Natwest Student Account Review

“The way my account has been dealt with is absolutely...”

Written on: 12/10/2010

The way my account has been dealt with is absolutely APPALLING. I went in on 16th of Sept 2010 with all my evidence and opened the account and was told that my cards etc would be arriving within the week. THREE weeks later I received a letter through to my address - but with completely the wrong name on it. I then called up a branch and tried to re-open an account over the phone, and was told that my account was open and I would still qualify for a railcard (the account has to be open by a certain day to qualify for it). I rang up the railcard number to check and they told me that in fact this wasn't the case and I would have to go into a branch and show them my evidence, regardless of the fact that another branch already had photocopies of everything. When I went into the branch they told me that actually they DIDN'T need to see it and that everything was fine, and that my cards would be sent out to me soon. About a week later I have just received a letter saying they DO need to see my evidence and that I have to go into a branch yet AGAIN. Only when this is done can I get any information to finally get my railcard. I applied well within the deadline for the railcard yet for reasons which aren't my fault at all, I have only just persuaded them to actaully let me get one, and it looks like i won't get it for at least another 2 weeks, which will be almost SIX WEEKS since I first set up my account. I am livid that I've been dealt with in this way because I planned to use my railcard recently but because of Natwest's incompetence I still haven't been able to apply for it completely so I will have to use the full price. I would say to people thinking of applying for a Natwest account in order to get the railcard that unless you have the patience of a saint and the determination to go through all their ridiculous red tape, it would be less effort and quicker to just buy a railcard independently and have nothing to do with Natwest at all.