Meet the manager

When was the last time you met your bank manager? For me I think it was back in the day as a student when I had to beg him for a bigger overdraft to get more magical beer tokens and..err...books.

But according to a Lloyds TSB study, over half of us (55%) haven't talked about a money situation with a bank manager for over ten years.

The fear of financial jargon was the most popular reason given by people who avoid having a chat with their bank's manager, while people also said they thought their financial aspirations wouldn't be taken seriously, or that they wouldn't benefit from a financial review.

It used to be the case that the bank manager was the pillar of society and had a responsibility to keep their customers on the straight and narrow in financial security and in the black.

And people used to say bank managers would only give loans to people who didn't really need them.

Today things have changed dramatically. Not only does it seem a lot easier to get into debt these days, the personal touch also seems to have gone and we're more likely to spend hours talking to a call centre in India or checking our account online than get within ten yards of our bank manager.

However, perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of the Lloyds TSB survey was that those questioned said they would be much more likely to pay a visit to their bank manager if he was celebrity X Factor judge Simon Cowell, or This Morning's Phil and Fern, who came a close second.

My personal choice of celebrity bank manager would be boxer Floyd Mayweather who seems to throw money at anyone who goes near him.

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit