MSE News: Post Office could become a bank

joedenise

Didn't the Post Office used to do a bank account back in the 70s? It was called "Girobank"!

Denise

glider3560

Evansangel wrote: »

I dont like going in there as it is, everything is about sales now and as a bank they would be pushing you more

"Would you like a credit card?"
"No i just wish to post this package"
"How about travel insurance?"
"No!..."

I usually get out of their sales by telling them which credit cards are better than theirs hehe

I had this earlier in the summer.

"Are you going on holiday this year?"
"Yes"
"We can offer a better exchange rate than [insert name of local independent bureau]"
"Really?! How many English pounds can you give me for 200 of my lovely English pounds?"
Silence from the clerk as she continued to process the parcel I was sending. I think she missed the keyword "abroad" from her sales pitch!!

In other branches, I've had the credit card, savings, car insurance and life insurance sales pitches.

thatsean

Clearly there is a customer experience piece to be worked on if this happens - I'm sure we've all been bored with a sales pitch when going in to post a parcel. But this is brilliant news! Bringing regulated products to the reach of anyone who can get to a post office is a massive step in increasing social inclusion in banking. Not sure I'll sign up for one - and here's hoping that they don't forget what their core business is!

beachyboy

joedenise wrote: »

Didn't the Post Office used to do a bank account back in the 70s? It was called "Girobank"!

Denise

I'm glad somebody has made this point, which seems to have escaped the notice of most of the journalists and commentators reporting this story. Probably most of them are too young to remember when Girobank- later taken over by Alliance and Leicester- was actually a publicly-owned facility which actually worked rather well most of the time- I had my first account with them a good ten years before I went to one of the big five clearing banks for a student account.

What perhaps should be asked is why on earth did the then government make the mistake of selling the family silver by selling Girobank in the first place? It seems to me it provided a perfect facility for everyday banking for most users- you could even make deposits using post-paid envelopes, so didn't actually have to queue up in branch, except when you needed to draw cash. A cheque book, and later a LINK card; for many people this was surely all they needed then, and what the Post Office should be offering again now.

What Girobank did lack, however, was an overdraft facility- the main reason really that I changed when I went to uni. Otherwise, I couldn't fault the service as it was then- though I've heard it was a different story under A&L.

Chrisblue1962

I think the Post Office should offer basic savings and current accounts. I had a Post Office Account as a child and I think a return to this core business (remember Girobank?) would really help a lot of people, especially those who are on low incomes and a sight oversight with a High Street bank nowadays can result in an excessive bank charge which could make a real difference to the weekly budget.

I say go to the website and fill in the consultation form... YES for a Post Office Bank!

karen24_2

If it does go ahead I expect they'll adapt the card account to have extra features. They've already sent notification to card account holders that they'll soon be able to use their card in ATM's.

QUDOS

[/QUOTE]
yes yes yes, I would much prefer to have my money in a PO Bank account as long as I can do Internet banking, DD's and transfers etc etc.
Then the banks can suffer the consequences of losing loads of customers. Is this my dream? or do others fel like me?

Extant

QUDOS wrote: »

Then the banks can suffer the consequences of losing loads of customers. Is this my dream? or do others fel like me?

It's your dream.

What makes you think that the Post Office would be any better, and that customers would just up and move en masse to a disjointed organization with terrible staffing levels, high turn over, poor facilities, etc.?

It's rather sad that people greet news like this with such vindictive glee, they're so bitter about banks.

sandiep

Post office should have done this 10 years ago, and then wouldn't have had to sell off every decent service they had that people acutally wanted, and wouldn't be left as an empty shell only of use to people sending christmas parcels and letters.

But that's PO all over, they don't listen, they are too busy telling their customers what they need and don't ever listen to their customers telling them what they want. And for information. Those poor sods that own the Post Offices have a far harder time of it than all of their customers combined. The post offices own internal structure and mangement is beyond terrible.

glider3560

sandiep wrote: »

wouldn't be left as an empty shell only of use to people sending christmas parcels and letters.

That would be absolutely excellent - a Post Office which does what it says on the tin - only deals with postal services!