Ridiculous delay in lodgement for Halifax accounts paid over counter in Post office

ebayqueen_2

Jock221 wrote: »

Can you suggest somewhere as we recently had Nationwide and Halifax branches shut down and now have to travel 23 miles to either lisburn or Belfast. No one is saying its a right to have a branch close by but I have been with the Nationwide for over 30 years and never expected it to close down. There are a lot of things not cost effective but remain open stuffed up with tax payers money perhaps they should close them as well instead of draining the public purse. With advances in technology I dont see any reason to have to wait 7, 10 or 14 days to clear a cheque. It may not be so easy to change banks now as a lot of people perhaps now retired would not meet the criteria and with so much unemployment people who have had accounts for years when they had a steady income may find it hard to get a bank to take them.



:A:jLife's a gift not a right

Hi there I agree with you completely. I dont think we ask for much from a bank we have been with for 15 years. I am seriously considering writing to the Financial Ombudsman. Surely this delay cannot be acceptable. It was ok we had money in our accounts but just imagine if you were waiting on that money to clear to pay your DDs etc.
thanks again

motorguy

ebayqueen wrote: »

Hi Paul
First of all I dont expect a branch within 5 miles of me but I do expect a bank to fulfil what it has promised me. Halifax have not fulfilled what they said they would. Just in case you might think I am a wee bit thick and that I hadn't considered your ideas, we are def moving back to UBank in the near future.
I would be interested to know if you live in a rural area and how would you feel if you paid your salary into your bank and had to wait 2 weeks before you could access it. I find this unacceptable in the modern hi tech world we live in.

Oh and by the way what makes you think I am getting hot under the collar. This is a board to ask this reasonable question. Thanks to all who have answered my question.

Firstly, i DO live in a rural area. A trip to my nearest bank branch (which also happens to be the halifax) and back is a 30 mile round trip. I try to link it in with something else related in the area though if i have to make a lodgement. A trip to the 'big smoke' is a 70 mile round trip. I do as much of my banking online as possible and draw cash out from the nearest ATM - some 5 miles away.

Why cant your employer make a BACS transfer? My son has a part time job in a local filling station (the only one within an easy 6 mile radius) and even they do BACS transfer for his part time wage.

Maybe its your employer that need to embrace the high tech world rather than relying on the banks to reach out to you personally.

Your original post wasnt necessarily a reasonable question - it was did anyone else have the same problem is you. Sorry that, given i live in a rural area and given i bank with the Halifax i dont have the same issues as you - but maybe i've simply worked around the issues rather than blaming others?

You say 'you find this unacceptable', but sadly, not everything in this modern world of ours can work instantly. If you sat down and thought out the sheer mechanics of what is happening behind the scenes you might appreciate this.

motorguy

ebayqueen wrote: »

Hi there I agree with you completely. I dont think we ask for much from a bank we have been with for 15 years. I am seriously considering writing to the Financial Ombudsman. Surely this delay cannot be acceptable. It was ok we had money in our accounts but just imagine if you were waiting on that money to clear to pay your DDs etc.
thanks again

Why??

We expect our banks to be profitable and protect our money and yet when they take evasive action to remain bouyant then thats a problem.

At the absolute peak of the banking crisis we had very significant sums in several Halifax accounts and fortunately that was protected by a government intervention. We are also shareholders in the HBOS group and my wife is an ex employee. Now to make the bank viable again and to protect individuals savings in the future they have had to make various cutbacks at many levels.

Are you really saying unviable branches that are sapping profits should be kept open just for the convenience of local people on the off chance they need to lodge a cheque?

motorguy

Snoozle wrote: »

A&L are like this, if you lodge cheques at the post office it can take 3 weeks or more for the money to reach your account, but it is debited from the drawer's account within a couple of days.

Its ok saying 'vote with your feet' etc but the bottom line is that if they are going to offer this service at all, they should provide a proper service. If they are not up to the job, then they shouldn't bother.

So it would be better to offer no service at all, rather than a service that doesnt meet your expectations?

What if you viewed it as :-

Post office lodgement = convenient but slow.

Bank lodgement = inconvenient but fast.

Surely you could simply make a decision as to which you needed on the rare occasions you need to deposit a cheque?

motorguy

ebayqueen wrote: »

Just in case you might think I am a wee bit thick and that I hadn't considered your ideas, we are def moving back to UBank in the near future.

Can we therefore expect a future post on how proposterous it is that the Ulster Bank dont accept deposits at their ATMs?

Snoozle

pgilc1 wrote: »

So it would be better to offer no service at all, rather than a service that doesnt meet your expectations?

What if you viewed it as :-

Post office lodgement = convenient but slow.

Bank lodgement = inconvenient but fast.

Surely you could simply make a decision as to which you needed on the rare occasions you need to deposit a cheque?

well......the account that I am familiar with is a business account that I deal with in the course of my job. I have no say over where the company bank (although I do appreciate that I didn't mention this in my earlier post). The company lodge through the post office due to the security implications of having to have a staff member travel a long distance on a daily basis to the nearest bank branch.

But, honestly, yes, I do think it would be better to offer no service at all than to offer a bad one. Its misrepresentation to advertise the 'convenience' of lodging to your account through a post office and then consistently muck it up.

Jock221

pgilc1 wrote: »

Can we therefore expect a future post on how proposterous it is that the Ulster Bank dont accept deposits at their ATMs?

I think you are missing the point here in your obviously defence of the Halifax. They shut the branches and issued the customers paying in books to use at the Post Office the wording on the book is that cheques lodge would be in your account within 2 working days it does not say between 10 to 17 so its not complying with its own rules. I happent to lodge cheques on a very regular basis because I run a business if I had know that Halifax would turn out to this much hassle I would have shut my account but will be doing so in the future. Customer services at its worst.

money_maker_3

Halifax accounts are not business accounts and should not be used as such, you are using a personal account so that you do not have to pay fees to use a specific business account.
Also it didnt close any of its branches, it clised agencys which did nbot have the full range of facilities that a branch had and it had to take the step when it lost a lot of money and had to be bought out by Lloyds to cut any part of the business that wasnt making a profit. This happened to all agencies in England and Scotland too.
You can post a cheque to your local branch by first class post and attach a letter with the sort code and account number and they will lodge it for you that way .. that might be quicker !!

arkonite_babe

I'm now going to move this thread to the banking board to see if it can get any further advice there.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]!!!!!![/EMAIL].

rb10

pgilc1 wrote: »

Several choices i guess

(a) deposit at a halifax branch / ATM machine
(b) change banks to one that has more local branches to you
(c) use bank transfers if / where possible
(d) accept that this service takes a bit longer than you'd like

(e) post your cheque to a Halifax branch