Bankers - do we need them...

[EskiBrew]

I went in to my nearest bank today (RBS) and asked to change £50 worth of notes into coinage for a float for the spring thing.

Teller: Sorry we don't do that
Me: Don't do what?
Teller: Give change
Me: But I've just got it out of your machine there and I need coins
Teller: We don't do that
Me: But you're a bank; that's what banks do (getting cross now) :evil:
Teller: It costs us money so we don't do it unless you are one of our customers
Me: Grrrrr - what's the point of a bank that wont change money :wha:
Teller: Sorry sir
Me: How can it cost you money; oh I give up...

What a bunch of useless pathetic snivelling imbeciles.
It wouldn't be so bad if I and the rest of the country didn't own 80% of the damn bank - gobsmacked :nah:

 

[RobWalker]

hahah, whut? surely they should. i'd bung a complaint in and tell them about themselves!

 

[alawlor66430]

Ever seen a film called falling down? I get pretty close to becoming that guy when I have to deal with things like that lol.

 

[Gayle]

Costs them money to give change?? :evil: But then I've asked them to exhange notes for my jars full of change (counted, in money bags and everything) and they wouldn't do that either.

If I use my bank card in the republic of Ireland, I get two charges - one International charge and one Overseas charge. I'll live with the international fee, but what sea did I cross get there???

 

[Jeltz]

Just to play devils advocate here......If you are not a customer of a business then why would you expect a service from them?

I used to work for Nat West a long time ago and certainly at the time (1990's) banks provided change free of charge for their personal customers, on an occasional basis, but for businesses do get charged. If you have a business and find that you can't get the change you need for the weekend because all the local car booters and school fates have found out the X bank has started providing it for free then I reckon you'd be pretty peeved. Change takes time to be counted out and requires storage, the contents of the safe/strongroom are counted daily (albeit the coin will be bagged in £100's -£500's according to denomination) so all banks try to keep their handling of it to a minimum, and trying to make sure you had enough change for the local businesses while not having stupid amounts of counting was the head cashier's role and not an enviable one. That was in the days before the claims culture and I imagine that plenty of people will have ended up with a hurty back having shifted a couple of grand of coins around, I remember pushing a trolley like you get in garden centres loaded up with bags of £1 coins from one branch in Bath to another with the admin manager and asking what we would do if someone snatched a couple of bags and ran off with them he said he'd follow until the guy dropped them it as you aren't going to run very far or fast carrying a few 5kg bags.

Anyway given that its RBS you should have mumbled something like how they were happy to be bailed out by the public but won't provide the simplest of public services and then exclaimed bureaucratic civil servants before storming off.

 

[TRXnMe]

Most banks do this now.

I used to do some voluntary work for a charity shop, if we got short of change we'd be checking who had what bank card to see where we could go (closes to the shop) to swap some notes for change, even telling the banks the swap for a charity didn't make 'em bend :)

As suggested above, they are businesses, while the actual cost is incredibly minimal, swapping notes for ccoins does cost them money, which reduces their profits.

The cost comes from them having to pay folk like securicor to move notes and coins from one point to the other, plus have counter staff available to tell non-customers 'no' and change money for actual customers :)

 

[graysalchemy]

Don't get me started on RBS Bunch of er *ankers, mined you they are no different to the rest of them. I think you are right banks are becoming obsolete and will go the same way as post offices.

What you should have said was that you had a part share in their business (like every other Tom dick and Harriette in this country) and they were a public bank they have to serve the public.

T*ats T*ssers and *ankers.

Rant over (till next time)

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

It probably cost them more in the wage costs of the jobsworth who told you they couldn't change the money!

 

[Megaross]

I use part credit union nowadays, rather them have my money than a bank.

One of the things which really pissed me off, I phone up natwest support, not only are the orange bimbos on the phone bloody useless, but instead of trying to assist me they're trying to sell me stuff.
I mean seriously, I've rung up because your service is crap and doesn't work, and you're peddling me crap I don't want or need, wasting my precious time?

Dropping them as soon as my overdraft is paid off, HSBC isn't too bad but I don't trust them, had problems with them before. Prefer to keep my money local.

