What Is The Point Of banks?

[PillowRice]

I've been thinking for a while that banks don't want human customers. The latest in the rage inducing and frankly astounding WTFery is that my frail little old mum, who is nearly 90, trundled all the way to her bank's head office today to transfer some money and was, eventually, told they wouldn't do it.

She had received a rather scrappy looking letter a few weeks ago purporting to be from a woman saying if she needed any help she should phone the mobile number given. It could have been sent by anyone with a printer and I wasn't convinced it was genuine so I suggested the next time she went into the bank to check with them.

After a good 20 minute wait (during which the bouncer asked her what she wanted to do and how much she wanted to transfer - why does he need to know that?) she was eventually taken to a booth and thought she'd get the letter checked first. The teller glanced at it and said it was legitimate. Then she asked what mum wanted to do today and when she said to transfer money the teller said no. I don't know whether mum asked why but she wasn't given a reason even if she did.

WTF is the point of being a head office if you don't do basic banking?

Why did she go to the head office?

At my bank they prefer you to phone up and make an appointment for very large transfers (more than the mobile banking limit). I suppose it reduces the risk of fraud. If I worked at a bank I think I would be suspicious of a vulnerable-seeming customer appearing with no notice and saying she wanted to transfer a large amount.

Do you mean head branch, or literally their actual head office? I've used Lloyds and Natwest in branch for queries recently and they've been great, although it's been for paying in large cheques or taking money out. I did go in when I thought I couldn't transfer a large amount for a house purchase but they guided me through it on my online banking, I'd missed an option

Well, they clearly don't want my custom either.
I work M-F, 8-4. I used to just about be able to get to the branch before closing. Then closing became 4. Then they shut the branch. And the next nearest one too. And then the third nearest.

I actually need to take half a days leave to go into a branch now - which i do need to do as DSs club is cash only, and they regularly run out of change, so I need 4x50p a week.

most branches will do large transfers.

you need to have id with you - passport or driving licence or similar - and for Barclays I authenticated using their app.

Barclays limit web banking to 50k per day.

in person in branch you can transfer as much as you want as long as you have id and you can convince them you are not being scammed.

head offices are usually admin and do not do customers.

It’s awful isn’t it. We have given up and signed my gran up for mobile banking and do it all with/ for her but it’s not fair, feels like we have removed some of her independence.

Because her only alternative is the bank van which sometimes comes weekly. They can give her cash. That is literally all they can do for her.

@Lovelynames123 the actual head office.

@AlastheDaffodils she's done it this way for years. It's not always been plain sailing by any manner of means but she usually, eventually, is able to achieve what she needs to.

@PillowRice the head office of Waitrose probably can’t sell you a loaf of bread either. How come she went to the head office and not a branch?

The actual head office won't be a customer centre though. It's an administration building not a bank as we know it.

post offices can do change.

Do they? I tried that once and got turned away - and that was at a full on post office, not a little counter in the pharmacy or corner shop.

Do supermarkets still do cashback - that's another way to get change.

But I agree it can't be good that all the banks are disappearing. You can't do everything online. It is, for example, a nightmare for some people if someone dies, or they are trying to use a power of attorney for a relative who can't manage their own affairs. The banks seem incapable to training their staff adequately.

it’s at their discretion really but they can do it. or could try maybe asking for a withdrawal in coins? i’m not sure

Yes most banking can be done at a post office now. Dc have cash only clubs. Once a month I draw £120 as 10 x£10 note and £1x20 to divide in the envelopes. I do this in a very small local post office as well as larger ones.

Noticed too when I went to a larger tesco they have an atm as well as a deposit machine that's open 24/7 into any bank account

Banks seem to be paranoid about fraud nowadays. Even simple transactions need proof of identity in triplicate. Bloody annoying, compared to how they used to be, especially so for a near 90 year old woman I'd imagine.

I worked in a bank once, and saw a lot of customer complaints. We got a lot of ‘why didn’t you let my elderly mum transfer money’. We got fewer (but still some) ‘why did you let my elderly mum transfer her pension to someone dodgy’.

I think that’s the right balance.

It's always been known as head office, perhaps the population of the city have been calling it the wrong name for all these years. No matter what it's called, it's their biggest branch where you should be able to do basic transactions. You can go and take selfies with the bouncer, he likes that, but trying to do something in person with your own money is what banks seem just a little less keen on these days, for some reason.

You need to go to the bank to get out £2 in 50p’s? Just ask the cashier next time you’re in the supermarket for £5 cash back in 50p’s!

Is there a reason why your DM doesn’t have online banking that you could help her with?

No, I go once every few months, and get out about £40. Go back when I'm running low.

I'm struggling to think of the last time I used a cashier in a supermarket!!

my frail little old mum, who is nearly 90

Given that this is how you describe your own mum, I imagine she'd be robustly classified by the bank staff as 'vulnerable'. If they've declined to allow a transfer then it's possibly a safeguarding thing.

Maybe she was unable to explain who she was sending money to, or why she was moving it? (And yes the bank are allowed to ask and perfectly able to decline if the answer doesn't make sense)

the fact is that some people, my elderly mum included, can't handle internet banking any more and the bank owes it to these people who don't want to, or can't, use the internet for their banking needs.

FWIW my mum's local branch are lovely, and they are very helpful and generally just lovely. Long may it last.

ETA: The bank can and do ask safeguarding questions, but they shouldn't be just snapping "no can do" at customers. Especially customers with money

More and more people I know are withdrawing cash every week and stashing away to use.
Banks are unfriendly and difficult. They are not happy doing anything simple - and it's other people's money.

Yes.