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Got a nice cheque for £250 as a donation to my now doomed Vietnam charity trek, they've shut all the local branches down, but I know some banks allow you to upload an image of the cheque.
Not RBS, I either need to go in, or put it in a special envelope in the post office, and it'll take 2 days to get there, then however bloody long after that. They actually make the old Clydesdale bank look modern.
Mortgage is with them, a year of payments to go, I cannot wait to go elsewhere, they're a shower of shite.
Pish rant I know, but it worked for me.
Santander are equally bad at shutting branches. I'm not sure of any high street bank that isn't doing the same.
They do let you upload images of cheques though.
They are all much the same I used to rate First Direct but no so good now, maybe it's the parent banks to blame ie HSBC
Do you remember the money spent at Gogar and the huge RBS signs at every F1 circuit years ago, all the freebies probably given to the bankers as bribes
They actually make the old Clydesdale bank look modern.
I think you'll find that these days the Clydesdale bank is all funky and modern and is called Virgin Money.
RBS are shit, it's true, but I'm having to deal with Barclays at the moment (not a customer) and they are a complete shower too.
In comparison Skipton BS who I'm dealing with for exactly the same reasons, have been wonderful.
Dunno my mortgage is still with RBS due to the HSBC making them look wholely competent during mortgage applications........
I abandoned that process and stayed put.
In comparison Skipton BS who I’m dealing with for exactly the same reasons, have been wonderful.
That'll be the same skipton bs who emailed my dad "we notice you've been into our branch recently" after I'd been into branch to let them know he'd passed away.
Currently in the process of changing banks after santander properly cheesed me off - I did have my fingers crossed on a £10k bank error in my favour but they worked that one out 🙄
They are all crap and seem to use Covid as an excuse, I have been trying to get my mortgage sorted out and it is so frustrating.
Dunno my mortgage is still with RBS due to the HSBC making them look wholely competent during mortgage applications
RBS wouldn't allow me to access any of their deals when my last one ended, 'we don't offer the fixed rate deals to anyone with under 2 years to go' this was 2 years and a month left to go.
Santander once ****ed up my mortgage application right enough, and only told us on the completion day, that was fun.
RBS is slowly being chopped up and sold off, it probably won't exist as a brand outside of Scotland within a few years.
The former cockiest bank in the world is only interested in cost-saving and shrinking now. Even after the Credit Crunch they lurched from controversy to controversy for doing shit they'd do all the time pre-2007 when they got away with Murder because they were paying billions a year in Corporation Tax.
They're not really interested in retail customers, frankly they weren't really interested in them pre-crash. I'd move somewhere else.
They are rubbish but I’m not sure much worse than others? Although funnily enough you’ve hit on the one thing that really pees me off with them. The other half can take a photo of cheques and upload via the app. I generally put mine in the post, but keep a record in case it gets lost. Never lost one yet though...
HSBC locked my business account because I hadn't responded to a form they sent to my office during lockdown when I wasn't allowed to be in my office for months. Took me four hours on the phone to resolve.
They are all shite
I echo that they are all shite.
I had to go into a RBS branch yesterday to pay in cash. It is the first time I've been in a branch for 6 months or so. I stood in the rain until I was allowed in. I then had to queue to use a coin counting machine but that didn't pay it into my account, instead it gave me a printed sheet and I then had to queue again to see a teller. Waited for five minutes whilst she chatted to the customer in front of me about holidays to Rome, caravans, trips to St Andrews and the merits of Stirling before she counted my notes and added in the coin balance. Whilst I was waiting to see the only teller I counted three other members of staff who appeared to be doing nothing.
aaaand another thing!
Have you tried to withdraw large sums of cash recently? My god that is hard work. 'A mate' of mine took out quite a lot of cash to pay builders. The bank do not like giving you lots of cash. You get a proper grilling.
Yes. TSB.
They have been a nightmare to deal with for a long time, recently they shut my main card down without telling me. Took me 3h to even get thru to someone who could claim to help. They didn't.
