Asked a question by a cashier I found a little odd..

[Deleted User]

You could play the whole scenario in a far more surreal way...

"Have you got plans for this money?"
"What money?"
"The money you're paying in"
"Am I?"
"Yes, I'm paying this into your account"
"Oh. So what's my plan for it?"
"I don't know. Do you have plans for it?"
"Yes. I'm going to buy sardines. Lots of sardines."
"Okay... Had you thought about investing it?"
"Of course. I'm only buying enough sardines to fit the rest of the money in."
"You put your money in sardines?"
"Not yet. But I will do. When I own sardines."
"You could invest it instead."
"Ingest it? That doesn't sound healthy."
"Not ingest, invest."
"What am I ingesting?"
"Your money."
"I don't want to ingest my money."
"No, invest your money."
"I am investing it."
"In what?"
"Sardines."

Etc.

ses6jwg

The girl is just doing her job. Banks are shops and a shop salesmans job is to try and sell you things.

Yes you are probably lucky enough to be in the 0.1% of the British public who are financially astute members of moneysavingexpert.

As a banking adviser in a bank I have witnessed the following (these are real life examples):

- Customers who have never changed their home insurance provider because they couldn't be bothered/ didn't know they could. One couple I met were paying £65 pcm for theirs and I got them a better policy that they were paying £16pcm for.

- Customers who leave thousands of pounds in accounts paying 0.1% or in their current accounts. Today actually I made an old couple £1,052 better off this year by simply renewing one of their savings accounts.

- Customers who shop online regularly and use debit cards. I've set up plenty of credit cards for them to get cashback and fraud/ purchase protection.

- Customers who pay through the nose in interest because they didn't realise they could switch. This is my best real life example. I was sat on the counter one afternoon and a chap was paying a cheque into his account. I noticed he had a direct debit to MBNA for a very large amount (over £200 pcm) and so the conversation went like this:

*After a bit of small talk*
"Mr X, I notice on your account you've got a payment going out to our old credit card provider, do you mind me asking do you keep a balance on that card?"

"Yes I am, a fair bit actually"

"Have you got 5 minutes to see if I can save you some money on your payments"

"Yes just a quick chat mind"


After that quick chat and sitting down and doing the figures it transpired Mr X had a debt of over £12k on that MBNA credit card and his minimum payment was just over £250pcm and half of that was interest. He had had this debt for over 2 years. We worked out it would take him something like 10 years to pay it back. I managed to sort him out with a 0% balance transfer for 4k of it. Then we did a loan for the remainder. This reduced his monthly outgoings to about half of what they were, he was paying less interest, after halved the amount of time he would take to pay it back.

This was just because I asked a question.

Let me get this straight, bank staff ask an try to sell to you because it is their job. They are set targets and are managed and pushed to do it. They get rewarded (not very handsomely, usually a few hundred £££ every 3 months) if they do it well.

However, not all bank staff are trying to sell you PPI, or a structured investment, or try and mis-sell you a paid for bank account.

JuicyJesus

billbennett wrote: »

You could play the whole scenario in a far more surreal way...

"Have you got plans for this money?"
"What money?"
"The money you're paying in"
"Am I?"
"Yes, I'm paying this into your account"
"Oh. So what's my plan for it?"
"I don't know. Do you have plans for it?"
"Yes. I'm going to buy sardines. Lots of sardines."
"Okay... Had you thought about investing it?"
"Of course. I'm only buying enough sardines to fit the rest of the money in."
"You put your money in sardines?"
"Not yet. But I will do. When I own sardines."
"You could invest it instead."
"Ingest it? That doesn't sound healthy."
"Not ingest, invest."
"What am I ingesting?"
"Your money."
"I don't want to ingest my money."
"No, invest your money."
"I am investing it."
"In what?"
"Sardines."

Etc.

I would wager the cashier would give up asking further questions or attempting to sell you things as soon as it transpired you were deliberately talking b*llocks.

