Halifax - Arrrgh!!!!

Homework

Bouncy cheques, lots of £10 withdrawals, low average balances? I take it this is a generalism, therefore, there must be some people who do these things in their account and some who don't.

Sally is having to wait longer for her regular pay cheque that has not bounced before because she has a basic account. She is an established customer that will have a banking record and they will know the risk of her account. What risk is there to ediedachshund's daughter paying cash into the account and making her wait to get access to it? One day she will have a bigger wage/need for mortgage/car insurance etc so why not identify that as a future opportunity and give her proper customer service just now.

Attracting new customers with £100 you will get a random group of new customers some of whom will go, stay or default if their circumstances change. A basic account gives the bank the knowledge that this person does not start with the bank at the same place as others but allows the bank to see a pattern of conduct extablished which reduces the risk to the bank.

A similar risk and opportunity will be there with their existing customers, but by removing the counter service and extending the waiting period to have access to their money they will end up with only the customers they don't want. In general, bouncy cheques, lots of £10 withdrawals and low average balances.

Cheque cashing places transax the cheques to minimise any loss. I asked if we could get a Inland Revenue rebate cheque paid in quicker and was told we would have to pay (a similar amount to what we did with a cheque cashing place) to post it to another branch where it would only get in perhaps a day earlier and if it was lost in the post our money would be gone and they would have no responsibility for it. We cashed it and went into the branch 20 minutes later and deposited the money.

The bank will make money from the days it holds onto the proceeds from cash and cheques before passing them on to the customer without having to provide any service. A good money spinner at the loss of those who can least afford to wait.

regularsaver1

SallyUK wrote: »

Hi Guys

I'm having terrible problems with the Halifax at the moment.

I've been a customer there for years, and have a Cardcash account. Recently, they stopped letting me pay in my pay cheque over the counter, and insisted that I used one of their machines. (My argument was, what are they getting paid for, if they don't want to take my cheque, even though I prefer paying it in, at the counter!!!).

Anyway, on Sat 7th April, I did pay in my cheque using their machine. Then I noticed on my account, that the cheque wouldn't become available until the 18th April!!! - 11 days away!!

When I rang to ask why, (and I did realise there were some Bank hols) this is what they said - "Oh when you pay in a cheque using the machine, it always takes a few days longer to clear" - Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really wish I didn't have to use a bank account at all.

I'd love to close the account, but due to my credit history and the financial trouble my ex husband left me in, I really don't think I'd be able to open up another one, without any hassle. Anyone got any suggestions please?

Sally
x

I think you used an ATM instead of the new IDM machines. Alternatively the branches have the Express Pay In (EPI)drop boxes on the wall, that are paid in that day

There is a reason they have bought these changes in for basic accounts (easycash and cardcash) - to cut the queues
These accounts have been changed to self-service

All the deposits in the machine and wall have to be keyed by a member of staff but it cuts the queues

to avoid this you could apply to upgrade to a current account - which you've already said you'd tried

This is a not a new thing - this was trialed in certain areas, including London over a year ago, and its been rolled out across the whole country

regularsaver1

ediedachshund wrote: »

We are going to pretend Amelia is 17 and half if there are any problems. If we still can't get the money over the counter we are both going to vote with our feet and tell the manager so-I've had a Halifax current account for 14 years and to be honest this is just the spur I need to move to a better account.

I didn't see how you can pretend someones age - its flashes up on the screen so the cashiers can do a visual age check

If your daughter works for halifax she should know that you don;t have the have a certain wage to have a current account

regularsaver1

I found this on a Q&A with the former HBOS chief executive James Crosby, from May 2006:

"Q813 Mr Love: Can I move on to access to the banking hall for bank account holders. It has been put to us that, in effect, if you do not allow customers to use the bank branch itself you are creating exclusion within inclusion. How would you respond to that? Let me ask one of the ones that do not: Halifax, you do not allow your basic bank account customers to use the branch. Why? Are you not creating exclusion?

Mr Crosby: It is not that we do not allow them; in actual fact, our cash card product is a card-based product. So the first point I would make is that a lot of our products are card-based rather than counter-based, but having said that our social banking customers do enjoy access, in practice, to our branch counters because all our management have local discretion. So it is a mix-and-match situation. So it is not true to say that we do not allow access. We do try to encourage such customers to use ATMs as much as possible; it is in their interests as much as ours."

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmtreasy/uc848-vii/uc84802.htm

and:

"Q823 Chairman: Why do Barclays and HBOS take longer? (for cheques to clear on basic accounts)

Mr Crosby(HBOS) : We, very regrettably, changed from it being the same, essentially, because we were suffering very significant levels of fraud on the back of cheque clearance, and, to be very straight about it, much larger levels of fraud than any of our peers because we have got a much larger volume of such accounts; with more than half the total social banking universe we are going to have more than half the total fraud. We found that by the device of changing from four to six it has reduced fraud levels by 80% in those areas, and these are not insignificant sums of money. We would not have done it otherwise. We would love to be in a position to get back on the same footing, and I think that the best opportunity for that will come as and when the industry as a whole brings faster cheque clearing across all accounts, because then we are talking about one or two days.

