LEE BOYCE: Banks should reward us for our loyalty every ten years

Sometimes reading your letters is a real pleasure.

Keith, 71, a longtime Money Mail reader, was at the top of a pile of mail sent to our London office this week with a great idea that got me thinking.

You see, Keith and his wife, 76, have been banking with First Direct for exactly 30 years this month.

That makes them some of First Direct’s most loyal customers, as it was only set up as a telephone banking service by the old Midland Bank 34 years ago.

Still, as Keith points out, banks like First Direct typically only reward new customers with juicy perks.

Usually it’s around £200 if you agree to transfer your main checking account (and the bribe works: the last three months of last year were the busiest ever for the official switching service).

But what about loyalists like Keith who stick with their bank through thick and thin?

This is his pitch: ‘Although we are completely satisfied with the service, it would be nice if banks offered a loyalty reward to customers like us.

“No cash – a small gift: theater tickets, gift card, bottle of wine, even a thank you is appreciated.”

So, bank bosses – we know you’re reading these pages! — here’s my challenge: what about offering customers a little something for every ten years of loyalty?

A little giveaway to say thank you for staying with us despite the fact that you can easily get cash elsewhere.

As Keith points out, it’s a cheap idea for banks – but just the kind of gesture that might make many of us come back for another decade…

Parking pain

Why do municipalities make it so difficult for people to park?

They strip machines that accept cards and coins and force people to pay with their phones. Some of the apps you must use even charge you a fee for the privilege.

If you don’t have a phone, you’re full. And even if you do, municipalities use different apps, different logins and, depending on your network, you might not even have an internet signal, let alone the all-too-common problem of a dead battery.

Last summer, in a Norfolk rural car park, there were no vending machines to pay, just a sign detailing how to pay with an app.

After some fiddling with creating an account, the poor mobile signal meant it took ages for my £2 payment to finally be accepted.

While I was doing all this, two other motorists asked me if I knew how to pay to park and, after learning of my struggles, drove out of the car park and out of the village – robbing the local shops of their expenses.

Municipalities must reconsider the use of parking meters, otherwise they could inadvertently pull the heart out of entire city centres.

Cancel the delay

Those savvy people who haggle over their car insurance, home coverage and broadband bill spend an average of 92 minutes on the phone in total, new data shows.

With higher bills, those 92 minutes are important to reduce costs.

But these bloated phone calls feel completely unnecessary. I recently had to move my house cover away from Esure thanks to a huge renewal hike.

It was easy to log in online, talk to a chatbot who said I couldn’t get a cheaper price, but to cancel the auto-renewal, all I could do was call.

I was on hold for over 10 minutes – which goes against Money Mail’s Pick Up Or Pay Up campaign where we want businesses to reply within those 10 minutes.

But while I eventually managed to cancel and no renewal payment was made, some have not been so lucky.

A trickle of Money Mail readers say they canceled their renewal over the phone on time with other providers, only to receive payment, which effectively means they paid for the insurance twice – and then have to call again to sort the problem.

Insurers need to make it much easier and quicker to cancel policies, especially given the huge renewal bids households are facing this year, or face hefty fines.

l.boyce@dailymail.co.uk