 

[TRXnMe]

I use part credit union nowadays, rather them have my money than a bank.

One of the things which really pissed me off, I phone up natwest support, not only are the orange bimbos on the phone bloody useless, but instead of trying to assist me they're trying to sell me stuff.
I mean seriously, I've rung up because your service is crap and doesn't work, and you're peddling me crap I don't want or need, wasting my precious time?

Dropping them as soon as my overdraft is paid off, HSBC isn't too bad but I don't trust them, had problems with them before. Prefer to keep my money local.

How does a credit union manage personal banking? Serious question, I'm in the process of swapping to the Co-Op, a credit union is more attractive :)

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

I use part credit union nowadays, rather them have my money than a bank.

One of the things which really pissed me off, I phone up natwest support, not only are the orange bimbos on the phone bloody useless, but instead of trying to assist me they're trying to sell me stuff.
I mean seriously, I've rung up because your service is crap and doesn't work, and you're peddling me crap I don't want or need, wasting my precious time?

Dropping them as soon as my overdraft is paid off, HSBC isn't too bad but I don't trust them, had problems with them before. Prefer to keep my money local.

How does a credit union manage personal banking? Serious question, I'm in the process of swapping to the Co-Op, a credit union is more attractive :)

Coop have been all over the financial news today...looks like they are about to go cap in hand to the government for a bail out...

 

[eggman]

I hate banks :twisted:
Have had several disputes with Lloyds TSB. I went in to my branch a couple of years ago to pay off my overdraft and close my account, I had with me a bank statement with my address, my passport and my driving license. I was told by some snotty little girl that as my current signature didn't match the one on my driving license they couldn't let me close my account and give them money as it could be fraudulent :wha:
Bloody stupid thing was I used the SAME sodding signature to withdraw over £2000 from the SAME branch the previous year :twisted: They refused to do anything until I started causing a scene and telling everyone in the bank what a shoddy service they provide, suddenly the manager was available and I was taken into his office and it was all done there and then :lol: :lol:

 

[andyakameatloaf]

Was talking to my dad recently about having a £6 fee on one of my NatWest accounts because a payment was accidentally charged to the wrong account which didn't have enough money to cover it, even though my other Natwest account would have done. He said complain, but i said i didnt want to seem petty.

He then said that a fair few years ago he had a "financial movement fee" applied to his NatWest account of £30+, and he sent this snotty sarcastic letter to them involving things like "perhaps your grandfather can remember when..." and "I'd like to know when the helicopter will arrive at my house to move the money".

He eventually got a letter back from the bank that read Due to the comical nature of your letter, we have decided to waive all charges - it pays to be petty :thumb:

 

[Jeltz]

To be frank it all went tits up when they introduced "free" banking and started looking for how they could then make those people who stay in credit pay for the services they receive. They do it by cross selling other services and economising on staff.

In the 90's when I worked in banking something like 75% of the accounts were loss making as they stayed in credit but the average balance wasn't enough to generate sufficient income to the bank to pay for statements, cards, card holders, statement binders and so on to be sent out and cheques and credits to be possessed. These days banks don't provide half of what they used to.

We have to realise that they are businesses, there to make money and we are the ones they intend making it from. The service is on the whole crap and the personal touch has gone but in many respects that is just the way things are with big business. I'd love to see some small regional banks start up and offer some true competition but alas those days will probably never return.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

We have to realise that they are businesses, there to make money and we are the ones they intend making it from. The service is on the whole crap and the personal touch has gone but in many respects that is just the way things are with big business. I'd love to see some small regional banks start up and offer some true competition but alas those days will probably never return.

There's a group of Quakers who are at the early stages of setting up a bank as a way of providing an alternative to the big banks. When you look at their five core values (simplicity, truth/integrity, equality, peace, sustainability) they don't really describe the modern financial system, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing in terms of a business model, especially when it comes to attracting customers. A bank that refuses to invest in things like tar sands or arms manufacturers, which aims to keep its products as simple to understand as possible, which accepts its responsibility to pay taxes that fund education, healthcare, emergency services, etc., and which shares profits equitably throughout its workforce rather than giving the lion's share to a tiny elite - who'd like to have the option of a bank like that?

