Great 'Work in a bank? What should we know' Hunt

Paul_Herring

wyse wrote:

Both accounts my partner and I have with them were opened before the newer, stricter, anti-money laundering regulations were brought in and our "customer service" review a few years ago consisted of them asking dozens of questions to update their database to satisfy these regulations.

Erm - I may be being a tad cynical here, but I rather suspect that the purpose of the questions was NOT to facilitate the bank in their anti-money laundering practices, but to give the bank a better idea of what they can sell you.

Can you remember the types of questions they were asking? Loans/CC/ssavings with other institutions? Income? Other outgoings?

jtotheb

jw1096 wrote: »

With regards to charges, Nationwide is taking a strong no refunds policy and to go through the process as described on here for instance will lead to your account being closed. Nationwide prides itself on its customer relationships and this is seen as an irreparable breakdown of this relationship (or so I read in a Newspaper).

Aside from that - any questions just holler!

Jo x

Oh please, don't give me any of that 'prides itself on its customer relationship' nonsense!

Nationwide are one of the few banks that have been doing this and it's entirely childish behaviour. I agree that Nationwide have better qualities going for them than a lot of the other banks but I wouldn't go that far!

Beate

Yeah I was going to say - every bank charges unfair and punitive bank fees so there would only be no breakdown in the relationship if the customer took those charges lying down? Very funny. Closing accounts as a retaliation for claiming back charges is completely unacceptable and the Ombudsman does not agree with it at all - so much for Nationwide's pride in how they treat their customers!

KTF

What sort of 'perks' are there for working in the bank? Do you get better deals of savings and mortgages or can they still be beaten by going to other lenders?

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

KTF wrote: »

What sort of 'perks' are there for working in the bank? Do you get better deals of savings and mortgages or can they still be beaten by going to other lenders?

:rotfl:

At lloyds, a long as we meet lending criteria for a loan, we get it at 5.9% currently, for anywhere between 3 and 7 years.
We also have a flavours package which gives pre-post take benefits such as medical benefits, childcare vouchers, retail vouchers etc.
The financial deals on mortgages/savings however can be beaten elsewhere. When i attempted to get a staff mortgage at lloyds, they only offered us £62k, we ended up with nationwide at £96k. We also found contents and buildings insurance cheaper elsewhere.

We do however get 50% discount on gold/platinum account charges; those accounts with mobile phone/travel insurance attached to them

slh4283

Needless to say, as with most other banks the staff are given unrealistic sales targets and have ever increasing pressure from management to meet those targets, regardless of experience in bank, lack of training and lack of staff - so please don't be offended if you get asked every time you visit the bank whether you are happy with your savings or whether you would benefit from an individual review.

If you are an HSBC customer though - make sure if you are applying for a loan or any other product that the sales clerk reviews your individual solutions. Most banks are tightening up their lending criteria meaning that rates are increasing on loans - however a had a customer recently where I was able to reduce the interest rate on a loan as they had a special offer solution about 5% less on the apr if they borrowed another £500 which worked out cheaper overall than borrowing the lesser amount.

Also, if you are looking at borrowing - the new policy is that an arrangement fee of £25 may be payable on overdrafts - this is for reviewing overdrafts not unauthorised overdrafts. However HSBC do offer flexible loans which are generally a lower interest rate than an overdraft. I have found some customers haven't been made aware that the bank offers flexible loans as staff don't get a bonus for these products.

Staff do get offers on some products, however in my experience sometimes the "Sale" offers are better than the staff rates - my insurance worked out cheaper with 25% off that was being offered recently to customers rather than using a staff discount.

sashacat

I think this is a brilliant thread, thanks to all the posters

regularsaver1

KTF wrote: »

What sort of 'perks' are there for working in the bank? Do you get better deals of savings and mortgages or can they still be beaten by going to other lenders?

would not take a staff mortgage, due to tax implications. and what if you leave

the usual requirements of having to fund an account with say £1000 a month are scrapped - and discounts on insurances - but mostly things are the same

One big thing I would say to people is - branches and telephone sales depts often do things differently and may have different deals (also online)

Complaints re charges - go straight to complaints dept, as branch can't help (they refer on)

and be honest - amount of people that don't say they have had a ccj for example, but then apply for a loan (its not going to go through)

trevor_john

A bit 0ff topic but...Has TOOTSIE ROLL EVER made a post without having a go or disagreed with everyone.I just looked ot the post history and boy are threre a few arguments ggrr !!!

trevor_john

peed_off wrote: »

if i post stuff on here am i traceable?

safe as houses mate.Total anon anononim anoononim totally unknown lol !!!