The App is dreadful. The call centre impossible. They closed my local branch recently.
Will leave TSB in new year.
Think I'm off to HSBC for my main+ savings accounts and starling for day to day.
The bank do not like giving you lots of cash.
There are very many wise reasons for this.
Have you tried to withdraw large sums of cash recently? My god that is hard work. ‘A mate’ of mine took out quite a lot of cash to pay builders. The bank do not like giving you lots of cash. You get a proper grilling.
yes and its somewhat ironic given how easy it is to click large amounts of money via BACS ......
Bought a van Cash - trying to get that out the bank was like drawing teeth and form after form and declarations to sign saying i hadnt been asked to pay for unsolicited services etc .....
Mean while i sent over a similarly large amount to pay for some solar panels recently .... CLICK CLICK £**** CLICK and that was that .
There are very many wise reasons for this.
I get that, but (I'm told) you feel very guilty asking for your own money!
About 2 years ago i ended up wot h2 cheques to pay in, mad e the trip into town to find out my local RBS had shut 6 months prior.
NatWest take them though (same group) so not a complete wasted trip.
I could do with changing banks though, only got an RBS account because I worked for them (I left probably 20 years ago)
Not RBS, I either need to go in, or put it in a special envelope in the post office, and it’ll take 2 days to get there, then however bloody long after that.
Why do you care for a charity donation - pop to post office - job done. I didn't know you could do that - so its actually quite helpful as the school refunded a school trip by cheque (despite refusing to take cheques themselves for 2 years!).
Don't assume take a picture of the cheque solves all the problems - I've tried paying the above cheque into Barclays and it refuses to process it. No idea why - if just doesn't process.
they’ve shut all the local branches down,
To be frank we're only noticing RBS shutting branches because they were the only people round here with branches to shut.
All cheque clearing in the UK is via image now anyway (they don't have to send the physical paper to draw the funds).
Not sure what they gain by making a human they employ scan it, rather than a human who pays them for the privilege of having an account.
Have you tried to withdraw large sums of cash recently? My god that is hard work. ‘A mate’ of mine took out quite a lot of cash to pay builders. The bank do not like giving you lots of cash. You get a proper grilling.
Yes, it was easy.
When it's less than easy there's generally two factors at play, Cash 'Stock' and rules/laws to prevent money laundering, fraud and tax evasion.
Most banks will ask you to give them some notice before asking to withdraw a large sum, it varies from bank to bank, but it would usually be £1k low-end, £2500 high-end. With cash becoming less and less popular for payments, especially in large sums, banks don't keep an extra £20k laying around in the vault in case someone decides to pop in on a wet Tuesday afternoon and ask for it to pay for their new extension they're having built by someone who is in now-way trying to keep their financial affairs private for whatever legitimate reason they might have.
This information will be displayed somewhere in the branch, on their website, on the letters you get when you open an account and is also available if you should ask. Some banks do annoyingly have local instant withdrawal limits, they're usually semi-official ones enforced by branch managers.
Most people who have trouble accessing their money in cash, do so because they think banks hold large amounts of cash ready and waiting for them. They don't most high street banks these days are more like shops, their 'vault' is a safe about a 1mx1mx1m.
Banks will usually give you any amount of cash you like, as long as you've got it in your account with 24 hours notice. In most cases, as long as they've actually got the cash on-site they'll give it to you without notice, but they'll have to answer to the higher ups, so everyone has to take a little shit about it.
As for the anti-money laundering, fraud and tax evasion stuff, some of it is law, some of it is rules and some of it is just the staff making sure you're okay. For example, if someones 75 year old Mum turned up one day to withdraw all her savings because a nice man who called her is going to build a well in Africa with it, wouldn't you at least hope they'd ask? As for the rest, the laws are so light it's not worth worrying about. If you withdraw more than £5k I think they have to ask what you plan to do with it, they'll try their best to make it sound like 'chit chat' but they have to, by law. You can tell the truth, tell them you plan to spread it around on the bed, make love on it and pay it back in tomorrow or just say "I'd rather not say" the end result is the same, I don't think they even record it.
