Why does society make us feel guilty for taking coins to the bank??

JuicyJesus

MoneySaverLog wrote: »

Only if they are bagged correctly. If one of those 50p's are dodgy, or the bags do not add up correctly or weigh what they should, or are mixed up that's what takes the time.

I have 1/2 hour for lunch, it takes me at least 5 minutes to get to the bank at lunch time, and 5 minutes to get back to my desk afterwards, so 20 minutes max to get my banking done and grab something to eat. Does not leave a lot of time when the queues are out the door at lunchtime for example.

Oh and often I would leave before 12am to get in the queue first but this don't work cause there is always a queue

Why do you need to go to the bank every day though? Or even once a week? Internet and telephone banking exist for a reason...

opinions4u

lilac_lady wrote: »

Perhaps the blame lies with the banks for not providing extra lunch time cover on the tills.

It is a problem that takes some juggling.

From a branch manager perspective I had a headcount budget. For example, I could employ 13.6 staff. If that was 13 full timers and a part timer who works 3 days a week it makes it very difficult to free up "extra" lunch time cover.

Most staff would have a half hour lunch break. Lunch breaks can be spread across a wider period of time, so some will go at 11.00am, others at 11.30am, some at noon and so on to 2.30pm - maximising availability for customers. That said, allowance had to be made for the needs of any staff who have to eat at a certain time on health grounds.

If the branch is open 6 days a week, say 43 hours, and each full time staff member works a 35 hour week (with 5 weeks holidays and training time on top to deduct), then each staff member is entitled to a full day off each week plus an early finish (or late start). One of the problems you get is how to cover the branch at the end of the day when staff have taken shorter lunch breaks are entitled to go home early.

One obvious solution to lunch time demand is to recruit part time staff who cover that 11.00am to 3pm period. In a city centre this is undoubtedly the period with highest demand. It's also the hardest place to recruit people to work part time for shorter days. Who wants to pay five days worth of bus fares or expensive city centre car parking to work for 20 hours a week in a job that pays little more than minimum wage?

Where you can get the part-time working Mum is in the smaller town branches where the main shopping precinct's big store is Wilkinsons or new pound shop. Drop the kids off at school, hoover the house and walk up to work. Serve over lunch and wander off to pick up the kids when school's out. But lunch time demand is often not significantly greater in these branches, so it's not always a perfect solution. It's just as annoying being in a queue at 4.30pm when there are only two cashiers as it is at 12.30pm when there are four.

I do remember once having a full time vacancy and taking the decision to recruit two part timers to work five x three and a half hour shifts each across the week. After three months of having the advert on the bank's web site and in the local job centre with only one application (who wasn't up to scratch when interviewed) I gave up on the masterplan and recruited a full timer who had passed interview for another branch where the vacancy had been filled by somebody else. That three month period where I was trying to improve things for customers meant they were served by a branch short on staff.

Another key issue is predicting when the branch is going to be busy. Yes, Monday, Friday, Market Day and Saturday morning might be busy. But when 100 customers turn up between 12noon and 1pm and only 30 between 1pm and 2pm, when a week earlier was the exact opposite, how are you meant to plan for it? If you rotad the lunches to start at 1pm you're stuffed.

jonesMUFCforever

Why does OP need to go to the bank?
If it is to pay in he can use the deposit point envelopes or self service machine, if it is to withdraw then there are ATM's - most banks offer internet banking whereby you can cancel D/D 's or setup amend or cancel standing orders.
In fact other than to change an address I don't see the need to visit a branch at lunchtime at all.

MoneySavingUser

alanq wrote: »

My local ASDA has one of those.However, the newest self-service tills have trays for dropping coins into instead of slots into which coins have to be fed one at a time. These can accept a pocket full of loose change very quickly and for full value.

this is a very good suggestion actually!

PudseyDB

A couple of weeks ago my 8 year old son emptied his very heavy money box and we sat together and counted out 4 bags of change - 2 bags of 5p, 1 bag of 2p and 1 bag of 1p. They were all £1 and in the correct money bags.

Now he wanted to swap them for 4 pound coins.............but....in order to do this I was told I had to pay the £4 into his account and then withdraw it. They couldnt just do an exchange!! Being the Halifax, I then had to fill out a paying in and withdrawal forms and it had to be processed. The actual checking and weighing of the money took 30 seconds, but I was at the counter for 5 mins.

Laughably, considering they want customers to use the correct money bags - they could only find ONE! when I asked for some more.


