HSBC - Needing Cheque Book to Withdraw Cash

premierfella

I think the "voucher requirement" is probably a red herring. It is more likely that requiring customers to use personalised withdrawal slips or cheques is an attempt by HSBC to reduce losses from unauthorised fraudulent withdrawals (and discourage use of the counters perhaps?), as the OP seems to indicate was the reason given.

I can understand them trying to deter customers from using blank withdrawal slips, but if a customer has a genuine need to obtain cash in excess of the cash machine limits and its not something that Faster Payments can cover, you would think they would have some sort of procedure to service the customer's request (even if it meant clearing tighter security checks).

flutterbyuk25

premierfella wrote: »

I can understand them trying to deter customers from using blank withdrawal slips, but if a customer has a genuine need to obtain cash in excess of the cash machine limits and its not something that Faster Payments can cover, you would think they would have some sort of procedure to service the customer's request (even if it meant clearing tighter security checks).

I agree with you that there should be some other procedure.

I was annoyed cos I had both my passport and driving licence on me when I wanted to withdraw £350 in one go for holiday money (my ATM limit is £300) but I was turned away due to lack of cheque book!

x

DesG

I take it this applies to First Direct customers withdrawing cash over the counter at HSBC branches too?

Cheers, Des.

ShelfStacker_3

DesG wrote: »

I take it this applies to First Direct customers withdrawing cash over the counter at HSBC branches too?

Cheers, Des.

First Direct customers have it a little bit better - they can bring in a cheque book and ID to withdraw, OR they can ring First Direct and get them to send a message to a specific HSBC branch to allow us to encash for them with a withdrawal slip and a password chosen by the customer. (Which, honestly, I wish HSBC would do as well.)

On that subject, blank withdrawal slips are a HUGE source of fraud losses to the bank, even while they're as restricted as they are (they're locked away, and only supposed to be given out in genuine emergencies, and even then only usually as a one off.)

Extant

So despite promoting "going green" on a huge scale - win a laptop, get £5, etc. - HSBC are now basically saying that every customer must have either a cheque or credit book printed and lying around if they wish to withdraw cash above their ATM limits.

Ridiculous. And seeing as how HSBC also pushes several new paperless technologies, such as text message banking, this is not but contradictory and borderline hypocritical. Invest some money in the counters and move away from being entirely voucher based. This isn't the 1980s; there's no mech rooms left.

Extant

ShelfStacker wrote: »

On that subject, blank withdrawal slips are a HUGE source of fraud losses to the bank, even while they're as restricted as they are (they're locked away, and only supposed to be given out in genuine emergencies, and even then only usually as a one off.)

Then drop the voucher system. There are much better ways to verify a transaction than an arbitrarily imposed piece of paper; having worked in a bank where withdrawal slips used to be required and were then dropped, I can quite easily testify that fraud losses did not significantly increase.