As for the rest, the laws are so light it’s not worth worrying about. If you withdraw more than £5k I think they have to ask what you plan to do with it, they’ll try their best to make it sound like ‘chit chat’ but they have to, by law. You can tell the truth, tell them you plan to spread it around on the bed, make love on it and pay it back in tomorrow or just say “I’d rather not say” the end result is the same, I don’t think they even record it.
I’d be a bit more cautious about how you answer, the Banks are obliged to report any nefarious activity, your comedy answer of “coke and hookers” is tantamount to saying the b-word going through airport security. You’ll find the transaction will be delayed whilst someone senior has to decide whether you’re serious or not, and its highly likely you’ll have a Suspicious Activity Report filed on you.
The Banks are now so highly risk averse for fear of any regulators attention that pragmatism has gone out the window.
Banks are now being forced to pay out compensation to customers who have been victims of scams, even when the customer has been at fault, as the regulators have deemed that not enough has been done to educate customers about fraud and scams. 2FA is now the norm for online/app payments along with several check questions to ensure that your know who you are paying and why.
In my experience, Santander are several orders of magnitude worse. They blocked my card on several occasions, one of those times was when I tried to withdraw 40 quid to pay for something in Glasgow, phoned them up to get sympathetic noises and computer says no so had to come back the next day. I should have known after opening the account was an exercise in kafkaesque frustration thanks to their incompetent Bootle office that was eventually short circuited by the guy in the Glasgow card Centre who, after a rather telling sigh, asked for a few simple details and sent the cards out overnight.
First Direct have been fine but their conveyancers are utter muppets.
Why do you care for a charity donation – pop to post office – job done.
You are correct, it's no biggie, it's just the latest in a long list of small things they do that annoy me.
Their premium account used to be really good, but the benefits have been eroded away on an annual basis to the point it's pretty shit, but they know that apathy means most of us still pay over the odds for it.
To be frank we’re only noticing RBS shutting branches because they were the only people round here with branches to shut.
Nope, HBOS, Lloyds TSB and even the bloody Clydesdale outlasted them here. Tbh again, that's no biggie really nowadays for folks our age, my 96 year old neighbour who still walks into town daily is a different matter, lots of folk her age relied on the banks high street presence.
Bank of Scotland are worse.
We have a local BoS branch. We tried to get new accounts open when we moved here for the kids. Now bear in mind that they had savings from grandparents etc and a few short years later have student accounts, credit card etc.
No you can't open online.
No you can't walk in and open an account, you need to book with our account opening executive.
No the account opening executive only works Wednesdays at this branch, between 10am and 3pm.
No the children can't make that time midweek, they're at school.
No, we're fully booked for February and Easter, I can make you an appointment in May half term if you like?
Oh, could you explain why you're walking out? You see, we've an issue that very few people are opening accounts and we don't understand why....
Sadly we moved to RBS, who as the op suggests are crap, they just are now accessible crap. RBS just renovated the Stirling branch and did away with human counter staff, replaced with a pay in machine and an 'assistant executive' with an iPad but no ability to take cash. We were told that it was unusual that the boys wanted to pay in cash from paper round on a kids card, and that it was unusual that anyone needed a bank on Saturday mornings... I actually felt really sorry for the poor staff who had a line of customers berating them.
Once again we've moved, this time it's worked out well with HSBC.
Aye, there's one in another town I can go to at lunchtime, if pressed, and always feel for the poor lass that's to walk up and down the line of pissed off folk, calmly explaining to them that as much as she'd like to help them, she can't really as she's not allowed, she's only allowed to show them how to use the machine, the machine that doesn't actually do what you in this case require it to do. - so you'll need to get back in line.
I'm about to start looking for a debit card account for the wee yin too, she's getting to the age I'd like her to have a wee bit of financial freedom/accountability, really not looking forward to it.
I’m about to start looking for a debit card account for the wee yin too, she’s getting to the age I’d like her to have a wee bit of financial freedom/accountability, really not looking forward to it.
