Random questions
Feb. 19th, 2009 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustI've been thinking for some time of moving my bank account to the Co-op, and this morning, encouraged by a recent (f-locked) post by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
weegoddess which was entirely positive about the Co-op Bank, I called in to the local branch. I do most of my banking online, so my plan had been simply to pick up a leaflet about the account I had already identified as the most suitable, to save myself the pain of printing off a bulky pdf. But - since the account has to be set up in person in the branch (and they then post the documentation to you), I ended up spending half an hour with a member of staff filling in forms and setting up the account.
There's a daunting form to be filled in, but it isn't as bad as it looks, because when you say "No, I do not have motor insurance," you turn over two pages, and likewise for house contents and travel (such of these as we actually need are indurham_rambler's name, which doesn't always make my life easier, but certainly did on this occasion).
The question I was asked that I didn't expect to be asked: Marital status?. I'll repeat that: in the year 2009, I was asked for my marital status in order to open a bank account. No, this wasn't about preferred form of address, we'd already done that, and it wasn't about whether I wanted a joint account, because we'd already done that too. It's 'simply one of the questions we ask' - explained the nice staff member, who also said I was the first person in the five years she's been doing this job who had taken exception to it. At the Co-op.
*headdesk*
The questions I wasn't asked that I rather expected to be asked: 1) Are you a Co-op member? (Especially since when I volunteered the information, I was asked for my card, and will qualify for a divi on the savings account which is linked to the current one).
And 2) Do you have / want any other savings accounts? This is a bank, right? Yet they'd much rather sell me travel insurance than fancy savings accounts. I'm sure that's significant - but since I don't want any of their fancy savings accounts, I kept quiet about that one.
weegoddess which was entirely positive about the Co-op Bank, I called in to the local branch. I do most of my banking online, so my plan had been simply to pick up a leaflet about the account I had already identified as the most suitable, to save myself the pain of printing off a bulky pdf. But - since the account has to be set up in person in the branch (and they then post the documentation to you), I ended up spending half an hour with a member of staff filling in forms and setting up the account.There's a daunting form to be filled in, but it isn't as bad as it looks, because when you say "No, I do not have motor insurance," you turn over two pages, and likewise for house contents and travel (such of these as we actually need are in
durham_rambler's name, which doesn't always make my life easier, but certainly did on this occasion).The question I was asked that I didn't expect to be asked: Marital status?. I'll repeat that: in the year 2009, I was asked for my marital status in order to open a bank account. No, this wasn't about preferred form of address, we'd already done that, and it wasn't about whether I wanted a joint account, because we'd already done that too. It's 'simply one of the questions we ask' - explained the nice staff member, who also said I was the first person in the five years she's been doing this job who had taken exception to it. At the Co-op.
*headdesk*
The questions I wasn't asked that I rather expected to be asked: 1) Are you a Co-op member? (Especially since when I volunteered the information, I was asked for my card, and will qualify for a divi on the savings account which is linked to the current one).
And 2) Do you have / want any other savings accounts? This is a bank, right? Yet they'd much rather sell me travel insurance than fancy savings accounts. I'm sure that's significant - but since I don't want any of their fancy savings accounts, I kept quiet about that one.
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no subject
Date: 2009-02-19 05:43 pm (UTC)I don't remember them asking me that (my answer would have been 'none of your damn business') but the account I have is a business bank account, not an individual one.
Wow. I'm losing a bit of respect for them. They seem so progressive in every other aspect. And the staff really are wonderful, or have always been.
::ponders::
no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 10:29 am (UTC)Sooner or later, every bank lets you down - but I hadn't expected this of the Co-op.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-19 05:46 pm (UTC)Later, when we got to chatting a little, she asked why I preferred the neutral term, and I explained that I preferred to keep my marital status as unimportant as your average Mister. Then I asked why she had looked so surprised (other than that I was the very first person to request the modern address) and she said cheerily, "well, I was just thinking you didn't really look like One Of Them."
One of what?
"Oh, you know- a hairy-legged feminist!"
Slightly better than when my mother, a mother of three, needed to have a man- any man!- co-sign a simple bank loan a few years earlier. But not by much.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 10:31 am (UTC)I certainly don't picture you wearing sensible shoes.
But yeah, it's trivial compared to how things were not so very long ago!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-21 12:05 pm (UTC)Which I assume explains why male colleagues at work insist that I'm a "Mrs" even though I use "Ms".
I can't think of a reason off the top of my head why the bank should need to know your marital status.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 05:13 pm (UTC)Did you change your name (for work purposes) when you got married?
I can't think of a reason off the top of my head why the bank should need to know your marital status.
Nor could the bank.