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

samwsmith1

timrollpickering wrote: »

You used to be able to do so with HSBC/Midland. When I opened my first account with them in the early 1990s a lot of their branches had deposit point machines - you filled up an envelope with any mixture of coins, notes, Scottish/NI notes, cheques, postal orders etc, added a paying in slip and took it to the machine where you deposited it and got a receipt. They subsequently added card readers, but you just had to feed in your card, and with no need for a PIN it was possible to have someone else deposit on your behalf.

To add to the usefulness a lot of Midland branches had 24 hour access lobbies so you could get in to deposit out of hours (I seem to recall they were one of the earliest UK banks to roll them out, at least in small towns and suburbs). They also repeatedly told me that if I couldn't get a envelope into a machine, either because it wouldn't accept my card (this was a problem for a while at my then local branch despite the cash & statement machines not having any trouble) or because the lobby door wasn't working or because the branch didn't have one then it was okay (albeit my own risk) to deposit via the bank's external letterbox.

However in the last several years HSBC have changed many of their branches and not always for the better. Roughly simultaneously they started withdrawing the lobby service, some refurbishing it out, other doing little more than just locking the door completely overnight, and replaced the old deposit point machines with separate Cheque and "Cash" (actually just notes) deposit machines, features not available on the externally accessible machines. Their coin machines are much much rarer. And even letterboxes are being sealed up, making it extremely hard to deposit when the branch is shut.

I used to make out of hours deposits via the letterbox at a small suburban branch nearby but about a year ago I got a snotty phonecall to tell me that that box is for post not deposits, and offering no advice whatsoever about how to deposit out of hours. The branch in question doesn't open on Saturdays.

(Fortunately there's since been a new branch in the new shopping centre which has longer hours, Saturday opening and a coin machine.)

I remember when you could get into the York Parliament Street branch by swiping your debit card at the door! I thought that it was pretty nifty but they obviously didn't think so.

timrollpickering

samwsmith1 wrote: »

I remember when you could get into the York Parliament Street branch by swiping your debit card at the door! I thought that it was pretty nifty but they obviously didn't think so.

The story goes that fraudsters were placing card readers on the door entries that could copy people's details, so they switched over to a button that anyone, customer or not, could push. And lo and behold security plummeted and various undesirables could get in either to attack customers or just the lobby as a urinal. So they started phasing the lobbies out altogether and just provided cash machines.

I can understand why they did it, but what I did find highly annoying was the poor communication of these changes (both lobbies and deposit machines) to customers, especially as different branches switched at different times which was a pain when I prepared deposit envelopes but couldn't foresee which branch I would next be at.

Chrisblue1962

Coin deposits

I spoke to Lloyds bank yesterday and they said they'd happily accept say 5 -10 bags, as long as queue doesn't build up.

Phoned Skipton Building Society re. same who said they are also happy to accept bagged coins,

Lady at Lloyds even gave me 20 coin bags when I asked her for some


HSBC have coin-counting machines in many of their branches.

jfh7gwa

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Why does OP need to go to the bank?
...
In fact other than to change an address I don't see the need to visit a branch at lunchtime at all.

I need to go to the bank every couple of months for commuting money, in exact change.

That's because at my work, I often need to go through to other offices for clients, and a typical week is:

Monday - walk to work
Tuesday - train fare to city 25 miles away (walk to station, need £13 odd - debit card too often rejected at machine to rely on so prefer coins)
Wednesday - visit client offices in my city centre, needs 3 quid in change (no change on buses)
Thursday - walk to work
Friday - walk to work

As you can see, i think i'm considered a total pain at my bank for needing to go in there every 2 months and saying "i need £40 in pound coins and £20 in silver change please".. but there's no other option.

I've had a fair few tuts and sighs from bank staff over it, too.

And I had to write in an official complaint when one woman refused to serve me the change without "24hrs notice" (she'd confused me with a business account, which i don't and have never had).

That's why, unfortunately, i need to keep at my local bank - i'd ditch them in an instant if i could, but i need the convenience of somewhere that's within 10min of my office so that these ad hoc needs for change are dealt with well.

I don't mind waiting in a queue, for the record. I do mind bank staff that tut when I ask for £60 in change.

Fingerbobs

samwsmith1 wrote: »

I remember when you could get into the York Parliament Street branch by swiping your debit card at the door! I thought that it was pretty nifty but they obviously didn't think so.

The Metro Bank branch in Borehamwood has this system. You can use any bank's card to gain access to the lobby containing the ATMs. Probably other Metro Bank brances have the same system as well.

And they also have free coin-counting machines that anyone, Metro Bank customer or not, can use - it sorts the coins for you, and provides a printout of the value. No fees or deductions.