Natwest / Royal Bank of Scotland have recently been plugging their new “impartial advice service”, MoneySense, which is currently available in over 1,000 of their branches.
The service aims to give Natwest customers, as well as customers of other banks, advice on all areas of their finances, and is not meant to be a sales vehicle for the bank; merely an impartial advice service for those that want it.
It’s an interesting step from the Natwest/RBS group, aimed at reassuring the public amidst all the turmoil in the banking industry.
The initiative has been setup with the help of the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), and the in-branch staff have been trained to discuss matters such as loans, credit cards and mortgages. They should be able to help people with budgeting, keeping their outgoings to a minimum and to help them understand financial products.
Whilst many might see it as a cynical attempt to get people into their branches to flog them more expensive financial products, Natwest will nevertheless be hoping that it will help to regain some trust in the bank and of course, that it should help to retain or gain new customers in the future.
On the face of it this looks like it could be a very useful scheme, but I’m interested in hearing the experiences of those who’ve tried it out. The service can only be as good as the advice it’s offering, so if you’ve spoken to a MoneySense advisor, I’d like to find out your thoughts on the service and the advice you were given.
Leave your feedback in the comments below.
photo credit: Knuckl3s