WTF is going on with Banking?? My wife and I want to transfer a couple of our ISAs from the local building society into a Barclays one year fixed rate deal. What a palaver! Firstly it's not possible to do this online - it must be a branch visit. Okay, in these days of money laundering etc. I accept that so let's pop into the local Barclays then... What I wasn't prepared for is the fact that Barclays have closed all their branches in the Vale of Glamorgan so it means going into the Wales head office in Cardiff. Not impressed, but let's pop in there, then. Obviously I phoned first and eventually, after four and a half minutes on the phone, I got through to a human being. I won't bother you with a precis of the conversation but in short the first possible appointment is March 15th. Yes, six weeks away.... and the bugger wasn't even apologetic, let alone embarrassed about it!

Now perhaps I'm an old fuddy-duddy but I can remember the days when if you wanted to bring almost 100K into a bank you were warmly welcomed into the manager's office, given a cup of tea and even a biscuit or two while his minions scurried off to do the paperwork. After 10 or 20 minutes you got a handshake and a couple of brochures and off you went. You weren't expected to wait six weeks before you got gracious permission to sit in front of some oik in a cheap suit to get his assent to give him your money. There was a lot wrong with the 'good old days' but sometimes I think we threw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.