Hi Everyone
I'm currently in the (extremely sloooow) process of switching my small business bank account from NatWest to Bank of Scotland.
I originally had 3 motivations for doing this:
- NatWest's customer service is pants
- Bank of Scotland pay a very much more generous rate of interest on credit balances (and my account is usually comfortably in credit) than NatWest, and also have lower charges
- My business has now grown to the point (approx 400K turnover) where the standard web-based banking was proving quite limiting, and I wanted to switch to a more sophisticated system that allowed higher transaction limits and automatic integration with my accounts software (Sage) for e-banking, and BoS's "Corporate Online" system seemed to meet my requirements very nicely
No 3 is not actually a compelling reason for switching banks, because NatWest also offer a similar service (but at a much higher cost), but it seemed sensible to think about switching if I was changing the way I bank anyway.
So, what do all you financial gurus think about the continued wisdom of switching to Bank of Scotland? Once Lloyds get their claws into it, what are the chances that they'll keep the same generous rates of interest, low bank charges, and good customer service? At this stage, it's not too late to stop the process and either stay with NatWest or find another bank to switch to.
Thanks
Adam