Our first job was to open a bank account for the trust to receive funds. Russ contacted the Lloyds TSB branch in Ludgate Hill near his office in London and arranged an appointment with them to sign all the papers and open the account when I was next in London. Lloyds texted a confirmation to him the day before and a reminder to bring passports etc for identification purposes.
So far, so good.
We arrived at the appointed time to be told:
"We know nothing about an appointment and there's no-one here at present who knows any thing about trusts. That's Head Office for you, they often do this to us, sorry. Can you come another day?"
We then explained that we had come a long way and really needed to get this done so they found someone to deal with us. We duly filled in all the forms but were told near the end of this process that we would be unable to have online banking on a trust account. This would make it very inconvenient for us running the account but they told us that this was a regulatory requirement, not Lloyds own rules.
On leaving the branch we noticed there was an HSBC branch nearby so we thought we would call in on the off chance and just check about the online rules for trust accounts.
The contrast was light and day.
Zak Islam greeted us by the door in a friendly and professional manner and when we mentioned our experience and that we were seeking to open a trust account asked us to wait whilst he spoke to the expert.
After offering us a seat and a drink he came back and said that yes it was possible to open an online account with a trust account and if we could wait a few minutes the trust expert would be able to see us. He established that with HSBC we could, after all, have online facilities for a trust account.
Five minutes later we were sat with Vicky Morgan. Ten minutes later we had filled in all the forms, had our ID certified, the trust deed copied and been informed that the account would be open within 24 hours.
We were extremely impressed with Vicky who helped us with the somewhat complicated forms, was professional and courteous and genuinely appeared to want our trust account business.
She rang the next day to confirm that the account is open as promised and we are both very happy clients.
Vicky and Zak are a credit to HSBC and it is great to know that HSBC invests in and clearly values training, customer service and employing quality people.
I am very happy therefore to give a Golden Helicopter Award to HSBC, St. Pauls Churchyard and Zak Islam and Vicky Morgan
After leaving HSBC we went back to the Lloyds TSB branch and asked them not to process our papers or open the account. They said that would be fine.
Epilogue:
Three days later we received a letter from Lloyds TSB telling us our account was open and the next day we received paying in books!
Lloyds TSB get an extremely well deserved Ditched Helicopter Award for lousy service
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