Most helpful bank

When your bank starts sending a few forest's worth of paperwork are they being helpful or simply wasting a lot of money and time?.

I’ve been sent a personal annual statement by NatWest. Twelve pages plus a four page cover. I didn’t ask for it, and for the life of me I don’t know what it is for. It would be helpful if they could send me a tax voucher every April. They don’t. It would be helpful if they reminded me from time what rate was being paid on my savings account, which information is not to be found in this book. It is not helpful to learn that the fifth biggest area of debit card spend was Trenance Chocolate (holiday in Cornwall), and I did not wish to be reminded how much I spend on wine. The list of Direct Debits and Standing Orders is a useful check, but I already have my own list anyway.

This exercise must be costing the bank a fortune. I doubt it will be a selling point for new customers, and I can’t see that it would stop existing customers from defecting, if that is what they had made up their minds to do. The service I get from NatWest is great. The Direct Debits pay the bills. The ATM disgorges tenners to order . I ‘phone the branch once in a blue moon, and they are always as helpful as they are polite. I have no complaints whatsoever.

Except that someone somewhere seems to want to ram down my throat his or her belief that they are the most helpful bank. I can’t know, because I don’t have accounts with all the others. Methinks they doth protest too much.

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