Natwest Bank

A couple of days ago I had the misfortune of having to withdraw £1,500 from my bank account in cash to pay some dodgy builder for some work... cash in hand. Now I have to admit that withdrawing such a large amount of cash is not (thankfully) a frequent task, so being Mr Sensible I decided to ring the branch first to check out what I needed to do. They said it was no problem, just bring your Cash Card with you and some form of ID, Driving License or Passport, excellent I thought, that's easy, so off I went to the bank with Cash Card and both forms of ID (just in case !).

After waiting what seemed like forever to actually get to a counter, I passed across by Cash Card, Driving License and Passport and requested £1,500 in cash from my account, the assistant looked at me and said I needed my cheque book to withdraw money, sorry I said, I have just rung the bank and they told me to bring down my Cash Card and ID, well that was wrong advice Sir !!!!, I could already feel my blood starting to boil, so I asked her to make sure her advise wasn't in fact wrong, so off she went, came back 2 minutes latter and said it was fine, great I thought.

Next she goes I need to ask you some security questions so that we can prove you are who you say you are, at this point I was amazed, I told her I have brought in some ID, in fact my Passport which is the most universal recognised form of ID in the world, the little red book that gets me into any country, which is recognised by every country in the world as my ID, but clearly not in the Natwest Bank, I could not believe it, so you make me bring my passport down to the bank and then ignore it. So off we went with the questions, date of birth, mothers maiden name, name of first shag type of stuff, then came the question which sent me over the top, for what purpose is the money sir ?... what.... did I hear you right ?, you are asking me what I am going to use my money for ?, I angrily said it was non of their business, she said that she had to ask as part of the security questions, and I said sod off as its non of your business and asked to see the manager as I was so fed up with what was going on.

I waited 10 minutes for the manager to arrive, when questioned she said it was all banks policy to ask such a question and it was to do with money laundering, I said this was stupid, people do not put money into a bank account to launder it, and certainly not £1,500 !, so I said OK I'll tell you what its for, I am going to buy drugs with it, and I need it now because I and starting to get withdrawal symptoms, so is that OK ?, I got my money and left in utter disgust.