Check Your Account Still Pays Interest
I had a little old-fashioned passbook account here since the '80s. Last week I closed it. Here's why.
The interest paid on the passbook account was nominal, but I never kept that much in it or used it very much. I usually dealt with the Reddish branch, but on one occasion recently, when they were closed, I had cause to make a deposit at Bramhall. A very helpful lady in Bramhall told me the account hasn't paid interest in several years, and the last transaction I made, the teller should have told me - she didn't. I was upgraded to a new version of the same account. The last teller on the transaction record who should have done that several years ago was "Sarah" at Reddish. So I lost money because of her, but I was to meet her again.
It seems when they withdraw interest on a product, they don't write and tell you. Sneaky eh?
A few weeks ago, I called in Reddish to pay in £2k in cash. Not a King's ransom, and well under any UK reporting requirements. The woman there started grilling me as to the source of funds. Remember this is just £2k, not £20k. I straightened her out, and the deposit was made. But it bugged me. Guess who the teller was who decided to give me the Spanish Inquisition about my own money? Yes, the same Sarah.
Back when I opened this account, I was a young, struggling bloke with a small business. I used it to tuck a few bob away, and I bought my first house with money saved there. Nowadays, I'm regarded as a HNWI, I use private banking now, and I only really kept it for nostalgia, as none of their products paid a decent enough rate of interest anyway. However, I still tossed a few quid in it now and again. Just money to forget about. Maybe I'll be de-banked one day, who knows?
I am fully conversant with KYC rules, and I know the unnecessary suspicious grilling I was given by the Sarah woman, the same woman who lost me some interest while the account was dormant, by not telling me the interest on the account had been revoked, was unnecessary. What was also unnecessary was her supercilious attitude.
A week or two later, it still didn't sit well with me. So next time I was passing, I decided to close the account. I went into Reddish to do this. A customer for some 37 years. They closed it without a murmur or question. At the very least, I'd have expected someone to ask if there was a problem, could they help, or offer a more suitable product, etc. No attempt at customer retention shows me they are all asleep at the wheel.
29. Oktober 2025
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