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MSE News: Post Office to launch first current account

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Former_MSE_Helen
Former_MSE_Helen Posts: 2,382 Forumite
in Budgeting & bank accounts
"The new account will only be available in a small number of branches, before a wider roll-out is to take place in 2014..."
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Post Office to launch first current account

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  • MickFinn
    MickFinn Posts: 25 Forumite
    This is not their first foray. They used to have something called Girobank.
  • grumbler
    grumbler Posts: 58,629 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    MickFinn wrote: »
    This is not their first foray. They used to have something called Girobank.
    In fact it says clearly: "first foray in recent years".
  • stclair
    stclair Posts: 6,854 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Sounds great but ain't post office queues long enough as it is.
    Im an ex employee RBS Group
    However Any Opinion Given On MSE Is Strictly My Own
  • BobQ
    BobQ Posts: 11,181 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    MickFinn wrote: »
    This is not their first foray. They used to have something called Girobank.

    Girobank was a casualty of the Thatcher/Major Government's obsession with selling off state assets. How ironic that the Cameron Government is allowing the post office to re-invent it.

    Girobank offered a basic banking service based on its network of 20000 post offices (which have now declined to 11000). It was also the vehicle by which state benefits were distributed "Girocheques" (which real banks did not want to handle - well the queues in their branches I imagine was the issue not the money they would turn over!)

    I had a Giro account in 1978 which I kept post privatisation. I thought it was a great account, you could drive through the most obscure village and draw cash, also in a town you were never far from a post office.

    I think its a great idea to reinvent this in a modern form, no doubt it will fatten up the post office before it gets privatised. Had the post office been allowed to keep Girobank I suspect that many of the small post offices would not have closed.
    Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions.
  • BobQ
    BobQ Posts: 11,181 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 11 April 2013 at 2:21PM
    stclair wrote: »
    Sounds great but ain't post office queues long enough as it is.

    I doubt it will overload counters these days. I assume it will come with a cash card so most people will only need to use the counters for paying in. They will I imagine be very useful in villages where the banks have long since been closed.

    It could also help those who do not have internet access to make transfers to other accounts.

    But it may also mean an end of the Post Office facilitating cash withdrawals for other banks. Why would Lloyds encourage its customers to use the PO if it is becoming a competitor for current accounts!
    Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions.
  • innovate
    innovate Posts: 16,217 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Haven't been able to find out any useful information about the account yet, but you can register your interest: https://online.postoffice.co.uk/webApp/POLO
  • Buzby
    Buzby Posts: 8,275 Forumite
    At let us not forget, this is all thanks to the affinity service offered by the BANK OF IRELAND, the 'Post Office' are simply the front desks, nothing more - a 'virtual banker' if you will.

    And no, I wouldn't trust them to operate any accounts to my satisfaction.
  • innovate
    innovate Posts: 16,217 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Buzby wrote: »
    And no, I wouldn't trust them to operate any accounts to my satisfaction.

    Why not?................................................
  • ERICS_MUM
    ERICS_MUM Posts: 3,579 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    which bank does Bank of Ireland use for sterling clearing (i.e. CHAPS settlement member ) ?
  • disposalist
    disposalist Posts: 54 Forumite
    Good luck to BoI/Post Office current account holders. Have a good look in the contract for 'special conditions' that allow them to take your cash or drop the agreed savings rate if they feel like it...

    (yes, I do have a BoI 'tracker' mortgage they just more-than-doubled the rate of)
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