I don't give a damn if you open on Saturdays (when you have a business account they don't credit cheque payments until Monday anyway), or if you are the only bank open in a town (you aren't in mine), or if you open late (again, payments after 3.30pm don't count anyway). How about when a business moves from Barclays to you on the basis that we'll get "better service" - you actually deliver it?? All we want to do is allow our customers to pay for renewals using debit or credit cards (transaction value <£120) and they tell us we haven't been trading long enough. How long do we have to trade for before we can take this by debit card? I'm hardly going to do a runner for £120!
This entire Natwest promotion is a load of flannel in my opinion - they are not actually doing anything that matters. Let's face it, opening for an extra hour in a town where they are the only bank (which will be a small town) could involve a VERY small number of staff (who would probably have to be there anyway). It's nonsense and just another example of how these companies make it look as if they are serving their customers whilst actually not doing anything that could potentially cost them money or expose them to any risk.
We don't have a bank overdraft and our business is prudently managed and entirely self funded - I'd love to know why us taking debit card payments presents any sort of risk to the bank when I am building a sustainable and profitable business. I'd like to know how we can have such a massive jump in our turnover, move from a home business to a small office, and then a bigger office, and employ seven people but our Business Manager (hah!) doesn't notice!
Come on Natwest - pull your fingers out and DO something real for the thousands of small businesses setup in the last two years who are driving the current recovery!
And they wonder why everyone hates bankers!