At this stage there must be some sort of Google pay system for kids with a monthly limit and some way of tracking it.
I honestly can't see banking as we know it lasting much longer, it's a self fulfilling prophecy though so I'm finding it difficult to muster sympathy (at a corporate level).
Our biggest issue right now is people demanding cash rather than bank payments. 8 quid a pop isn't an issue until its the only thing you spend cash on.
At this stage there must be some sort of Google pay system for kids with a monthly limit and some way of tracking it.
This would be perfect.
I’m about to start looking for a debit card account for the wee yin too, she’s getting to the age I’d like her to have a wee bit of financial freedom/accountability, really not looking forward to it.
Have a look at Go Henry. We use it for our younger kid and its ace. There is a small monthly fee but great functionality, easy for them to 'manage' savings and helps them learn valuable lessons about putting money aside. Kid gets a customised debit card and you can set the spend limits if you want. Loads of parental control and if Granny wants to give money for a birthday it is managed as a bit more of an event than just chucking it into an old school account.
On a serious note having got myself free of financial shit earlier this year, I'm now putting money into a credit union account and isa'etc. I'll test it for a year to see how smoothly it works. The aim being to put as little money into a bank account as possible, or even to close the account.
On a less serious note I use the clydesdale bank for clients and it's generally to withdraw cash. I will never stop smiling when I think about putting a mask on to go into a bank and withdraw other peoples money. Especially when it rebrands and I can picture Branson's smug mug 🙂
Best bank I've ever had is the one that doesn't even have branches. Starling shits all over my Halifax account I used to have and the Santander joint account I have with my wife. No issues whatsoever, when I asked for some signed and stamped bank statements from Starling for my wifes permanent leave to remain application I got them a few days later and they'd been stamped and signed with a wet signature by the CEO! The app is better than the big banks, it's the best one for visualising your spending, I have three accounts (personal, euro and joint) that I can just bounce money around with a tap or two.
Yeah never going back unless it's for a mortgage.
You guys realise that 90% of retail banking is exactly the same across the board?
They all have to follow the same rules and all offer the same product. Aside from the occasional novel feature like being able to get cash from tesco without a card or scanning cheques on your phone there's really very little difference.
Yes we do. The difference is the customer service and how you access their services. That can often be a huge difference.
Barclays must be a contender. Hardly a season goes by without them getting clobbered with a fine.
My personal experience with their "extraordinary" customer "care" was when i was trying to sort out my Mom's estate - she had a very, very tiny amount of savings with them but their cack handed, bullshiting, ****wittery ended up with the Financial Ombudsman Service booting them in the knackers to the tune of about £1,600.
Santander have been quite good but since a recentish upgrade, all you need is a 5 digit password to log onto their website, probs so they can do more "banking" stuff rather than silly "security" stuff. Linky
They all have to follow the same rules and all offer the same product. Aside from the occasional novel feature like being able to get cash from tesco without a card or scanning cheques on your phone there’s really very little difference.
Allow me to highlight my experience:
Pay cheque in digitally?
Open on Saturday?
Teller counter available to pay in cash?
Use the Post Office for paying in?
Able to open kids account online?
To all of the above: HSBC, yes. RBS, no.
They are all shite
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Best advice I ever got asking about ion France was "They are all shite, choose whichever is nearest so you can go and shout at them"
Have you tried to withdraw large sums of cash recently? My god that is hard work. ‘A mate’ of mine took out quite a lot of cash to pay builders. The bank do not like giving you lots of cash. You get a proper grilling.
One of the reasons for the chatty thing - tellers are trained to spot when people are being pressured or coerced. And 'paying the builders' is one of them - not paying builders in general but often doorstepping conmen pressure people into have their drive tarmaced, roof painted in stupid goop or whatever and part of the MO is to brow beat their victim into thinking its an emergency, can only happen right now and they have to go and draw the out the cash right away.
