The Halifax are running TV adverts proclaiming their new policy of opening their every branch each Saturday. That may be impressive in terms of retail banking but it doesn't appeal to me as a customer because, to be frank, I never want to go anywhere near a bank branch. Here is the list of services I want from my bank:
- Comprehensive online banking service - I want to see details of all my accounts; balances, payments, direct debits, standing orders and every other type of transaction.
- All my banking in one place - I have various accounts (current, saving and ISA) plus pensions, mortgages and share trading services spread over several vendors. It would be nice to consolidate them so that one bank supplied them all, giving me an accurate picture of my financial health.
- Access to competitive savings, mortgage and loan rates - the bank knows exactly what I have coming in to, and going out from, my accounts. They know how much I spend, how much I am paid and how much I save. They know which credit cards I have and how much I spend on them. They know how much is outstanding on my mortgage and how quickly it is being paid off. Strangely, they do not seem to use this information to tailor their offering - pretty much everyone gets access to the same basic set of products. It ought to be possible to examine my finances and offer me services that closely match my resources and requirements.
- A menu of other benefits in return for my monthly fee - some accounts, like Barclays’ Premier Life account, offer a number of non-banking services in return for a monthly fee. The idea is that Barclays are able to deliver services more cheaply than could be obtained by a customer buying them individually. Great, but what if you don’t want the services? Barclays offer travel insurance, airport lounge access and phone insurance, which I would use, and RAC membership and 24/7 which I would not. I’d like to see a list of services with a variable set of charges so I could choose the things that would make my life easier.
- Free access to transaction histories and other data - it’s my data, let’s set it free. I want to be able to download my transaction history into Excel, or grant access to my accounts to a specialised finance package, so that I can run my own analyses or otherwise keep track of my money. Granted, this is likely to be a rare use-case, but I would find it useful.
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