MoneySaverLog

How much money was it, if it was substantial it could be part of the banks money laundering checks.

chambta

ses6jwg wrote: »

The girl is just doing her job. Banks are shops and a shop salesmans job is to try and sell you things.

Yes you are probably lucky enough to be in the 0.1% of the British public who are financially astute members of moneysavingexpert.

As a banking adviser in a bank I have witnessed the following (these are real life examples):

- Customers who have never changed their home insurance provider because they couldn't be bothered/ didn't know they could. One couple I met were paying £65 pcm for theirs and I got them a better policy that they were paying £16pcm for.

- Customers who leave thousands of pounds in accounts paying 0.1% or in their current accounts. Today actually I made an old couple £1,052 better off this year by simply renewing one of their savings accounts.

- Customers who shop online regularly and use debit cards. I've set up plenty of credit cards for them to get cashback and fraud/ purchase protection.

- Customers who pay through the nose in interest because they didn't realise they could switch. This is my best real life example. I was sat on the counter one afternoon and a chap was paying a cheque into his account. I noticed he had a direct debit to MBNA for a very large amount (over £200 pcm) and so the conversation went like this:

*After a bit of small talk*
"Mr X, I notice on your account you've got a payment going out to our old credit card provider, do you mind me asking do you keep a balance on that card?"

"Yes I am, a fair bit actually"

"Have you got 5 minutes to see if I can save you some money on your payments"

"Yes just a quick chat mind"


After that quick chat and sitting down and doing the figures it transpired Mr X had a debt of over £12k on that MBNA credit card and his minimum payment was just over £250pcm and half of that was interest. He had had this debt for over 2 years. We worked out it would take him something like 10 years to pay it back. I managed to sort him out with a 0% balance transfer for 4k of it. Then we did a loan for the remainder. This reduced his monthly outgoings to about half of what they were, he was paying less interest, after halved the amount of time he would take to pay it back.

This was just because I asked a question.

Let me get this straight, bank staff ask an try to sell to you because it is their job. They are set targets and are managed and pushed to do it. They get rewarded (not very handsomely, usually a few hundred £££ every 3 months) if they do it well.

However, not all bank staff are trying to sell you PPI, or a structured investment, or try and mis-sell you a paid for bank account.

At it's best things should be mutually beneficial.

ses6jwg

chambta wrote: »

At it's best things should be mutually beneficial.

Of course they should.

Banks are not charities and bank staff are not nuns.

They are there to make money.

If I can make myself some money and make/ save other people money then what's the problem?

If you're not interested just politely tell me your not interested/ in a rush and I'll leave you alone. You can get on with your day and I'll move on to the next customer. Just because something is not right for doesn't mean it's not right for anyone.

MoneySaverLog

No thank you, I just want to deposit £xx,xxx into your best rate savings account. I'm not interested in investing thank you.

Is all you need to say I guess, if they push go pay it in across the road I'm sure they'll ask the same questions though.

Dr_Cuckoo3

ses6jwg wrote: »

If I can make myself some money and make/ save other people money then what's the problem?

If you're not interested just politely tell me your not interested/ in a rush and I'll leave you alone. You can get on with your day and I'll move on to the next customer. Just because something is not right for doesn't mean it's not right for anyone.

I'm surprised that you pestered a customer without a pre-approval bearing in mind that your bank pre-approves customers for these products

I wouldn't have applied without a pre-approval and wonder whether you peeked at the customer's behaviour score before going ahead

I_luv_cats

I collected a few thousand pounds from the Post Office and was asked what I was going to do with it. (I said Spend IT) I felt like I was given the hard sale as passed to an adviser so I took the advisers card and got away.

When I paid the £ in my bank account I'd got the same Spain'ish inquisition.

When Barclays took over Woolwich I'd get the "How are you" from the Cashiers and hard sell on their premium accounts.

I find it annoying myself!!

Blackpool_Saver

I am sick to death of being asked about my loan and overdraft when I go to the counter (which is very rare as I do all my banking online) I do NOT want the entire queue to know I have a loan and overdraft.
Last time the cheeky mare did this I said, I will discuss mine if you want to discuss yours in public.........