Local bank account (for local people)

agrinnall

ncarring wrote: »

@agrinnall - enough to make it a PITA.

OK then, a follow up question: why are you getting enough cheques for it to be a PITA? Who are these cheques coming from, and could the people writing them send you the payment electronically instead?

SurfKing

You can probably continue to use your Santander account . You can pay in cheques and cash at the Post Office, or even just mail cheques in to the bank with a paying in slip.

If you do decide to switch banks then you're probably best going with Lloyds or TSB just because they offer much more competitive accounts than the others local to you. Check out the Lloyds Club account and the TSB Pus accounts on their websites.

meer53

It's 3 years since i needed to go into any branch. Cheques can be sent in the post with a paying in slip, if thats all you need a branch for you can have an account at any bank.

gt94sss2

ncarring wrote: »

- an account with a provider who has a local branch (we have branches of HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays, TSB and Coventry BS - the last two are recent and may well vanish again overnight, so not great candidates) and possibly others I can't bring to mind right now.

As others have said, if you want to stay just with Santander - try the Post Office.

TSB are busy opening lots of new branches so its very unlikely yours will go anywhere..

In my experience, HSBC are very good at transactional banking with their automated machines giving you a scanned printout of cheques you pay in for your records.

FWIW - Banks in the UK are working on allowing cheque deposits by scanning an image into your smartphone rather than going to a branch - some are already carrying out limited trials re: this function publicly like Barclays but its limited to their own cheques only atm.

Regards
Sunil

jimjames

meer53 wrote: »

It's 3 years since i needed to go into any branch. Cheques can be sent in the post with a paying in slip, if thats all you need a branch for you can have an account at any bank.

I'd agree. Post is easier and probably cheaper than either driving and parking in town or getting transport. Only if you walk would it cost more and at 50p it won't break the bank to send - some even have freepost envelopes (as my bank do)

callum9999

ncarring wrote: »

@xylophone - yes, thank you, I realise that. Have you tried actually doing this? It would take literally days. I merely asked if anyone had any useful suggestions to save wading through all the small print from the various providers.

@WorkingGirl - I very deliberately didn't tell you where I live. I've had enough negative feedback to what was a perfectly innocent question in this thread already, to convince me that was the right thing to do. If you read my post slightly more carefully though, you'll see I did tell you which providers have branches here, which I think was the more important information.

I'm sure a large number of people on here have done exactly that - it doesn't remotely take "days"! You could have checked them all well within the hour (assuming you aren't good with the internet - people who are could have checked them all within 10 minutes).

And what did you think would happen if you disclosed your town!? People would camp outside the local Santander waiting to pounce when you show up?

Just to make clear - I'm not moaning at you, simply trying to help you help yourself should you have future issues like this. I can see why some of the responses annoyed you but I'm pretty sure they weren't made out of malice, some people just forget others struggle with tasks they themselves find simple - contrary to popular belief, not everyone can use the internet effectively!

eskbanker

ncarring wrote: »

@xylophone - yes, thank you, I realise that. Have you tried actually doing this? It would take literally days. I merely asked if anyone had any useful suggestions to save wading through all the small print from the various providers.

If only there was a website offering a concise summary of which are the best bank accounts currently available!

ncarring

Well thanks for all the responses, folks. An update:

We went with NatWest in the end, and a simple current account.

To answer a few points made above:

1. Santander don't use the Post Office as a matter of course any more. I raised a question with them and they've raised a special customer services transaction to provide me with more paying in envelopes (not post free). I just don't fancy going through that every time I need more envelopes. Also, see below.
2. Because we live within walking distance of many bank branches, that's precisely how we will get there. I like free best of all, over cost of fuel, stamps, parking, all the other apparently insignificant costs others are happy to dismiss. Posting a cheque involves buying envelopes, stamps, ordering cheque books or paying in books and then walking to the post box. Not far different from walking up the hill to a branch and paying in over the counter. Oh, that's where we came in!
3. I'm degree qualified, and I work in IT. I am perfectly comfortable using the internet, and have been doing so since approximately 1993, probably before some of the sarcastic types were born. Nonetheless, I spent a good hour online browsing the various big bank websites before posting my question, and had not come to any conclusion by then. My question was about finances, not about web browsers. I thought that here would be people with knowledge in that area. Hence posing a question.
4. I have also looked at MSE's bank account comparison page, thanks. It concentrates mostly on other features, such as interest rates (not important to me for this particular application, although my main account is the top pick from the comparison page and pays me handsomely), credit ratings (again not a problem), overdrafts ... you get the picture. Simple things like branch facilities and online banking are probably pretty much universal, but I wanted some confirmation before jumping in.
5. Cheques come from a variety of sources. As an example, I have one sat here that's the proceeds of a match refund from a cricket international earlier in the summer that was rained off. Try telling the ECB that you don't accept cheques ...

Sarcasm is easy. Being helpful is actually just as easy, but it seems, not as satisfying to those who frequent this place.

System

A family member is ex-A&L and has no issues getting Post Office deposit envelopes from Santander - might be worth pushing them.

People were trying to help but many not in the most diplomatic fashion. You were looking for a new bank on a very subjective basis so a website was never going to be a great help unfortunately.

ncarring wrote: »

Well thanks for all the responses, folks. An update:

We went with NatWest in the end, and a simple current account...

Sarcasm is easy. Being helpful is actually just as easy, but it seems, not as satisfying to those who frequent this place.

ncarring

Thanks Heng Leng, you were helpful from the beginning.

Re your family member - perhaps they kept their former A+L product (like a Premier account) whereas we switched a while ago to a 1-2-3 account, which is a pure Santander product. Thus in the online banking interface, the option to order envelopes no longer exists for us. I am, as I said, going to get some more, but only by sending them a message and waiting for them to raise an internal request to another department to send me some. Not worth the hassle, really.

The fact that it was a subjective matter, rather than a simple matter of reading the "list of the top three accounts" from a comparison site, was exactly why I reached out to what I thought might be a community populated by knowledgeable and (hopefully) friendly people with a common aim of helping each other save money .... whoops, dreaming again ...

All I was after was perhaps a personal recommendation from someone who had a product that matched my needs. I guess those people just haven't read the thread yet. No matter, it's done and dusted now. On to the next challenge, which today is breakdown cover, but I won't bore you with that...