Bank manners
Sir: The attitude of the Banks to their customers has long been at variance with their advertising campaigns. Barclays' advertising boys may well see the £50,000 which they proclaim as the shortly- to-be-weds' lifetime earnings, but the branch managers obviously see something different.
In the course of a twelvemonth my own bank have had to be chased to send statements at the requested bi-monthly intervals; credited two amounts paid into my current account to my son's deposit account; into the bargain they make charges which it is Impossible to contest. At least with the gas and electricity people you have got a meter so that you can see it mount- ing up!
They arrange their hours so as to make it as difficult as possible for people to use them, and then, crass stupidity, ensure that as many clerks as possible take their lunch break between one and two.
Meanwhile I have switched to Giro, which is cheaper, prompter, and provides me with an up-to-date statement whenever I pay money in. Giro has its defects : the main one being that for some idiotic reason you may not withdraw your own money from your own account on two consecutive days.
But if I was you Mrs Worthing- ton I certainly wouldn't put your daughter (or son) into one of the clearing banks: his job is clearly going to become redundant unless the Banks themselves move into the twentieth century. And that doesn't mean (as Barclays seem to think) issuing me with four Barclaycards when I really only asked for two.
Martin Folkard 67 Beaulieu Avenue, Sydenham sE26
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