Often people who have been pressured like this don't really register whats happening until they start to recount it to someone else. Part of the technique of getting the victim to get the money and hand it over as quickly as possible is to make sure theres no time to think about it or to discuss it with anyone else. Its often only as they say whats happening/happened to someone else that they realise whats actually going on.
So that nosy chat is actually quite an important safe guard.
Having worked around all of the main players in the banking world for the last 12 years there's only one that I trust not to consistently screw everything up: Nationwide.
Most people who have trouble accessing their money in cash, do so because they think banks hold large amounts of cash ready and waiting for them. They don’t most high street banks these days are more like shops, their ‘vault’ is a safe about a 1mx1mx1m.
Small building societies will just have a 1mx1mx1m safe, the big banks have to have a walk-in safe room built to Bank Of England standards. It must be capable of holding all the cash the premises has up to the value of their insurance and be capable of holding 2 people with the door shut, most are no bigger than a small cupboard but the main branches will have a pretty large room. Most banks use a high level safe the size of a fridge-freezer but have the room it is in strengthened to satisfy the rules to tick the BofE and insurance rules. It may look like just a small safe but the actual room is part of the protection.
Banks will usually give you any amount of cash you like, as long as you’ve got it in your account with 24 hours notice. In most cases, as long as they’ve actually got the cash on-site they’ll give it to you without notice, but they’ll have to answer to the higher ups, so everyone has to take a little shit about it.
A lot of the banks have started to move to a new system where they have to have a minimum of 24hrs notice for amounts over whatever amount they set for that branch. They will then order in the money they require from their cash centre which is then delivered by van the next day on an ad-hoc service. They can also request pick-ups if a customer dumps a large amount of cash on them to keep the insured amount on site down. The branches that have/are moving over to this style of service are the ones that have been converted to loads of machines in the banking halls, HSBC and Barclays being the early adopters.
This new system also provides a second level of security against people being pressured into paying large sums in cash by fraudsters. The nosy teller is the first line of defence, the wait is the second. Both are there for very good reasons.
I set up an ING accound years ago specfically because everything was online.
ING "sold" my account to Baclays a couple of years later who promptly issued me with a new card and card reader with a battery that lasts about a month. I asked them for a new card reader but they couldn't send one to me because I had moved and you can't changed your account address online without using . . . . . a card reader.
I was working overseas for an extended period, hence the need for a good online account. In the end I had to wait and sort it in a Barclays branch next time I went back to the UK.
I hate banks full stop.
A couple of weeks ago, an atm(Co-op)didn't dispense the £80.00 I requested.After four expensive phone calls from my mobile phone I've still not been paid .Apparently,I will get a text after 17 working days from Natwest to decide whether or not I'm a fraudster!This after being with the bank for 30 years and never been overdrawn!****S.
One of the reasons for the chatty thing – tellers are trained to spot when people are being pressured or coerced. And ‘paying the builders’ is one of them – not paying builders in general but often doorstepping conmen pressure people into have their drive tarmaced, roof painted in stupid goop or whatever and part of the MO is to brow beat their victim into thinking its an emergency, can only happen right now and they have to go and draw the out the cash right away.
Not sure how that's different to bank transfer though?
My mum was pressured into switching energy company (or something my brother sorted it) and filling out a direct debit. Same MO "can only happen right now".
On that note my mum has a card in her name for emergencies on my brothers NatWest and he was out of the country ...
She got a call from their Fraud ... and to cut short (after I got her to hang up and call the number on the card) as her name/telephone had been added last they would only deal with her and she was asked to verify my brothers spending.
She did it from her bedroom and left the door open for me to keep an ear on her ... when I heard what was happening I went in and asked her to ask them to hold till I found out what was happening. Weirdly I smelled a rat when she was on a NetFlix charge since I was pretty sure he still had the £7.99 original
They'd brow beaten her into accepting responsibility for verifying his transactions ???
She obviously had no clue... (heck I've done it myself for my own.. did you use this company for this amount for this date 2 weeks ago... (like a taxi and you're somehow meant to remember the name of the taxi firm)