We've Moved Banks - Here's Why!

We Say Goodbye to the Royal Bank of Scotland

We were not surprised when we were forewarned. We had seen that RBS had targets to shed some of their small business clients, and with the recent branch closures, banking with RBS was becoming more difficult. 

On 30th July 2018 our local RBS branch was among the 160+ branches of RBS closing for good throughout 2018. Our branch was part of the RBS division which was to be transferred / sold to Santander, that fell through, and it was then going to be floated off as Williams and Glyns, that also fell through.With our next closest branch 6 miles away closing later the same year; our current closest branch was now in the next town, Preston. With the branch closures affecting our day to day business banking, RBS was unable to facilitate 21st century banking without visiting the branch such as scanning cheque deposits. Instead, we were forced to visit their sister branches NatWest who knew nothing about our business. 

We suspect RBS are still under pressure to lose some business accounts, so are jacking up charges, not caring whether customers stay or go, RBS win either way. This is why we decided to change. 

Finding a New Banking Provider

Finding a new banking provider is nothing new to us. We started banking with District Bank in 1964 or possibly earlier. District Bank merged with National Provincial to become National Westminster, a.k.a. Natwest. The bank mergers brought policy changes, and eventually  we started to dislike things at Natwest.

We moved to Barclays, but did not stay long so we changed to Yorkshire Bank, who were great for many years, until they got taken over by National Australian Bank. We suspect NAB wanted less exposure to businesses in our area, but failed to tell us. They went from great to awful, so we shopped around and found RBS, with whom we had about 20 good years, until... their reckless spending spree, near bust, rescue and bail-out.

We began searching for a new provider in March 2019 but unfortunately, most banks were unable to provide their services as they struggled to associate us as a retail business, presuming we were solely an investment firm with a high risk for them. 

After trying a handful of banks, we finally received the green light from Barclays, albeit that was a hassle within itself. Due to the nature of compliance we had to remove our foreign currency exchange as one of our services, much to the dismay of our local customers. You can read more about that here.

The amount of documentation we have had to provide and forms to fill in in order to facilitate a smooth transition has blown our minds. Lawrence doesn't recall as much compliance from when we last changed banks the two times before we found RBS. We think most of our customers would be in shock, especially as some think our compliance and due diligence checks are irritating. 

Our New Banking Details

We appreciate our loyal customers who have been with us as long as we have been with RBS, but now the time has come to update those pre-installed bank details so your order is not delayed. Please get in contact with us if you need our new banking details.