it anyway. I agreed. She told me it's gonna take months before they really cancel off my Student Account. Huh? This means I have to still pay the fee until it really stopped. Kept my cool and said I'm fine with it. She asked why do I wanna terminate the account, I just told her I got my HSBC..
I checked online about other complaints. Apparently, they also have problems with things like delivery of cards (for example if you lost yours). Some guy had his new card delivered to wrong addressed 4 times even he repeatedly told them to send it to nearest branch. When they did send the card to the nearest branch, it's not the nearest branch to him and they didn't tell him which branch. Natwest also has history of unethical credit issuance to students. A student, was given overdraft of GBP1000 and GBP500 credit card. He overspent with both. Instead of stopping his craze, Natwest increase the overdraft limit as well as the credit card limit. He overspent again. In the end, Natwest offered a loan with 21% interest to pay up the overdraft. Took him 5 years to clear this up. He is not alone. Apparently, many similar complains are found on the web.
It gets worse actually. Natwest under their parent company Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) reportedly has been doing dubious businesses using their customers' money. For example, The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline which is considered to be an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe in the making, and it breaches the bank’s code of conduct (Source: Friends of the Earth). NatWest also collaborated with the Nazi regime appropriating money from Jews. They have admitted they have a large number of unclaimed Holocaust-era deposits but they refuse to publish their lists of depositors.
That's my story with Natwest. I'm sure you got yours. Currently, I do most of my banking with HSBC. Yeah, the have their own problems, particularly in the loss of medical and insurance details of 370,000 customers in 2008, but so far I'm more satisfied with them than with Natwest. Compare to Natwest, HSBC is international bank proper. You can easily find their branches everywhere around the globe. This is welcomed by international student like me who love to travel. Plus, as of 2009, HSBC is both the world's largest banking group and the world's 6th largest company according to Forbes Magazine. Abbey (now Santander) is also a good alternative. They are the largest bank in euro area in market capitalization. They now offer Zero Credit Card which impose absolute 0% on foreign exchange fee, cash advance fee and others.
