Queuing etiquette at the bank

Quiz time!

You’re at the bank and join the back of the queue like any decent (and normal) British citizen, when the person in front starts to use the high desk to write out a paying in slip.

Do you A) slip by them – after all, they’ve dropped out of the queuing system at this point.

Or B) stay behind them because all they’re doing is writing a note, their place in the queue is unaffected.

Have you also dropped out of the queue if you (A) answer your phone, (B) check your watch to see what time it is, (C) play pocket pool while you wait?

C) Go past and shout you snooze you lose!

does a cashier become available while they are writing?

B, unless they were first in the queue and are now ignoring their call to a free desk, in which case you are allowed to pass while tutting 🙂

Does either option affect the chance of being served by the comely young cashier at window 3?

Say nothing and kvetch about it on the internet, of course.

I stay behind them, unless a cashier has opened up and they’re not ready.

D) Don balaclava and shout “Everybody get down on the floor. I want £20000 in used, non-sequential tuppence pieces.”

* eagerly awaits molgrips *

Drop a pen on the floor in front of them and then subtly slide passed them into your new position.

* eagerly awaits molgrips *

🙂

If they are not ready when a cashier is available they lose their place .They should be ready before joining the queue

I do banking everyday. I’m not wating while you fill out a slip. Take some with you and do it before you get there.

If a gap develops I’ll attack and drop you!

Depends on the bank. In the one I used to work for, filling in a payin slip before you get to the counter was helpful, most people didn’t do it. So by stepping out of the queue to do it, he speeds it up for everyone else even if he rejoins it, and nobody’s inconvenienced.

Like any other sort of etiquette thing, just bust it out of the individual case and look at it over a longer term- queue moves faster if people are doing this, queue moves slower if people decide not to leave the queue because they’ll lose their place. The best solution for everyone in the queue, over time, is the option that flows the best not the option that saves you time once.

Exception is if he’s out of the queue when a teller becomes available.

Nat west seem to have to many staff just standing around, and telling customers to use some machine in the corner to pay money in and take it out, last week 1 cashier, and 10 queuing and 2 people trying to persuade and fail to get people to use a machine.

DOnt they realise some of us love to hear the woman in front telling the cashier about her holiday, husbands latest operation, or other such trivia.

Also always best to stand in line leaving a 4 foot space betwen you and the person in front, then after waiting for ten minutes aproach the cashier with the speed of a half dead sloth,slowly open your wallet /handbag and retrieve the various bills and paying in slips, and slowly fill them in,if you have numerous bags of uncounted cash to pay bills with that also helps get the crowd behind sigh in sympathy.

Finally just when the next person is poised like a whippet on heat to bound accross the gap to the cashier, you ask for a large statement,to which the cahier responds could you insert your card in the machine please and type in your pin number.

More subdued titering as the person chants their pin number loudly in to the machine.

Picks up large statement and looks at all those figures tyrped upon it in disbelief at the money they have saved /spent that week, sighs loudly and usually says i thought i had more than that.

Finally the person is on their way out.

Simple.

Run past, elbow them out the way and shout STRAAVAAAA !

I’d take their place if they didn’t return in time, but would let them back in if they did.

I once bought an s-works off ebay while queuing in the bank and whipping the mobile out of a quick ‘newly listed’ view. That was quite random.

B every time, same for local Co-op if someone dashes out because they’ve forgotten bread/condoms/tampons/chips.

Walk out for ten minutes, rejoin safe in the knowledge that the slower customers have passed ?

Id move up and encourage the rest of the line to bunch up so they have to go to the back of the line, then grab my neck and sue the person behind me for wiplash.

I seduced a teller at Barclays in Leamington Spa by flashing my winning smile everyday whilst banking the takings. Hope this helps.

Never heard it called that before.