Mr Hoffman( Barclays): This is a difficult topic and - back to the discussion we had earlier about identification and verification - by their very nature these types of accounts are easy to open because we are flexible about the identity that we take. That means that by their nature they are more susceptible to fraud. We have not extended the clearing cycle per se but what we have done is taken an extra day to look at the entries on these accounts because we have had experience of fraud on them just by their very nature. So it is back to the tension we were talking about earlier on."

MarkyMarkD

regularsaver1 wrote: »

I didn't see how you can pretend someones age - its flashes up on the screen so the cashiers can do a visual age check

If your daughter works for halifax she should know that you don;t have the have a certain wage to have a current account

I'm glad you said that, regularsaver1. I couldn't believe that they wouldn't give a member of staff a proper bank account either. Perhaps edie is being slightly misleading and her daughter's actually a temp employed by an agency, but working for Halifax? Just a guess, so don't flame me if I'm incorrect!

Thanks for posting that bit from the banks do - I don't just make things up, honestly. There genuinely is higher fraud on basic banking accounts. And it's also true (pretty obviously to be honest) that the running costs on such accounts are high because the average transaction size is low and the average balances are incredibly low.

Homework

What a fascinating article on your link. Social inclusion, basic bank accounts having the same access to counter as other bank accounts and on the subject of profitablility they identify that the money will be made on the future services and products of the basic bank account customer. It is really worth a read.

I'm just sad that with their flexible identification they recognise it as a high risk account and that unless you get a standard account we are all classified the same. It may also explain the way staff deal with enquiries if they consider that you have a high risk account that is not profitable and will therefore only lose future profit that cannot yet be equated.

Thank you for putting that link on, it has certainly got me thinking about where I am. I've just changed accounts to a bank who are pleasant and have really encouraged me with our plans and our future. After reading that I have to speed the future up a bit. I am so sad that as we have been moving forward that our account has been viewed like this.

I was aware that seeing the account we had completely changed the attitude of the some of the staff we have dealt with and I am so sad that they have been thinking I am high risk and likely to be fraudulent.

airwalk

I have a Halifax Cardcash not because I have bad credit rating, or anything, but because I'm 17. When I went to bank some bags of coins into the account I was intial told that I could not bank these into this account (ridculus) it turned out. I was allowed to bank up to 5 bags. I went to get some money out today from the ATM in my local bank to discover all the ATM's were down, along with the paying in machine. I felt liking creating a fuss, because of the strict terms they have recently introduced, but didn't have the time or energy. Ok the balance on it is generally below £50, but the majority of the money, is kept in a Halifax saving account, and moved when I need it.

regularsaver1

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I'm glad you said that, regularsaver1. I couldn't believe that they wouldn't give a member of staff a proper bank account either. Perhaps edie is being slightly misleading and her daughter's actually a temp employed by an agency, but working for Halifax? Just a guess, so don't flame me if I'm incorrect!

Thanks for posting that bit from the banks do - I don't just make things up, honestly. There genuinely is higher fraud on basic banking accounts. And it's also true (pretty obviously to be honest) that the running costs on such accounts are high because the average transaction size is low and the average balances are incredibly low.

well a staff member would still have to pass the credit score to get the account, but then you are credit scored at start of employment anyhow

Halifax don't employ agency staff - but then again they may have temporary contracts - not that i have ever met a temp in my years

there is not a certain amount of money you have to pay in a month to have a current account - some people don't pay any

regularsaver1

Homework wrote: »

What a fascinating article on your link. Social inclusion, basic bank accounts having the same access to counter as other bank accounts and on the subject of profitablility they identify that the money will be made on the future services and products of the basic bank account customer. It is really worth a read.

I'm just sad that with their flexible identification they recognise it as a high risk account and that unless you get a standard account we are all classified the same. It may also explain the way staff deal with enquiries if they consider that you have a high risk account that is not profitable and will therefore only lose future profit that cannot yet be equated.

Thank you for putting that link on, it has certainly got me thinking about where I am. I've just changed accounts to a bank who are pleasant and have really encouraged me with our plans and our future. After reading that I have to speed the future up a bit. I am so sad that as we have been moving forward that our account has been viewed like this.

I was aware that seeing the account we had completely changed the attitude of the some of the staff we have dealt with and I am so sad that they have been thinking I am high risk and likely to be fraudulent.

there were many banks on that links that this referred to

HBOS - had at one stage nearly 50% of the basic account market, so they had to do something to cut the queues

regularsaver1

airwalk wrote: »

I have a Halifax Cardcash not because I have bad credit rating, or anything, but because I'm 17. When I went to bank some bags of coins into the account I was intial told that I could not bank these into this account (ridculus) it turned out. I was allowed to bank up to 5 bags. I went to get some money out today from the ATM in my local bank to discover all the ATM's were down, along with the paying in machine. I felt liking creating a fuss, because of the strict terms they have recently introduced, but didn't have the time or energy. Ok the balance on it is generally below £50, but the majority of the money, is kept in a Halifax saving account, and moved when I need it.

under 18 the rules are different

cardcash's for adults have not been opened for well over a year now. it was replaced with Easycash

they are only a 16/17 uear old account for new accounts

if the atm was down, then the counter was probabaly too - meaning the systems went offline, which sometimes they can when very busy