NatWest business profile faff

NatWest business profile faff

Author
Discussion

Joscal

Original Poster:

2,223 posts

207 months

Monday 5th June 2023
quotequote all
https://www.yourbusinessprofile.natwest.co.uk/

Anyone else struggling with this? We’ve been in business for over 50 years and are being asked for documents that don’t exist. It’s very frustrating indeed and the helpline are useless.

It’s also pretty intrusive asking about ownership structure etc.

It seems to be NatWest only as far as I know which is a bit odd..


StevieBee

13,583 posts

262 months

Monday 5th June 2023
quotequote all
Nope - all the main ones do this.

Had the same with HSBC and ignored the letters as they looked like photocopies of photocopies so thought it was a scam. Only acted as I was in a branch and asked their business manager about them.... he didn't know and had to go and check.

A company I do a lot of work with bank with Lloyds. Similarly disregarded the request for the same reason and had all their accounts frozen - taking over a month to reinstate them.




Joscal

Original Poster:

2,223 posts

207 months

Tuesday 6th June 2023
quotequote all
Thanks Steviebee.

Louis Balfour

27,695 posts

229 months

Tuesday 6th June 2023
quotequote all
StevieBee said:
Nope - all the main ones do this.

Had the same with HSBC and ignored the letters as they looked like photocopies of photocopies so thought it was a scam. Only acted as I was in a branch and asked their business manager about them.... he didn't know and had to go and check.

A company I do a lot of work with bank with Lloyds. Similarly disregarded the request for the same reason and had all their accounts frozen - taking over a month to reinstate them.
We had the same with HSBC and Barclays.

Some of the questions we didn't even understand.

When we got to "What is the prettiest element in the periodic table?" and "We're thinking of a country, a fruit and a mode of transport. The third letter of each spells what?" we tried to call both banks. Hours and hours on hold, calls not returned.

HSBC froze one of our accounts, whilst we were trying to contact them.

The banks have to do this, they don't want to because it earns them no money, and most individuals / business are as important to them as the chewing gum on the sole of their shoe. Which is why we are where we are with it.




C5_Steve

4,849 posts

110 months

Tuesday 6th June 2023
quotequote all
As above, all banks are/have done this in some way shape or form (called remediation). Depending on how long ago you opened your account they're needing to go back and fill in the blanks for information they didn't collect at the account opening stage.

Most if not all of the big banks handle this pretty atrociously as they're using a blanket approach for every account meaning you get asked the same questions whether you're a one-man band selling flowers or a multi-employee tech company (pretty much), meaning most of the questions aren't relevant and don't make sense, plus they won't help you complete it meaning there's every chance if you get it wrong they'll just give you notice of closing the account weeks later.

It's probably worth persevering as if you were to switch now you'd probably end up having to give most of the same info to a new bank.


cheeky_chops

1,603 posts

258 months

Tuesday 6th June 2023
quotequote all
Joscal said:
https://www.yourbusinessprofile.natwest.co.uk/

Anyone else struggling with this? We’ve been in business for over 50 years and are being asked for documents that don’t exist. It’s very frustrating indeed and the helpline are useless.

It’s also pretty intrusive asking about ownership structure etc.

It seems to be NatWest only as far as I know which is a bit odd..
With HSBC since 2019 - opened a 2nd company in June 2022 and had same. Their web application said our company structure wasnt compliant even though exactly the same as previous one (accountant set up both). Had to wait weeks for telephone process only to have the rudest guy ever literally shouting i was wrong and system was right. Sent accountant letters, company house docs, ignored for weeks.

Eventually lost will to live (complained to head office) and opened with Lloyds which was fairly uneventful. More login, pw, interfaces, secret handshakes etc...

Joscal

Original Poster:

2,223 posts

207 months

Tuesday 6th June 2023
quotequote all
Glad I'm not alone, helpline has been worse than useless. I don't have the documents and never will but not one person has actually helped.

Computer says no.

Louis Balfour

27,695 posts

229 months

Tuesday 6th June 2023
quotequote all
cheeky_chops said:
With HSBC since 2019 - opened a 2nd company in June 2022 and had same. Their web application said our company structure wasnt compliant even though exactly the same as previous one (accountant set up both). Had to wait weeks for telephone process only to have the rudest guy ever literally shouting i was wrong and system was right. Sent accountant letters, company house docs, ignored for weeks.

Eventually lost will to live (complained to head office) and opened with Lloyds which was fairly uneventful. More login, pw, interfaces, secret handshakes etc...
Ah, you should I have said you were a Mexican drug cartel, your account would have been opened in a matter of minutes.


plasticpig

12,932 posts

232 months

biggiles

1,836 posts

232 months

Tuesday 13th June 2023
quotequote all
Similar experience to OP, but got it done in the end.

Was lucky with a helpful person on the helpdesk who sorted out some problems with the fiddly online "ownership" tool.