Pushy sales people in bank

kloana

merlinonline wrote: »

Its all about Sales targets being pushed by those desperate to have "manager" in their job title

Sales targets, yes. But not pushed by those who are desperate to climb up the career ladder. Rather, it's just those who are desperate to keep their job.

I've worked for a couple of high street banks, both in a customer-facing role, and over the phone. Awful stuff, and despite common misconceptions, it is not well-paid. Cashiers (in the north, at least) often earn just a little bit more than the minimum wage, typically around £13,000 for a 35 hour week, about £7 per hour. 'Personal bankers' can expect to earn about £15-16k basic salary. Commission is possible, but is pretty much always capped, and always comes out low (despite job adverts claiming that salaries in excess of £25k are possible). So, salaries are comparable to low-level administration roles, but with a lot of extra work involved, in a dog-eat-dog, highly pressurised, and sometimes humiliating environment.

If you don't hit your sales target as a bank employee, regardless of your role, you can expect to be disciplined quite quickly. Fail too many times, and you'll be dismissed. 9 times out of 10, the person 'pushing' a product onto you does not want to be doing it, and is doing it for career survival, rather than out of career aspiration. So you will find staff who appear to be pushy, for that reason.

On the other hand, it is possible to save customers money (or earn them more money, if they're savers), but not every product will fit every customer. The point of the sales 'chat' is to establish what suits whom. If a product turns out to be unsuitable for the customer (too expensive, pointless, not as good as current deal, etc.), any good bank employee will 'back off', and leave the customer be.

kloana

Elvisia wrote: »

Banks being pushy also drives my mother potty, she's with NatWest and she has a few thousand in her current account as a safety net as my father is terminally ill and since he could pop off at any minute she needs to know she's got money directly at hand. The rest of her cash is in fixed term bonds as she is financially very savvy but likes the reassurance that should something happen tomorrow she's there ready with her current account and can pay off things. She now doesn't go into NatWest unless she really has to as she gets so much hassle. Then she started getting phone calls, suggesting she put the money into their fixed term bonds, and it's infuriating when she has the money in there for such sensitive reasons.

Her reasons for wanting ready cash are understandable, but it's still better for lump sums to be held in a deposit account, even if the interest is pitiful. Easy access savings accounts can be drawn upon at a moment's notice, and can be accessed via telephone or branch (online-only accounts exist, but appear unsuitable for her needs).

Savings accounts rarely come with cash cards (though some can offer this facility), and never offer debit cards. This lack of card can make the account more secure. In the nighmare scenario that someone managed to compromise your mum's current account, her savings would remain safe, and virtually untouchable. I'm not saying this would happen to her, but there's always the small risk. Plus, she might as well earn some interest, even if it's a small amount.

(BTW, you can ask Natwest, or any bank, to mark her account file with a 'no sales' flag, making it much less likely that staff will approach her and ask her uncomfortable questions about her money).

kloana

Elvisia wrote: »

I am so pleased I bank online and I only have to go into the post office! Oh that's another point - when I pay cash into the Post Office they always say "oooo that's a lot of money, what are you going to spend that on/where's that from" and it's happened the last three times in a row now, it's so rude! It wasn't a lot of money, it was just a month of private tutoring money which was about £200!!

The PO always seem really keen on flogging credit cards. Make the mistake of paying for something by card (debit or credit - do the PO even accept CCs?), and you get the spiel. I usually just tell them I'm bankrupt, or maxed out (I'm neither ).

stclair

This is why the BBC possibly want to speak to bank staff...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20087514

debrag

kloana wrote: »

Her reasons for wanting ready cash are understandable, but it's still better for lump sums to be held in a deposit account, even if the interest is pitiful. Easy access savings accounts can be drawn upon at a moment's notice, and can be accessed via telephone or branch (online-only accounts exist, but appear unsuitable for her needs).

Savings accounts rarely come with cash cards (though some can offer this facility), and never offer debit cards. This lack of card can make the account more secure. In the nighmare scenario that someone managed to compromise your mum's current account, her savings would remain safe, and virtually untouchable. I'm not saying this would happen to her, but there's always the small risk. Plus, she might as well earn some interest, even if it's a small amount.

(BTW, you can ask Natwest, or any bank, to mark her account file with a 'no sales' flag, making it much less likely that staff will approach her and ask her uncomfortable questions about her money).

My RBS savings account comes with a debit card

retepetsir

Unfortunately it's all target based sales now. My dad worked for Barclays for over 30 years and ended up leaving due to just this, it was less customer service (he was a manager of multiple branches) and more sales.

There are only so many loans/mortgages/credit cards you can sell to the same OAPs that come in every week for their money.