Royal Bank of B.S.

I was amazed to read this. Full story here.

Apparently, if you work for any of the Royal Bank of Scotland's banks, including National Westminster Bank, who I have my account with, you have a contractual obligation to open an account with them.

If you do not, you face a disciplinary action.

I was astonished. As trade union Amicus put it: People who work at Tescos don't get reprimanded if they get their shopping from Sainsburys.

It's disgusting, to be honest. In a free market economy, this kind of behaviour is ridiculously Victorian - no different to old factory workers being paid in "chips" that could only be redeemed in factory owned shops.

What makes it worse is that it's just one additional drawback to a career with an RBS bank. The rate of pay Nat West offers it's staff, for example is appalling; considerably below the local average. It's crazy, considering these are the very same people trusted to handle thousands of pounds of other people's money per day.

A full time Nat West cashier works six days a week for around £11,000 a year. In another company, a similar entry level position could only involve five days of work a week and you would expect to receive £13,000 in return.

Appalling pay, longer hours - and now draconian rules insisting that you bank your pitiful wages with the very company that employs you. It's no different to the 19th century "chip shops" I mentioned above.

It's not even as if having a National Westminster Account carries any advantages. A Halifax building society account offers considerably higher levels of interest. I can certainly understand why Royal Bank of Scotland employees wouldn't feel enthusiastic about switching their existing accounts to one that offers them less return for the same money.

Perhaps I'm just feeling cynical. I do most of my banking with Nat West because I have been with the bank since I was seven years old. I have a Nat West Current Account, Nat West Car Insurance and a Nat West credit card.

Recently Tina and I paid off our credit card balance the day it was due. Money from my Nat West account was transferred to my Nat West credit card. However, despite being an 'internal transaction' between two sections of the same bank, the transfer itself took three days. Tina and I were fined for not paying off the credit card on the due day AND we lost three days interest on our money. As you can imagine, neither of us were terribly impressed.

As it happened, Tina complained and we received a credit on our account to make up for the fine. However, we still find that transfers between our two Nat West accounts take three days.

Where does this money go? Why does the transfer take three days? Who collects the interest? Nat West, of course, on my account and thousands like it.

What is the benefit of having a credit card with your bank if we receive no advantage from it? In point of fact, we're being penalised for our loyalty instead of rewarded.

With poor customer service like that, it's no wonder that 15,000 Royal Bank of Scotland employees currently bank with other financial bodies. But although the Royal Bank of Scotland has declared: "Our staff are completely at liberty to run other accounts with other providers if they wish," they will still be filing internal disciplinary procedure with all staff members who refuse to have their salary paid into a Royal Bank of Scotland account.

It's simply appalling. Royal Bank of Scotland - I am very disappointed. It's astonishing behaviour like this that makes me seriously consider closing my account.