to get irritated in the bank when...

[purplepeony]

they make me wait until they zap all the cheques through their funny machine- even though I have already chip and pinned the whole lot in, and the transaction is completed, and money is in my account.

Is this just LLoyds? Natwest doesn't do it - they take the cheques, etc etc and put them in their til etc after I have left the counter.

Is it a ploy so they can then look at my account as say the manager wants to see me- which is bank-speak for trying to sell me a more costly type of account.

come on all your bank clerks- tell me why you do this!!!

I cannot see why they need to make me w ait while the machine "reads" cheques that have already gone into my account.

what are they swiping? the pay in slip (your details) or the cheques you are paying in (no details for them to read).

cheques and paying in slips just go off to a clearing centre. the bank do nothing at all with them. a TNT man or similar just collects them all each day and takes them off to be processed. same with bills paid with a cheque.

any swiping is usually just pay in slips, either to 'attach' a cash credit, or, like you say, to read your account info for sales opportunities.

mind you, i speak as a former natwest bank manager, no idea about lloyds..

they are swiping the cheques- - then they always come up with the line "there is a note on your account that the manager wants to see you"- okay- so why hasn't he/she written to me i wonder? Cos they want to sell me another account.

God this makes me furious. It takes ages in the bank anyway due to slow staff, too few staff and then they make me wait while they swipe uopto say 10 cheques- for no good reason other than to look at my account and do a sales pitch at the end of it.

yes all the sales patter, to the detriment of the service, was what made me leave banking.

do they have a pay in box? that's what i use. even without a pay in slip. i just write my a/c details on the back and pop it in the envelope and in the box. no way do i go near a counter unless i have no other choice at all. i think the last time i did was to get some crisp £10 notes for christmas presents. even then i was asked if i wanted an account upgrade.

'i used to work here' usually suffices in such instances.

The scanning is likely to be taking a photo of the cheques while also reading the account info off the bottom edge. That way they have a complete electronic record of the transaction and don't have to rely on physical bits of paper.

If you ask the bank why they do that, you'll get some fluff about having a complete, electronic record of the transaction in case the paperwork goes missing. The actual reason is more to do with profit.

A handwritten cheque is hard for a computer to read so it needs to be checked by a human to ensure the transaction details are right. They used to truck the actual cheques to the clearing centres in the UK where the cheques would be read by humans and the details entered into the computer. Now, the photos of the cheques are sent electronically to other countries (India principally) where the wages are lower and so the banks make more profit.

the electronic photo isn't done in the branch. the cheques are still trucked to the clearing centre, whether the images go to inida or not.

lots of customers request copies of cheques when they've forgotten what they were. seriously loads. or they'll dispute the amount.

We are with Lloyds and they are endlessly trying to flog us loans/other accounts etc. We hardly ever go into the branch because when we do DH gets beyond stressed and I can see steam coming out of his ears.

They also ring us and badger us at home/work. One of my eyes has started twitching just thinking about them.

Well, as soon as you step away from that counter the person behind you thinks the cashier is free and then they get cross because they're still faffing about with your cheques.

Why are you using the counter anyway if you have to chip and pin any way? Just use an ATM. Most of them are brighter/friendlier than my staff people who work on the counter.

I can guarantee that if I deposit a cheque for say a couple of thousand, or my account builds up above a certain limit, I'll get a call to ask if I would like to open a savings account.

No thanks, any money going in is earmarked and accounted for already!!! And they've been told that before. I even told them that if I wanted an account, I would call them, but they don't listen at all. GRRRRRR!

JAMM

Sorry- don't know what ATM is!
When I say chip and pin, I go to the counter and pass over the cheques- then use my bank card at the counter where they have the machine- they add up, key in the amount and I pop in my pin. It then says transaction confirmed- however, it's at that point that they begin to scan the cheques, make me wait, then try to flog me something.

At Natwest they do the same thing, but "allow me to go" the minute the chip and pin is completed.

ILPD- yes ditto- they do not seem to realsie that any amount paid in usually goes out almost the next day!

atm= automated teller machine (cash machine)

some of them have pay n facilty too. otherwise most banks have locked boxes on the wall in the branch for you to drop chqs in, in an envelope. try that next time. stay away from the counter! the pressure those staff are under is immense.

most think ooh i'll apply for a job in a bank, that's a good job. no, it's just glorified telesales.

You could ask for an 'adverse to marketing' marker to be placed on your customer record. This should stop them from giving you sales approaches.

My natwest branch has just got a very snazzy new machine, you can pay in cheques or notes - with notes you stick them all in at once and it counts them (fair enough), but the cheques are impressive - you stick it in, and it reads the amount on there (even handwritten ones) and then displays it on the screen for you to check. You can print out a copy for your records too.

In my experience, Lloyds are the worst for sales pitches.

our bank has one of those now bertiebotts we are with alliance and leicester and pay in cash quite often so it is so much easier than having to wait in line for the rude girl behind the counter the last time i went to the counter i was told off by the girl as i had gone £8 over drawn and had £5 monthly charges i told her to get on with her job and mind her own business

I work for Santander and we have those zappy machines (broke mine today ) it reads teh sort code/acc number/q number on bottom of cheque, but we zap them then pay them in (we have to zap them or transaction will not go through)

Oh an dI work 14 hours a week now and have to get 8 people booked in to open accounbt/credit card/do home insranbce/mortgage etc in those 14 hours every week if I fall below 50% for more than 3 weeks in a row I have to go on development plan

ruddy this will make you laugh, I used to work for RBS also, NW branch called to ask about a large sum of money i had put into my account (you know the calls), I replied thats right its my redunancy money from RBS. Poor woman just stuttered it didn't have a staff marker, well doh no I'm not staff anymore

d'oh! yes, the large deposit report. that has to be annotated with details of how many people have been contacted, what their response was, and how many appointments have been made. this is then faxed to your area manager, for evidence that you are doing a good enough service telesales job.

and really there is not much point asking for a 'no marketing marker' seeings as these are service calls