Aweful Service

Bloody hell, frustration at it's best. So here's the thing. I go and open a new account at my bank. They say they can't send the card to my address and I'll have to pickit up from the bank. Ok no problem.

Week later I go on, 'My card here then?'. Oh, no it's not. Seems there was some problems or something. There's a block on my account from ordering cards of any type. 'Wha...?'. So they unblock me and I wait another week and a bit. 'Sorry your card has been destroyed'.

'WHAT?' Seems the first card DID come or something they wouldn't be clear about it, so for whatever reason I still didn't have my card. So I order another one. So I go to sign up for paypal. Register my new bank account to it. But they can't send the funds for confirming because 'My account is not registered for Direct Debit'.

It's 2am so I can't do anything. But godamnit. Raged!

Natwest?

Get a first direct account, they don't have branches so they can't make you come in ;)

banks are rediculous. just tried to get some cash from the atm 3 (business) days after depositing my paycheck... denied... says i have a balance of -$6... checked online almost $2000.

things like this are common there and nobody will help you. they just say, oh wait a few more days and it'll clear itself up. but... if you need money for something for something crazy, like, oh.... say, i dunno.... food? and you can't get it, not because you don't have enough money, or because the check hasn't been in there for the standard 24 hours of processing, it seems unfair that the bank would just tell you to deal with it when it has nothing to do with anything you did...

never going back to a credit union

I've never known a bank to clear a cheque in less than 5 working days (unless it was from the same bank). It has to be processed at your bank then a request has to be sent to the other bank and they have to process the request and send the money and then your bank has to process that. I remember when it was 10 working days (so 2 weeks) to clear a cheque.
Cheques aren't money, they can't let you spend the money until they have confirmed that the cheque is legit and didn't bounce.

usually, as i've had several different employers since i joined my bank, the first check takes 4 days to clear as it's from an untrusted source, thereafter the cash from a payroll check is available for withdrawl the next day (business). i've come to expect it from them, when they break with their tradition.... it's inconvenient and causes problems