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"old Fashioned" banks - Why do we bother??

Paul

Paul

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Joined
Oct 5, 2012
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11,605
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South Wales
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Toibs
Misses has recently had a nightmare with HSBC. Cant Add people to an account to make it a joint account in Covid times... however can create a new Joint account...!!!

Because of the inflexability of the "old guard", we have bitten the bullet and created a fresh one with an online provider, all created and done in 20 mins. Cards arrived in a few days.
Has the benefit of being able to manage EVERYTHING online, create individual "pots" of money for certain goals etc...

So - with all the newer style accounts out there... with added features... Why do people bother with the old banks any more?
 
I think there is value in being able to go in a branch and talk to someone, rather than speaking to a chat bot or holding indefinitely on the phone. Some may disagree but I'm really not a fan of smartphone apps.

That said, porque no los dos? Having a single bank account is a recipe for disaster if it ever gets block due to triggering some fraud detection algorithm.
 
I have been with the same bank and account since I was four.
The last attempt to talk to a real person in a store led to 3 visits and 3 hours of waiting for someone who was competent to do what I was asking for. The bank manager doesn’t seem to make important decisions anymore.

Even cheques (for those who remember them) can be paid in via the app.
Large cash withdrawals and deposits might be the only thing left.
 
All banks suck but some more than others. I was with Virgin one for about 20 years. All of a sudden they put a £1000 limit on transfers. No warning at all was given. So to buy a pin you had to make multiple transfers even if you rang them up. 🤬

Was told that virtually none of their customers ever needed to transfer more than a grand.

Even swapping from them was a logistical nightmare as they are not part of the easy swap system.

Ended up having to ring them and transfer my entire balance £1000 at a time. ****holes.
 
My experience of withdrawing large amounts of cash isn’t great, if you haven’t pre booked it then you CAN’T have YOUR money, and if you have pre booked then you get the inquest from the bank. I can withdraw 2K/day, I tend to just do that daily in the rare instance I need to.

Edit: 2K/day from an ATM.
 
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It's crazy that some banks have put low transfer limits. I am regularly transferring high thousands and tens of thousands from account to account. Lloyds are reasonable - £25k per transaction limit but others I know are at £1k or £2k. I get that they are covering their backs and trying to make it safer, particularly for vulnerable individuals but I couldn't live with a bank that is so constrained.

Going into branch is a right pain - I recently had to transfer a large sum of cash for a currency transaction to buy a property in France - that took the best part of 1 hour of me answering pretty banal questions.
 
Paul said:
Misses has recently had a nightmare with HSBC. Cant Add people to an account to make it a joint account in Covid times... however can create a new Joint account...!!!

Because of the inflexability of the "old guard", we have bitten the bullet and created a fresh one with an online provider, all created and done in 20 mins. Cards arrived in a few days.
Has the benefit of being able to manage EVERYTHING online, create individual "pots" of money for certain goals etc...

So - with all the newer style accounts out there... with added features... Why do people bother with the old banks any more?
Click to expand...
The online banks are great for features and ease-of-use. Just beware though that there are some issues with FSCS protection (the £80k personal protection limit) with some. Others don't allow cheques either (I personally haven't used a cheque in over 20 years, but for my business account some companies still insist on providing those as a default payment option such as HMRC and recently with BUPA on a rebate!).

Depending on circumstances and amount of cash holding, you might want to balance new with a bricks-and-mortar approach.
 
I have had terrible problems with Santander over the years with them blocking legitimate payments. They were absolutely hopeless when I encountered a real fraud. Banks are also a huge risk due to fractional-reserve lending and nearly all are at risk of a Bank run if lots of people started to withdraw at the same time. I have very little trust in the Banking system. So I have been using Binance for some time as you get great interest rates on your fiat currencies as well as cryptocurrency. I received the email below today and am furious. This has nothing to do with Fraud and everything to do with trying to stop the competition. What's infuriating is Santander dictating what I do with my own Money.

"We’re stopping payments to Binance for your protection


We want to let you know that from 8 July 2021, we’ll be stopping payments from Santander accounts to Binance wherever possible. This follows the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s recent warning to consumers and is to help protect you from fraud. For now, we won’t be restricting payments from Binance into your account(s).


We’re taking this step as we want to do everything we can to protect you and help keep your money safe. We’ll continue to monitor the situation, and let you know if anything changes."
 
Santander are a breeze compared to trying to deal with Scottish widows. I tried to open an account with them a few years back. It was like going back to the 80s. I contacted them to say what I needed and was told I had to complete a questionnaire over the phone. No problem I said I could do it then and there. Nope. I had to make a separate appointment as it would take 2 hours. Said I could do Saturday. No can do. They don’t operate at weekends. Tried after 4. No chance as it was after their office hours. I had a rare Thursday afternoon free. Nope. They close early on Thursdays. Asked if we could do it over 2 dates. Nope. Eventually settled on a date 12 weeks away 😱

gave up and went through a broker. Everything sorted 60 mins later with …… yup you guessed it.
 
my daughter had to wait 2 working days to withdraw £3000 of her own money in cash from the Halifax when she was buying a 2nd hand car,as they had to order it in,because they did not have that much spare cash in the safe she was told!
 
I’ve got santander. works fine. never had any issues.

but, would like a more modern account too. so what do you good people recommend ?
 
Santander have blocked bank transfers on three separate occasion's when I have been buying Pins :mad: That despite me setting up the transfer and paying a deposit in advance. Twice I have hired and van and driven hundreds miles to pick up Pin only for Santander to say "Computer says No!"

You can almost guarantee their over zealous anti fraud system will block any large purchase or transaction if it's a legitimate payment. It will almost certainly fail to stop the payment if it really is a fraud, as their process for blacklisting fraudulent merchants and accounts is non existent.
 
I can't fault First Direct. I've been with them for about five years and not once have I had an issue with them.
 
I’ve been with Barclays for 45yrs and only had a few problems in that time but all were resolved fairly quick. Transfers are not a problem using the app but if it’s the 1st time you have paid someone there is a 2k limit imposed however the following day you can send 10k to that very person from then on.
I have noticed in recent times how they always ask a sneaky question in kinda small talk when paying in or withdrawing cash along the lines of “buying something nice” or “have you sold a car” ect.
 
Barclays held me with a £5k limit on first transfer on Thursday. I was able to send a second immediately after so no harm done.
There was not great info as to why there was a limit and what future limits would be. I think that is my concern about all banks, they can change the rules and the information is poor.
 
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