Opening a bank account

I needed to open a new bank account today for various reasons. Its at least 22 years since I last opened a personal account and I was in for a shock...

I somewhat naively assumed that one could simply walk into the bank of choice and ask to open an account and that would be it. We'll 2 hours later I walked out with 3 bank accounts and a new credit card. "Would you like fries with your happy meal Sir?" came to mind.

The most amazing thing about it was I went in with a fixed idea of what I wanted and within 10 minutes I was totally confused and asked for a piece of paper to draw it on! It turns out I needed an ISA, a Flex and a Savings account. Goodness knows why. I can put so much into an ISA, I can save so much a month to a savings and the overflow goes in the flex. Nightmare. BUT I can manage it all on line except the ISA which I need to present a physical book at the bank in order to access it.

Ah well, at least I now have £2 in 2 accounts that I'm not sure I'll ever need, and before too long I'll also have a Comic Relief credit card wich pays the charity every time I use it (like never).


Best bit of all was the bank I chose is in Marlborough, my favourite town and I got to sit and be served tea while I signed the forms. I can pop in and out in no time at all and I feel like I know the people there now. They were very pleasant. If I have trouble with the internet banking I can phone the lady that sold me the account and not speak to some invisible call centre in some far flung place. All in all it was a fascinating experience, but not one I'd like to go through again.

Something that surprised me was the forms I had to fill in. They all looked "nearly the same" but were different enough for me to make mistakes on each time. Even the date format required differed between forms. Now that is pretty poor for a major bank to get wrong I would have thought. Made me think about what I do at work - mental note to self - check everything is consistent.