A High Street Bank Employee's View

euronorris

Honest_Banker wrote: »

First let me say that I am genuinely sorry to hear the story of your illness. Did you have any critical illness cover or accident, sickness & unemployment cover. From your story I assume not. This would probably be because at some point you had ignored an advisers advice to be fully protected should anything happen. This sort of highlights my point that customers believe that banks should 'bail them out' of any financial difficulties, and its not the customers responsibility.

You've missed a very important point here: not everyone can afford the insurance premiums in the first place. Particularly if they have pre-existing medical conditions.

I was lucky enough to obtain most insurance deals through my work at reduced rates. Pre existing conditions such as asthma, epilepsy and back problems means that the advertised average premium of 10 or 15 GBP is often double for someone like myself. And, if you have had a serious illness before you are lucky if you can even find a company that will insure you.

My sister had to wait until her youngest daughter was 5 before they could take her on holiday. She had heart surgery weeks after her birth and recovered fully and quickly but the insurance companies refused her cover until 5 years had passed.

voiceofreason

Pammy wrote: »

Thanks for highlighting that post. That is just disgusting and yet I can't understand how anyone, such as the original poster, could defend the banks after reading this.

They have acted like vultures in so many cases. Its the ruthlessness and the fact they are taking this from the vunerable and less well off people in society. Those with money won't get bank charges because they have the money. Its archaic, next the banks will be sticking children up chimneys.

No they won't. You're talking utter nonsense.

voiceofreason

Pammy wrote: »

What are you talking about? I didnt have any advice to get cover. I didnt want bailing out thank you. I wanted some help due to my circumstances, like every other organisation gave me during this time. If for example I can't pay my phone bill next month vodaphone will work out a plan to pay it off, they may switch me to incoming calls while I pay it off but they do something to assist. I believe legally they are also obliged to do so.

The banks on the other hand don't have to do that, they thrive on my debt, they have more or less stated that. They want me to go overdrawn, it pays for other services.

So while I lay there thinking I was dying, or the man in the other post sleeps on a park bench the bank rubs its hands in glee because its yet another £35.00 charge.

Thats why they won't help out, because its set up not to help. I didnt care about the amount of the charge, I cared about the fact I was given no choice on how this was paid back and the dire consequences it left me in.

If it was so awful why didnt they close my account down? Why didnt they stop the account do it can't go overdrawn? why didnt they stop all my cards? Because if they did that then they would not have made a single penny out of my situation.

Not being funny or owt - but if you didn't take steps to protect yourself should the worst have come to the worst, then whyever should the bank?

stelly

I think Honest Banker has totally missed the point in this thread. :mad:

Most people dont expect the bank to bail them out.

I didnt have a nice holiday planned when i tried to reclaim my charges and im sure most others didnt either.

What we would like is instead of seeing a whole row of £££££££ signs when dealing with customers they actually take a minute to see that we are people not just a no. on a computer and every persons situation is different.

But then if they did that that how would they afford to pay themselves their ridiculous bonuses that most people here couldnt spend in their whole lifetimes.

The upshot is that the banks couldnt care less about anyone but themselves even if its their customers who bailed them out (while they were still getting those ridiculous bonuses).

I hope one day "Honest" Banker that the s*** hits the fan for you and then you can get fu**** over by the wonderful bank you work for.

euronorris

Oh, and also, many of the policies sold by the banks for 'protection' are worthless to many people as they exclude pre-existing conditions.

If someone really wants to ensure they are covered fully they should see an Independant Financial Adviser. And, it is possible to do this without paying them a fee. Many will work on a commission basis, but then you need to ensure that they really are acting independantly, not just on the basis of who will pay them the most commission.

You can, of course, research this yourself but IFA's usually have access to some comparison sites that the general public don't. God, I used to work at an IFA, but I cannot remember the name of the service I refer too. Arghhh, how very annoying.

voiceofreason

stelly wrote: »

I hope one day "Honest" Banker that the s*** hits the fan for you and then you can get fu**** over by the wonderful bank you work for.

Squalid, rude and frankly unpleasant.

If you communicate with your bank like this I'm not surprised they give you short shrift when trying to claim back charges......

ILW

Pammy wrote: »

Actually I agree with the first point on one point. I read on here someone say they wanted the money back for extra holiday cash.

It could be argued that its the persons right to do what they want as unfair is unfair but I also feel that for those people its a luxury, for some of us the cash back would actually have helped get out of a rut the charges put us in the first place.

I won't relay my whole story again. I was not necessary a hardship case but I was told I had cancer which Im sure you can appreciate was not the best news and as a consequence I was not paying attention to the small amounts I went overdrawn.

When I was informed by the bank that a whole lump sum was going to be taken out the following month I knew that all my direct debits would hit without the money to pay for them. All I asked the bank was if I could pay it off in 3 payments, but no, they would not. They knew I had money coming in, they knew the consequence of taking out the money, yet took it out. The direct debits hit, I was then charged another huge amount. The cycle started. If it had not been for my parents I would have been in an absolute mess.

So you may be sick of hearing customers complaints, that must be awful for you. But maybe oneday in your own life the poo will hit the fan and it will happen to you eventually, its called life. Then perhaps and only then will you have some empathy for your customers.

Could you not have just put a stop on the direct debits and saved all the charges?

wherediditallgothen

ILW wrote: »

Could you not have just put a stop on the direct debits and saved all the charges?

Yes because that would be the very first thing on your mind in her situation wouldn't it?

W*nker.

mramra

stelly wrote: »

What we would like is instead of seeing a whole row of £££££££ signs when dealing with customers they actually take a minute to see that we are people not just a no. on a computer and every persons situation is different.

They are banks, not social services. They have a duty to their shareholders to maximise profits.

stelly wrote: »

I hope one day "Honest" Banker that the s*** hits the fan for you and then you can get fu**** over by the wonderful bank you work for.

Oh dear.

stelly

voiceofreason wrote: »

Squalid, rude and frankly unpleasant.

If you communicate with your bank like this I'm not surprised they give you short shrift when trying to claim back charges......

Thanks for your lovely response.

I'll think you'll find I dont communicate with my bank like this or any other company.

But the condesending tone of Honest Banker to previous posters is exactly the reason why so many people my self included are fed up and angry with the banks.

Their holer than though attitude is ridiculous.

Their inability to see that sometimes things happen in life that we as customers have no control over.

There is no honesty within the banking system. Its all set up to benefit them.

And for Honest Banker to have a go at someone who quite frankly was dealing with something nobody should go through is a joke.

Mmmhhh food on the table or critical illness cover hard decision.