Think I'll stick with the check-out machines in future. When my son has bought matchbox cars before, he's emptied his change into the big slot (which he actually enjoys doing) and watches the screen for it to count down how much is left owing. And if he puts too much in by accident, he gets it back anyway.

lilmofie84

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Why does OP need to go to the bank?
If it is to pay in he can use the deposit point envelopes or self service machine, if it is to withdraw then there are ATM's - most banks offer internet banking whereby you can cancel D/D 's or setup amend or cancel standing orders.
In fact other than to change an address I don't see the need to visit a branch at lunchtime at all.

Since when can you deposit coins via the deposit point envelopes?

stclair

You could use a quick desposit machines in Natwest, Barclays, HBSC & Metro Bank to pay coins in free to pay in loose coins.

JuicyJesus

opinions4u wrote: »

It is a problem that takes some juggling.

From a branch manager perspective I had a headcount budget. For example, I could employ 13.6 staff. If that was 13 full timers and a part timer who works 3 days a week it makes it very difficult to free up "extra" lunch time cover.

Most staff would have a half hour lunch break. Lunch breaks can be spread across a wider period of time, so some will go at 11.00am, others at 11.30am, some at noon and so on to 2.30pm - maximising availability for customers. That said, allowance had to be made for the needs of any staff who have to eat at a certain time on health grounds.

If the branch is open 6 days a week, say 43 hours, and each full time staff member works a 35 hour week (with 5 weeks holidays and training time on top to deduct), then each staff member is entitled to a full day off each week plus an early finish (or late start). One of the problems you get is how to cover the branch at the end of the day when staff have taken shorter lunch breaks are entitled to go home early.

One obvious solution to lunch time demand is to recruit part time staff who cover that 11.00am to 3pm period. In a city centre this is undoubtedly the period with highest demand. It's also the hardest place to recruit people to work part time for shorter days. Who wants to pay five days worth of bus fares or expensive city centre car parking to work for 20 hours a week in a job that pays little more than minimum wage?

Where you can get the part-time working Mum is in the smaller town branches where the main shopping precinct's big store is Wilkinsons or new pound shop. Drop the kids off at school, hoover the house and walk up to work. Serve over lunch and wander off to pick up the kids when school's out. But lunch time demand is often not significantly greater in these branches, so it's not always a perfect solution. It's just as annoying being in a queue at 4.30pm when there are only two cashiers as it is at 12.30pm when there are four.

I do remember once having a full time vacancy and taking the decision to recruit two part timers to work five x three and a half hour shifts each across the week. After three months of having the advert on the bank's web site and in the local job centre with only one application (who wasn't up to scratch when interviewed) I gave up on the masterplan and recruited a full timer who had passed interview for another branch where the vacancy had been filled by somebody else. That three month period where I was trying to improve things for customers meant they were served by a branch short on staff.

Another key issue is predicting when the branch is going to be busy. Yes, Monday, Friday, Market Day and Saturday morning might be busy. But when 100 customers turn up between 12noon and 1pm and only 30 between 1pm and 2pm, when a week earlier was the exact opposite, how are you meant to plan for it?

I was about to come on here and post something along the lines of "It's actually not quite as simple as 'get more staff on the tills'" but I see you've already done so quite comprehensively...

Part of the problem is bank branches used to be much more heavily resourced. Customers can think that is still the case, when in reality the branch may well have a tenth of the staff it used to have.

opinions4u

JuicyJesus wrote: »

I was about to come on here and post something along the lines of "It's actually not quite as simple as 'get more staff on the tills'" but I see you've already done so quite comprehensively...

Part of the problem is bank branches used to be much more heavily resourced. Customers can think that is still the case, when in reality the branch may well have a tenth of the staff it used to have.

When I started work, the big city centre branch I was based in had 8 till positions and 70 staff.

Todays it has around 20 staff and 6 till positions.

Most branches have far fewer staff than this.

ses6jwg

For the people who are complaining about banks "not being able to take more than SO-AND-SO number of bags" there are 2 reasons for this:

1) A lot of smaller branches of some banks, for example, Santander, Halifax, Northern Rock, will be former building societies which historically carry less cash than a flagship branch of say, HSBC. In many of these branches the size of the safe will be no bigger than an under the counter fridge or washing machine. Aside from the cash, this will also be used to hold unissued stock such as cheques, passbooks, as well as keys and other such items. Branches cannot physically store a large amount of cash.

Well why don't they invest in bigger safes?

The simple answer brings me onto number 2 which is...

2) Bank branches these days are little different to a branch of Phones4u or Currys. Whilst they are there to provide a SERVICE, such as the paying in of cheques etc, their primary goal is geared towards SALES. The priority for management will always be sales, and if installing a bigger safe puts advertising or office space at risk, there is no chance it will be done.