Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Online banking

Picking up the thread: write final cheque from little used cheque book. Cheque bounces. Query answered with, didn't recognise signature. Order new cheque book.Two months pass.Phone call to bank. They cancel cheque book and post new one. Five weeks pass. Phone bank. They cancel and post new one. Three weeks pass and two arrive together but now of course they are useless. Phone bank. New book posted four weeks ago.Still waiting.

I don’t envy you, had a si,il arrive problem with HSBC France a few years back - ordered cheque book, didn’t arrive, so ordered another which also didn’t arrive. Called bank and asked what address they’d sent it to - ‘can’t tell you, security and all that’! After giving them my UK and French addresses I said which one did you send it to? ‘Neither…’.

Apparently I’d written to them changing my address, which I hadn’t, but it turned out they had another customer with exactly the same forenames and surname as me, with addresses in both the UK and France, and they’d sent it to him. I asked them to correct the error but they refused - ‘you must write to us telling us of your change of address’. It was at this point I got a bit miffed, I explained that they’d changed the address, so not up to me to change it back, and in any case I had no idea what the ‘current’ address was as they wouldn’t tell me.

Jobsworths. Don’t tolerate second rate service. Change your bank.

But that is the issue, they make no money on retail accounts so if you say "i will take my business elsewhere" they are fine with that.

True for the big banks. A branch manager of one of them actually admitted to me that they did not need your average punter’s money.

It has long been the case, you’re a nobody to a bank unless you borrow and the more you borrow, the more they’ll run after you.

In 55 years of banking with a Current account I have never paid a penny to them or borrowed a penny, likewise with credit cards the only time they make money out of me is when I fail to shuffle money into a savings account (not with them) and then they are on the phone with help and advise of where to put the money but they can never match the best rates.

I feel fortunate that I haven't had to incur any bank charges tbh.

Back on thread, I can barely believe the incompetency you boys have been subjected to and you have my sympathy.

I must say it seems entirely reasonable to me to pay for a service, and I don't see banking as being particularly different. My account costs me £20 a month and that gets me and 'er indoors banking, travel insurance, mobile phone insurance, and AA rescue/recovery. The anti-fraud measures are excellent too. I'm quite happy.

As we increasingly move to a cashless society, many of these issues will go away, with the only possible exception of poor service. Covid has certainly brought that date forward without question. It will be an interesting world for those businesses that prefer cash (the black economy) as the Inland Revenue tracks every financial transaction in the pursuit of tax revenues.

Its interesting that one's credit rating is influenced by the level of credit one engages in, in essence your level of indebtedness and your effective ability to service it. It takes little or no account of cash sources, owned outright properties, other financial resources you may have at your disposal.....needless to say under those circumstances I have a relatively modest credit rating.

If you want the joined up farce of private banking.....

I work for a company in the US for five years.
We do an IPO and go public.
I Leave the company and sell my shares (tax deducted at source etc) and have a lump of US$'s to accept from the share trading company.
The £:$ sucks at that moment so I figure I will leave it in US$ until the rate improves before converting it.

I have had a Barclays account with the same branch since around 1981, Clearly given my job I do 99.5% on line.
I read on the BB site that I need various documentation to open the account. I collect all of it.
I try and find the local branch (thank god it remains open) telephone number to make an appointment as it tells me I should.
I can only find an 0345 call centre. Fair enough
They tell me they can accept the payment directly and exchange it to GBP. I explain this is not the goal. They try again.
I ask to make an appointment in the branch to setup a US$ account and they schedule it for me.
I arrive at the branch and no appointment can be found. The person for this skill is not in the building on Mondays.
I am told I should have called the branch directly or they can ease my pain by just accepting the money into the GBP for me. Growl.
I ask them to open their Droid/iBone and show me how to find their number as they hide it. They say "easy" then fail. Awks.
He gives me his business card saying "it is on all our cards to help" to which I reply you direct us to on-line, call centres and close most of your branches, figure it out for yourself numbnuts.
So I make an appointment for next tuesday as this tuesday is already full. They help me by offering to exchange the money into GBP for me. Growl.
Next Tuesday the person first introduces themselves by trying to fill in a form to convert the money into GBP as he was told that was what I wanted..........
I explain that only a THICK person would choose to do/recommend that given the exchange rate, they are thick and do not get the irony but agree that would be daft.
I present all of the information from their own web site to allow me to open a US$ bank account.
They tell me this is a non-interest bearing account.
I tell them to work out what a simple access savings account would provide over 12 months and to compare this to the difference in exchange rate needed to make it equal.
They are unable to work to out even using two calculators.
In the embarrassment of not being able to work it out he decides to see if I am interested in converting it to GBP.
I tell him to leave the room and find a grown up who can interact with someone before I adjust his understanding.
Assistant Manager walks in, I advise him not to offer to convert the money to GBP unless he wants to suffer a formal complaint.
He Understands and apologies then takes me through the paperwork. Advises me I do not have all the paperwork I need.
I show him his website and tell him to work it out for himself as I am not making another appointment.
Awk's as he realises they are in the usual poor web site updates.
I get the good lady to find the extra I need over the phone so we complete the paperwork (20 mins)
He then tells me that the number involved will result in a money laundering enquiry to which I hand him the paperwork our company had prepared very kindly.
So six weeks later I have a US$ account and they have a formal complaint which I am invited to.

Guess the first comment made in the enquiry.
"It would have been much easier if you had just converted the money into GBP and you could be earning interest on it then"
Pick a window, you're leaving.

Perfect example of walking outside of the painted white lines in retail banking.