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

regularsaver1

don't be silly - its a free post, and it does matter as its your post count

but remember - everyone is the same on here, regardless how they have been here, or how many posts they have done

Lawnmower_Man

Nice of you to say that - thank you - and if any techie can correct my post count then grand.

Will sign off now because I have got to get my girlfriend from work.

Cheers

Lawnmower Man

Kruger

I had the misfortune of working as a customer service advisor for a bank called HSCB, the service element of the role was entirely overshadowed by the 'Sell Sell Sell, by any means necessary' culture.

My role as a customer service operative was to loosely help with the initial customer query, be a bit chirpy and build rapport and then go in for the multi pitch sales kill,

We had to listen for pets in the background, and continue with idle chit chat about how loud their dog's bark is and then try to sell them pet insurance. We would have to introduce topics such as holidays to get the customer talking about where they are off to, then attempt to sell them travel insurance, and whilst they are on holiday it be rude not to ask if their home buildings /contents insurance was up for renewal just in case they got burgled

Having to look sneakily look through a customers profile score, account balance, recent transactions and generally see if they were skint and needed a loan, credit card, financial planning review (hard sell interegation of your finances) or overdraft etc whilst they were on the phone and usually oblivious made me feel uncomfortable and with the constant monitoring of calls by team leaders to make sure you were identifying sales opportunities, and aiming for the ridiculous targets with small carrot rewards were the reasons for me leaving.

Just remember to check any financial products with alternatives on the market before being encouraged to say yes by apparently friendly bank call centre staff.

And with regards to staff benefits, there were discounts on products but not really worth anything as similar or cheaper deals/products could always be found elsewhere.

sonee2405

I have the worst credit rating ever and I was with hsbc-Recently because of their charges for overdrafts and unpaid d/d i have struggled to clear my overdraft.Last week for example, 2 d/d were unpaid because my wages were to be paid in 2 days later therefore 2 sets of late payment charges (1 was a hsbc c/card minium payment)they also wrote to inform me that they had tried to increase my overdraft limit by conducting a customer review but because i ahdn't passed the credit check i would be charged £50 which they took out the very same day therefore making me even more overdrawn=another charge.Can someone please explain why they do this?
why did they not just honour the d/debits if they were going to debit my account with £50 for the limit increase review because that was the more ( than what the d/d would have been?
After that i was unable to take out any money as i was overdrawn but since then a further 2 standing orders and 2 direct debits have been honoured?How is this possible?If they are going to honour them and make me go over the overdraft limit anyway wouldn't it be sensible of them to either increase the limit to prevent the charges or to stop the charges to allow me to clear the debt?
sorry for the long post im so confused?

dippydora_2

mrmajika wrote: »

I am an employee of Lloyds TSB, so the following holds true for LTSB, but may also be true of other high street banks.


When applying for a loan, if you have seen a better rate elsewhere, tell them. Provided you can give the name of the company, the APR and the monthly repayments then rates can be lowered to match or beat the competitor offer.

To avoid an early settlement fee on a loan, pay all but the last month's direct debit amount off. Overpayments are penalty free, but an early settlement fee applies if paying the loan off in full.

And Finally... this one's a bit cheeky - but here goes.

To stop a cheque that is lost / lost in post is free. To sop a cheque for any other reason there is a £10 charge.;)


Should anything else spring to mind then i'll add later.

Cheers

I used to work for Natwest and used to always encourage people to say they had "lost" their cheque in the post as it had the same policy as Lloyds TSB. I Left in the end due to constantly having to sell people stuff ( I hate it when people do that to me!)
Every one had a credit score next to their name so you knew instantly what products you could sell to them...

chica_fi

The bank i work for has begun going down a more customer focused road recently - don't laugh!! I agree with you all about charges and i agree they're far too high, but one thing i will not let my staff do is totally unrelated 'sales chats' on counter.I think they make customers feel uncomfortable. What i would far prefer is if my tellers are chatting to customers and building a relationship with them - unless there's a big queue!!

The one thing i would say, is, i know most people on here are fairly financially savvy, but not everyone is. If you're not interested in anything the bank has to offer you then fine, just say no. Most if not all tellers will back off. But there are people who have accounts totally unsuitable for them (£40k in a basic savings account, paying for an account when they're not using the benefits) and many of them never realise they could be getting more for their money.

When my sales advisor comes out of her appointments, i want to know how she's made that customer's financial situation better. I am possibly the least sales focused branch manager ever and yet my branch is always on, or above, target. It works for me.

PS- i will always refund individual charges if someone can tell me a good story - it cheers up my day makes a change from delaing with complaints...

kneehigh85

i work at lloyds tsb and as a member of frontline staff I have high sales targets to make to customers, however, I am very much on the side of the customer and wont offer credit cards to people at high rates just because the computer says they can have one. I think that quite a big problem is, because customers are so accustomed to having things they dont need promoted at the counter, that they just say no to everything, even when it could benefit them massively. For example, if a customer comes in every week, and every week is offered a lloyds tsb credit card they get used to saying no because they have a card on lower interest elsewhere, when lloyds tsb are offering a 0% balance transfer, which is really good obviously, they still say no without really listening to what you are offering them.

MABLE

sonee2405 wrote: »

I have the worst credit rating ever and I was with hsbc-Recently because of their charges for overdrafts and unpaid d/d i have struggled to clear my overdraft.Last week for example, 2 d/d were unpaid because my wages were to be paid in 2 days later therefore 2 sets of late payment charges (1 was a hsbc c/card minium payment)they also wrote to inform me that they had tried to increase my overdraft limit by conducting a customer review but because i ahdn't passed the credit check i would be charged £50 which they took out the very same day therefore making me even more overdrawn=another charge.Can someone please explain why they do this?
why did they not just honour the d/debits if they were going to debit my account with £50 for the limit increase review because that was the more ( than what the d/d would have been?
After that i was unable to take out any money as i was overdrawn but since then a further 2 standing orders and 2 direct debits have been honoured?How is this possible?If they are going to honour them and make me go over the overdraft limit anyway wouldn't it be sensible of them to either increase the limit to prevent the charges or to stop the charges to allow me to clear the debt?
sorry for the long post im so confused?

Goodness me I'm confused just reading through your post.

ujb_98

Paul_Herring wrote: »

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.

Agreed, one has nothing to do with the other

ujb_98

regularsaver1 wrote: »

However Lawnmower man. I have seen direct debits cancelled in branch from NTL/Virgin Media - who then re-instate

Yes, we do direct indemnities for them all the time, so the customer gets their money back straight away

so if the banks do just cancel the direct debit, because the direct debit was set up automated in the first place, who is in the wrong if the debiting company re-instate the debit, the bank or the debit company?

which is why bank staff will usually say you are best to double check with this, by doing both

There is a process by which the bank can place a warning on your DD & SO list so that if a DD is cancelled and a cust requests a warning then no DD with the same ref no. can be established on that account.

Of course there is a way around it and that would be by the company changing your ref / account no but I know from personal experience this is not something that SKY are able to do.

Just a tip if you have a company that continually re-establishes a DD after you have cxcld it.