Another Banking Fail – Bank of Scotland

Maybe you’re like me – a hard working sort who gets on with making a living, and expects the professionals to do a decent job?

In which case I’ll encourage you to get your finances reviewed by an independent outfit. Here’s the story.

We bank with Bank of Scotland. Some while ago the local manager called and suggested we change our current account. The interest rate on overdraft was increasing to 22%.

Not me says I. I have this special deal where paying £70 per year for the special credit card gets me rates at 2% over base.

Oh she says, we stopped doing that three years ago. So I’m paying annual fees for a card and premium rates for overdraft. Shit, was I pissed off. BOS had made a complete f*** up of my business account and now the local branch is screwing me as well.

OK, so we’re private clients – we can get the latest special deal, if we pay £150 arrangement fee of course. GRRRRR.

But that’s nothing compared to the pensions review. Asked to let them review our pension plans we journey to the office 50 miles away and sit through a meeting, passing over all details. They’ll get back to us.

Six months later I ask the question. Where are your recommendations for my pensions. Answer – Oh, there must be no improvements we can make. Fair enough.

A year goes by. We get a call from another pension adviser asking us to go to another meeting, for another review.

Well that doesn’t make sense, so we decide on a second opinion and ask Richard at ForbesLawson to take a look.

Today he tells me the whole deal is a crock of sh*t. My largest plan is in a deposit account. Last year it returned 0.1%.

So it turns out Bank of Scotland is screwing with my business (another story), ripping me off on charges, and letting my investments wallow in the mire.

Bank of Scotland – Wankers!