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natalyadI opened a bank account with the bank whose logo looks like a steaming turd. Their service can't be any worse than NatWest and they're open till 6 on my working days on my way home from work so I can do face to face banking like cashing cheques easily.
I had already called in and asked what I needed to open the account and was told just a passport. I chucked in a rent invoice, credit card statement and payslip just in case. I did just need the passport but could get the agent to copy things like my address from the paper rather than trying to read it out.
The agent was very pleasant but it was interesting seeing what assumptions she made about me. I said straight away I was a staff member and not a student (I don't think I pass as a student much these days anyway).
She asked what my title was suggesting Miss and Mrs, neither which I use, I'd prefer no title but was too tired to debate trying to go titleless so said "Ms". Later in the process I was asked my living situation and she wrote down single, I said I wasn't single and I was "civilised" and asked what status that was, she said "oh, living with partner"...
Then when filling in the credit checking thing which I presume needs to be accurate she clicked the boxes for "single" so again I said "I'm not legally single, I'm in a civil partnership" at which point she double-taked and said something about me not using the title Mrs. I don't think know a single civilised woman who has changed her title to Mrs...
She happily changed it to married/in civil partnership option the dropdown but it did make me wonder how much presumption there is made by titles or lack thereof and whether my friends are weird in not using Mrs very much and many preferring no title like myself, Ms if they must and sometimes Miss...
I will see if I get stupid calls on my mobile from the bank as I don't think the agent was able to make the mobile the non-preferred contact method. I was wary to give my mobile at all having said I had no landline and that being fine, but she did imply just for texts... If they phone it, I'll simply DPA them to remove the data from their records cos I can't answer it in voice.
The nice thing is for the uni branch only, and probably preferably from my uni email address I can email the agent if I have any questions and usually get a reply within a day which is nice. I wish all banks had email contact tho!
So yeah we'll see if this works smoothly. 7-10 days for bank cards and stuff, two batches of two things for phone and Internet banking in next 2 weeks.
I had already called in and asked what I needed to open the account and was told just a passport. I chucked in a rent invoice, credit card statement and payslip just in case. I did just need the passport but could get the agent to copy things like my address from the paper rather than trying to read it out.
The agent was very pleasant but it was interesting seeing what assumptions she made about me. I said straight away I was a staff member and not a student (I don't think I pass as a student much these days anyway).
She asked what my title was suggesting Miss and Mrs, neither which I use, I'd prefer no title but was too tired to debate trying to go titleless so said "Ms". Later in the process I was asked my living situation and she wrote down single, I said I wasn't single and I was "civilised" and asked what status that was, she said "oh, living with partner"...
Then when filling in the credit checking thing which I presume needs to be accurate she clicked the boxes for "single" so again I said "I'm not legally single, I'm in a civil partnership" at which point she double-taked and said something about me not using the title Mrs. I don't think know a single civilised woman who has changed her title to Mrs...
She happily changed it to married/in civil partnership option the dropdown but it did make me wonder how much presumption there is made by titles or lack thereof and whether my friends are weird in not using Mrs very much and many preferring no title like myself, Ms if they must and sometimes Miss...
I will see if I get stupid calls on my mobile from the bank as I don't think the agent was able to make the mobile the non-preferred contact method. I was wary to give my mobile at all having said I had no landline and that being fine, but she did imply just for texts... If they phone it, I'll simply DPA them to remove the data from their records cos I can't answer it in voice.
The nice thing is for the uni branch only, and probably preferably from my uni email address I can email the agent if I have any questions and usually get a reply within a day which is nice. I wish all banks had email contact tho!
So yeah we'll see if this works smoothly. 7-10 days for bank cards and stuff, two batches of two things for phone and Internet banking in next 2 weeks.
