Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

What Is The Point Of banks?

81 replies

PillowRice · 05/01/2026 18:00

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?

OP posts:
SerendipityJane · 08/01/2026 14:14

EmeraldRoulette · 08/01/2026 13:27

But power-of-attorney is quite an extensive thing

Many people won't want to give it

If you look at the "elderly parents" section here, a lot of people are having trouble using it. And the banks don't seem to like more than one person operating the account. So it would be forcing someone to hand over complete control of their bank account to someone else. If you can sit with your adult child and oversee the Internet banking they do for you, that's probably a better option.

I think that ultimately banks will start charging for doing face-to-face service.

Edited
Show quote history

Ultimately people will do what the fuck they want anyway. I'm not so dim as to not get that.

However as long as they feel the pain themselves from their own stupid decisions, then my sympathy will lie elsewhere. It's when I find that I am paying for their life choices I can get tetchy.

I am reminded of a 4 page article in the Guardian a while back, by a supposed journalist under the screaming headline "IF I WAS SCAMMED THEN EVERYONE IS AT RISK". (Possibly a slow news day). After a very tedious read it turned out that the "scam" was that they had a call "from their bank" and despite being repeated told over many years to never ever divulge your PIN, they happily gave it over the phone. Then were "surprised" all their accounts were suddenly emptied.

EmeraldRoulette · 08/01/2026 16:25

@SerendipityJane I can't see what your comment about fraud has got to do with my comment about banks providing a service. Apologies if being thick.

ThisTaupeZebra · 08/01/2026 17:21

Willowskyblue · 06/01/2026 10:00

I agree - what’s the point of SOME of them. Nat West is a disaster. At work, a colleague in the finance department went to the only branch in the area with a bag of cash to deposit, approximately £750. They refused to take it, even though it had been weighed and bagged at work. The reason, only one human working that day. The business account has been held at this branch for 30+ years with no issues before when taking cash to bank.
She now has to phone the customer “help”line to make an appointment to find a branch that will take it.
I use Nationwide and their branch service is excellent, although the phone helpline isn’t great these days.

My New Year's resolution is to move our accounts from Natwest to Nationwide after heinous customer service from Natwest while we were trying to remortgage our house (with a different lender) last year. They cocked up our statements, blamed us and refused to help when I finally gave up with online and telephone banking and went in-branch. They were unnecessarily nasty and dismissive.

I had to go and sort out an old savings account at Nationwide recently, and they were an absolute delight.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General money
SerendipityJane · 08/01/2026 17:23

ThisTaupeZebra · 08/01/2026 17:21

My New Year's resolution is to move our accounts from Natwest to Nationwide after heinous customer service from Natwest while we were trying to remortgage our house (with a different lender) last year. They cocked up our statements, blamed us and refused to help when I finally gave up with online and telephone banking and went in-branch. They were unnecessarily nasty and dismissive.

I had to go and sort out an old savings account at Nationwide recently, and they were an absolute delight.

Show quote history

I've had a few £100 presents from Nationwide over the years. Amazingly it seems you don't need shareholders after all.

HopelesslyOptimistic · 08/01/2026 17:45

They are simply a Ponzi scheme that prints money and pushes debt. I still remember the day many years ago when I discovered that they simply print money via a computer, sell you a morgage and you pay them interest on money that they created.

Haulage · 08/01/2026 17:56

noidea69 · 06/01/2026 10:39

Surely you dont need to go to a bank to get change? Buy a can of pop from local shop with a ten pound note and ask for the change in 50ps.

Show quote history

The supermarkets near me won’t give cashback any more. I was told they don’t take enough cash in to offer it.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page