JEFF PRESTRIDGE: Harold Fry won’t find a Lloyds bank branch!

Seven days ago, I chuckled (and cried) my way through the movie adaptation of Rachel Joyce’s wonderful book The Unlikely Pilgrimage by Harold Fry.

It is a life-affirming story about an elderly gentleman’s epic journey on foot to visit a former colleague (Queenie) before she dies in the hospice where she has been admitted.

For Harold, the walk – from Devon to Berwick-upon-Tweed – is both painful and cathartic. Painful because the loafers he wears leave his feet battered and blistered. Cathartic because the journey allows him to accept the long-standing guilt he has felt over his gifted son’s suicide – a death that caused a rift in his marriage to Maureen.

To the main point I want to make. Before the film (which I urge you to watch), I was ‘treated’ to the latest Lloyds advert.

The bank’s ads are always worth checking out – who couldn’t be enchanted by a mix of graceful horses and Alicia Keys singing Girl On Fire. But not necessarily for the main message Lloyds desperately wants to get across to viewers – that it’s a nice, cuddly, all-inclusive bank rather than a company that made £2.3bn in profits in the first quarter of this year, mainly due to many savers for a proverbial ride.

The current ad promotes the bank’s Smart Start, a combined savings and bank account for children ages 11 to 15. No problem, letting children save from an early age should be encouraged.

Still, the ad didn’t sit particularly well with the Tate household. Paul and Helen Tate live in Fulwell, Sunderland – within sight of the North Sea – and have been Lloyds customers for over 35 years. They are now in their 70’s and like to do their banking the traditional way – by visiting their local Lloyds branch. They are part of the 40 per cent of over 65s identified by the Age UK charity who have bank accounts but do not manage their money online. Unfortunately, banking becomes much more problematic for the Tates at the end of July, when Lloyds closes its Fulwell branch. The closure will bankrupt the community – it was once home to both Barclays and NatWest affiliates.

The pair will then have to travel to Sunderland to do their banking – not quite as epic a journey as Harold Fry’s, but an inconvenience nonetheless.

Paul, who works part-time at Asda, says a petition has been launched to keep the Lloyds branch open, but he has little hope. “It is very unfortunate that the branch is closing,” he told me last week. “The impact on local shops will be devastating, while it will create problems for many elderly residents who will have to travel into the city to use a bank branch.”

Age UK believes that face-to-face banking services should be protected so that communities like Fulwell are not left without a bank. It is an opinion that Paul shares.

“I have no problem with Lloyds targeting young people in its advertising,” he says. ‘But it would be nice if the bank, for a change, would respond to the special banking needs of the elderly, the 70 and 80 year olds. We are the forgotten ones.’

Why credit unions are an important part of the financial puzzle

Credit unions are low profile organizations that offer a mix of financial products – including savings accounts and loans – to groups of individuals whose affiliation is their profession (e.g. police or fire department) or where they live.

Seven days ago I came across credit union M4Money, who had a booth at a 10k running event I was participating in at Frimley Green in Surrey. M4Money draws members from a number of London boroughs, the counties of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire and hospitals such as Frimley Park. Like other credit unions, it is set up on a not-for-profit basis, with depositors providing the funds for M4Money to lend to those who need to borrow.

Savers, whose money is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, earn an annual dividend (the equivalent of interest). Borrowers get access to loans that a bank might not give them.

Credit unions are part of the country’s financial puzzle. Check out the Association of British Credit Unions website: www.abcul.coop.

Are bonuses the last straw for NFU Mutual members?

‘Tough conditions’: Chairman of NFU Mutual, Jim McLaren

The financial services company NFU Mutual is loved by most of its customers – something you can’t say about many of its rivals.

Last year it paid 97 percent of all claims for non-life insurance (home and car), delivered excellent customer service and rewarded loyal customers with a ‘mutual bonus’ (a premium discount) when they renewed their policies.

Still, 2022 has been a tough year for the Warwickshire-based company, as it admits in the mailing it just sent to some 900,000 customers (members) ahead of its annual general meeting next month.

Losses for the year, it reports, exceeded £1bn, though it stresses that the company remains robust and backed by mountains of capital.

“In 2022, we have experienced some of the most difficult market conditions in over 20 years,” admits chairman Jim McLaren. “But by prioritizing our relationship with our members, adapting calmly to change and working hard, NFU Mutual has helped our customers and will continue to do so for many years to come.” Reassuring words, but some clients are now starting to question their love affair with the mutual as a result of the nice financial packages given to the company’s executives (both past and present) last year.

The mailing confirms that despite the company’s losses, the four executive directors who sat on the mutual company’s board of directors in 2022 earned combined annual bonuses of more than £1 million – with CEO Nick Turner receiving the largest share (almost £477,000). Their total compensation was not much less than £3.3 million.

Even former boss Lindsay Sinclair, who left the company in March 2021, continued to share in the boardroom loot, receiving a payment of £310,674.

A customer I spoke to last week said the compensation paid to the directors (current and former) was “outrageous.” She added: “I am sure that many of the farmers who are core customers of NFU Mutual will be shocked by these amounts, especially given the difficulties they face in surviving in the business.”

Fair point, I say. Expect some fireworks when the group holds its AGM at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, Warwickshire on June 21.

Leaving a donation to a charity in your will meets many requirements

It can help reduce a potential inheritance tax bill (charity donations are IHT-free) – and it can also provide vital funds for a cause close to your heart.

A substantial charitable donation in a will can also result in being charged a lower IHT rate – 36 per cent instead of 40 per cent on assets above the £325,000 zero rate band.

So (chefs) hats off to Ken Hom – multi-talented author, BBC TV presenter and chef – for telling Donna Ferguson (our brilliant Me and My Money columnist) that he will leave Prostate Cancer UK a six-figure sum in his will. This is a charity that funds vital research into a cancer that kills one man every 45 minutes in the UK.

The gift stems from 74-year-old Hom who was successfully treated for prostate cancer ten years ago.

He has since become an ambassador for the charity.

Good on you, Ken.

Supporting wonderful charities like Prostate Cancer UK through giving, donations and fundraising is as cathartic as Harold Fry’s epic journey to see Queenie was.