Halifax won't let me open a savings account without seeing an advisor?

surreysaver

ses6jwg wrote: »

p.s. nobody would care if you took your business elsewhere

childrens savings accounts are practically worthless to the bank and they only offer them as a certain percentage of people will do life insurance off the back of them, or the children might open their first bank account there

Fair enough. But I was going to leave my 30k with them for another year in my ISA, but might not bother now...

surreysaver

jonmcclelland wrote: »

The way I see it is, you wouldn't go to your doctors randomly and ask to see somebody, or you wouldn't go to the dentist and demand service. You'd call ahead, or you'd make an appointment to prevent disappointment.

Well, actually, I would go to the doctor's or dentist's randomly if it was an emergency! But I would be comparing going to the bank as to going to Tescos rather than the doctors. If you go to Tesco, you expect to be able to buy something they have in stock. same with a bank.

jonmcclelland wrote: »

Counter staff are trained for counter transactions and in most cases won't be fully trained or authorised to talk through an account opening with you. They may not have as much product knowledge when compared to a trained advisor. I'm sure if in a years time, some terms and conditions kicked in, or interest rates dropped you'd be first in the queue raising your concerns again. What you see sometimes isn't always what you want or should have and it's a trained advisors job to identify that.

I'm sorry, but that's not what I would expect. As a customer who does not work in a bank, I would expect opening an account to be a counter transaction, and I would expect counter staff to be trained to do that. And I would expect them to have the appropriate knowledge - even if I was just paying money in, I would expect them to be able to deal with a query I might throw at them.

jonmcclelland wrote: »

In a perfect world, walk-ins could be seen but it's not always the case. It's unfair on people who've made the time and booked an appointment to review or open accounts to be left waiting. I know if I arranged a time on my day off to go to the bank and I had to be kept waiting because somebody was demanding to see somebody after walking in off the street I'd feel short changed.

If I realised I needed to make the time and effort to make an appointment, I would have done so. In an ideal world, banks would tell their customers they needed to do that.

jonmcclelland wrote: »

At the end of the day, it's 30 minutes-1hr of your time. I see absolutely no excuses in not calling ahead or arranging an appointment if what you want to is important to you. If it's that much of a concern, use the online service or call centres.

More like four or five hours to take into account the fact of a wasted trip...

opinions4u

You can rant away all you like.

The regulator is God when it comes to financial services.

The penalties for not complying with regulations can be extreme.

I actually agree with many of your points. If I ran the world the regulations would be different and wouldn't come from the starting point of "the customer is stupid until we've established otherwise".

But we live in a world where regulations are putin place to protect customers. If banks and building societies cut corners and get found out they face severe penalties. This applies to simple savings accounts as much as it does to other products.

Like it or not that's the way it is.

surreysaver

HoneyAndLemon wrote: »

I dont even have the time to tell you how wrong you are about so many things so hopefully someone else will come along,but I will just add, when did people need to be psychic to realise its the tax year end?

Obvioulsy its the Halifax that doesn't know when the tax year end is if they cannot deal with normal day to day stuff because of it. Its not like the Government only gave them a week's notice, is it? And I walked in with three cashiers twiddling their thumbs not doing anything, so they did not seem bery busy to me...

And my comment about being psychic is that customers cannot be expected to realise what goes on behind the scenes. If all the admin staff were on public view with their piles of application forms sitting there while they're gossiping and drinking tea, then customers might have a better idea of why they cannot perform basic banking functions...

surreysaver

opinions4u wrote: »

But we live in a world where regulations are putin place to protect customers.

It is not customers the regulations are protecting, it is the stupid! The genuine customers who can read and know what they want are the ones who suffer.

opinions4u

surreysaver wrote: »

Obvioulsy its the Halifax that doesn't know when the tax year end is if they cannot deal with normal day to day stuff because of it. Its not like the Government only gave them a week's notice, is it? And I walked in with three cashiers twiddling their thumbs not doing anything, so they did not seem bery busy to me...

...

Tax year planning for the ISA season is probably quite significant. From memory new account volumes trebled in that period and other product areas cut back on their targets for that period of time to help free up resource.

As for three staff with nothing to do ... The second one is moved off the counter for other duties a bus load of customers will walk through the door. Just because it was dead when you appeared doesn't mean it was 5 minutes earlier or later.

Another constraint at this time of year in some bank branches is a lack of physical space. There simply aren't enough rooms to open accounts in, even if you do have enough fully trained staff.

Each of those cashiers will serve close to 200 customers a day. Don't deny them the brief respite you saw by moaning that they should do something that they are not trained or authorised to do. Something that would simply cause a massive queue at the counter.

Mandelbrot

surreysaver wrote: »

But I would be comparing going to the bank as to going to Tescos rather than the doctors. If you go to Tesco, you expect to be able to buy something they have in stock. same with a bank.

You don't expect Tesco to draw you to one side at the till and say "I'm sorry, we can't sell you this turkey until we go through with you how you need to cook it". They limit themselves to sticking something on the label (perhaps) and leaving it at that.

Banks are now essentially shops.
They should more fully act that way, and realise that the customer can choose to shop elsewhere.

Mandelbrot

opinions4u wrote: »

Another constraint at this time of year in some bank branches is a lack of physical space. There simply aren't enough rooms to open accounts in, even if you do have enough fully trained staff.

Because that's the way branches have been (re-)designed in recent years?
Whose fault is that then?

HoneyAndLemon

Mandelbrot wrote: »

You don't expect Tesco to draw you to one side at the till and say "I'm sorry, we can't sell you this turkey until we go through with you how you need to cook it". They limit themselves to sticking something on the label (perhaps) and leaving it at that.

Banks are now essentially shops.
They should more fully act that way, and realise that the customer can choose to shop elsewhere.

So now we're comparing savings accounts with potentially thousands of pounds in them...to a turkey? And suggesting that because Tesco don't tell you how to cook it, banks shouldn't sit down and explain how accounts work?

I give up.

opinions4u

Mandelbrot wrote: »

You don't expect Tesco to draw you to one side at the till and say "I'm sorry, we can't sell you this turkey until we go through with you how you need to cook it". They limit themselves to sticking something on the label (perhaps) and leaving it at that.

No. But if Tesco were to face fines of £millions for not doing so I'm sure they'd give it consideration.