Nat West

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr­rrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
This bank is absolute shite. Natwest are pretty bad generally when there are any problems as I have found in my experience, but this branch takes the biscuit. Found in Bristo Square, you’d think with the majority of their clients being students they’d be used to idiots like me that spunked all their money so had to extend their overdraft. No shuch luck dear readers. God knows how many times they messed it up with the result being a bounced direct debit meaning I then couldn’t extend it for another 6 months. Jesus Cristo amigos!
Combine this with staff that are generally pretty rude and unhelpful and there is no reason to go here. Actually Natwest may have thought of this and out of sympathy to us made it impossible to get into; with frankly ludicrous opening times (it shuts at half 2, pretty much breakfast for most students), and the helpful decision to close it for all of the summer months, there is almost no way of actually getting anything done. This means that you have to trek down to George Street to sort out something Natwest have probably messed up in the first place.
Tools.

Ok, I’m not reviewing Natwest as a bank here. If I was, this review would just be a slowly building crescendo of abuse and swearing ending with me just putting a big red line through the whole thing. If you’re a student, don’t bank with them, they’re awful. So instead, I’m reviewing this particuarl branch from the perspective of someone who spent four years as a student here.
First of all, it’s very convenient if you have lectures on George Sq. As Fiona rightly points out, the opening hours are sporadic at best. They close all summer, which is incredibly irritating. However, during term time it’s a very useful spot.
After I lost my card in second year Natwest told me they’d sent it up to this branch. They didn’t, they just kept continually messing up. However, Linda in this branch (if you’ve been there more than once you’ll know who Linda is), was really understanding and sympathetic, and tried to do everything she could. I went in everyday for nearly a month and she did, eventually, sort it out. It’s a decent branch apart from the opening hours, it’s just a shame Natwest are so terrible.

These guys are to student banking what Grant Management is to sudent letting agencies.
One of the reasons I was stupid enough to get my student bank account with Natwest was because I knew they had a branch on campus.
That’ll be convenient, I thought. Or at least it would be if it were ever a) open more than a few hours a day or b) had more than one person working there at a time. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
On top of that, when you do finally get to the front of the queue you often find that the form you need isn’t available in this tiny branch, and so you end up having to trek all the way up to George Street anyway.
Natwest, either open a branch here or don’t. But make your mind up.