The Anonymous Widower

Bankers Don’t Get It Do They!

My bank, Nationwide, has just made me an offer.  If I pay them ten pounds a month, I get a special account, which gives me the following benefits.

1. Free worldwide travel insurance for you and your family, including winter sports, golf, wedding and business cover
2. Free Worldwide mobile phone insurance
3. Free UK & European breakdown cover
4. 3% AER (2.96% gross p.a.) variable in-credit interest on balances up to £2,500

Is this a joke?

They say it’s designed to make my life simple.

Let’s take each point.

Starting with the travel insurance.

I don’t have any family, who are dependent on me. I don’t do winter sports or golf. I don’t have any plans to get married and my business, if I have anything is enjoying myself.

I suppose I do need some form of travel insurance, but at the moment, I’ve no plans to go outside of an area, where I get decent healthcare on my EHIC.

The mobile phone insurance is irrelevant, as I use a £10 phone for my communications. If I lost it, I’d just buy another in the nearest O2 shop for a tenner.

Is the third point about breakdown insurance serious?  I don’t have a car.

But I reserve my highest condemnation for the derisory interest rate on savings.  I’m getting a safeguarded five percent on over a hundred thousand pounds with Zopa. So it’s not government guaranteed, but the company is run by people with intelligence and not a wunch of bankers.

There is no mention of the features I would like.

1. Text messages every time, a transaction over a particular amount happens on a credit card or bank account.
2. Annotated statements, that allow me to comment on transactions. Taken to its logical conclusion, you could even add a cost code, which could then be used by software to create a simple set of accounts.
3. Full tracing on cashpoints, I’ve used.  I’ve noticed that the records of those  I used in Switzerland are much more detailed than the one I used yesterday in Islington.
4. Customisation of my bank account, so that I set levels for alerts, withdrawals etc.

There is an opportunity out there and the first bank to go that way, gets my business.

May 21, 2013 - Posted by AnonW | Business, Finance | Banks, Zopa