 

[Megaross]

I use part credit union nowadays, rather them have my money than a bank.

One of the things which really pissed me off, I phone up natwest support, not only are the orange bimbos on the phone bloody useless, but instead of trying to assist me they're trying to sell me stuff.
I mean seriously, I've rung up because your service is crap and doesn't work, and you're peddling me crap I don't want or need, wasting my precious time?

Dropping them as soon as my overdraft is paid off, HSBC isn't too bad but I don't trust them, had problems with them before. Prefer to keep my money local.

How does a credit union manage personal banking? Serious question, I'm in the process of swapping to the Co-Op, a credit union is more attractive :)

I only use mine for savings because they don't offer all the services I use from my bank. Major upsides are the personalised service and cheap loans for regular savers (cheaper than highstreet banks).

Services offered between unions differs, best thing you can do is get in touch with your closest union and see what they can offer you :thumb:

 

[TRXnMe]

I use part credit union nowadays, rather them have my money than a bank.

One of the things which really pissed me off, I phone up natwest support, not only are the orange bimbos on the phone bloody useless, but instead of trying to assist me they're trying to sell me stuff.
I mean seriously, I've rung up because your service is crap and doesn't work, and you're peddling me crap I don't want or need, wasting my precious time?

Dropping them as soon as my overdraft is paid off, HSBC isn't too bad but I don't trust them, had problems with them before. Prefer to keep my money local.

How does a credit union manage personal banking? Serious question, I'm in the process of swapping to the Co-Op, a credit union is more attractive :)

I only use mine for savings because they don't offer all the services I use from my bank. Major upsides are the personalised service and cheap loans for regular savers (cheaper than highstreet banks).

Services offered between unions differs, best thing you can do is get in touch with your closest union and see what they can offer you :thumb:

How do you find a credit union then?

Even a suggestion on what to google what be good :)

 

[Baz Chaz]

I like banks, building societies, electric/gas suppliers, insurance companies and a number of other large companies that cock things up :shock:

I'm one of those irritating ghyttes that won't stand for crap service and with some persistance and letter writing etc...
Amongst other freebies and refunds ....
I've had 2 cases of wine from LloydsTSB
£200 cash from Cheltneham BS
6 months full Sky package 'free'
BT £200 cash apology, several months free broadband
over £1000 from a cruise company along with bottles of champagne
Eon £100 cash
Halifax BS £100 each for me and MrsC
'Garage 'serviced' my car, got home and was showing daughter 'under the bonnet stuff' as she'd just started driving and discovered it hadn't been serviced at all, oil was black and runny, plugs were crapped up, went back, ended up with full refund, service done and 4 new tyres and voucher for full service and MOT following year. (MD of the garage is now quite a good mate, I did him a favour writing snottogram re the 'service', he got rid of some staff because of it!)

I always send letters by recorded delivery so when they say they know nothing about it I can say when it was delivered and who signed for it :!:

To be fair, I do also make a point of letting someone know re exceptional service as well though, so not a total Mysehabul Ghytte :thumb:

 

[Megaross]

How do you find a credit union then?

Even a suggestion on what to google what be good :)

Based on your location.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=credit+union+newport

I never used to be one to complain about crap service but I've had a load of beer vouchers (aka. shopping vouchers) from the co op and sainsburys before where they've cocked stuff up. Got £200 in vouchers from co op because their walkway was torn up and I claimed to have tripped on some plywood that was laid down (I hadn't but could have). I went into the store and cleared them of decent ales every time the shelf was restocked :lol:

 

[narmour]

Costs them money to give change?? :evil: But then I've asked them to exhange notes for my jars full of change (counted, in money bags and everything) and they wouldn't do that either.

If I use my bank card in the republic of Ireland, I get two charges - one International charge and one Overseas charge. I'll live with the international fee, but what sea did I cross get there???

What bank are you with? all I ever get is a Euro conversion charge. I'm with the Co-op.