Sort codes, do banks still use them?

Paul_1977

fira wrote: »

Paul

I hope branches are now much less paper-heavy. We were falling over it. All savings account passbook entries were mirrored in large ledgers. When someone came in and made a deposit or withdrawal the passbook would be passed to the ledger staff from the teller. We then had to create an entry in the ledger and the balance had to tally with the before it was handed back to the customer. I hated when the ledger had a large number of dividend credits added and I'd then to transfer those to the passbook and then find the divident counterfoil to hand back to the customer.

Also, every day we'd receive customer statements from H.O. We'd first to find all cheques listed on the statement and then stamp up envelopes with address plates (every customer had one of their own). Same with cheque books, all were blank and we would find the metal plate for the customer (it had name and account number embossed on it) shove it into the machine and bang it down onto every page. Everyone was paranoid about missing a page and leaving it blank. That was a serious remprimand!

Wiltslass, enjoyed reading your mention of the local exchanges. Was the same for us. Thinking back now it was amazing the amount of money just two us would carry through the town streets to the office the exchange was to happen. Day and times were never changed. We would have been an easy target. The only rule we had was the leather cash bag must not be strapped to your wrist in case someone did try to snatch it and you ended up being pulled under a car/bus.

A final piece of nostalgia. I remember the RBS introduction of the first cash cards. Small plastic things that you entered into the machine and got a plastic wallet back containing £10. That was it. That wee card was then sent back internally to the issuing branch and the customer was manually debited through the NCR machine.

Bill

:eek: That must of taken an age to do with the cheques, how easy it is today.

Can you imagine what people would say today if their debit cards could only be used once. hahaha;) People would loose their rag.

thanks Bill very interesting.

EarthBoy

Paul_1977 wrote: »

Can you imagine what people would say today if their debit cards could only be used once. hahaha;) People would loose their rag..

It would also annoy them if they could only use their own bank's cash machines, which was the case originally, e.g. Lloyds cards would only work in Lloyds cash machines and the NatWest cards would only work at the NatWest etc.

From the mid to late 80s certain banks began sharing their ATM networks, so Barclays and Lloyds accepted each other's cards and the Midland, NatWest and TSB had a sharing arrangement. It was only in the early 1990s that all the banks joined the Link network so that you could use any cash machine.

Paul_1977

EarthBoy wrote: »

It would also annoy them if they could only use their own bank's cash machines, which was the case originally, e.g. Lloyds cards would only work in Lloyds cash machines and the NatWest cards would only work at the NatWest etc.

From the mid to late 80s certain banks began sharing their ATM networks, so Barclays and Lloyds accepted each other's cards and the Midland, NatWest and TSB had a sharing arrangement. It was only in the early 1990s that all the banks joined the Link network so that you could use any cash machine.

I know people that won't use another banks ATM because they think its unsafe. If they go out and need to get money, this will talk past 10 ATM's until they reach their bank.

enthusiasticsaver

Yes banks do still use sort codes. Try making an internet payment without having one.

anoncol

I dont understand what the OP is asking. Obviously sort codes are used, but being local in irrelevant.

Paul_1977

anoncol wrote: »

I dont understand what the OP is asking. Obviously sort codes are used, but being local in irrelevant.

I was asking basically why do some banks assign local sort codes and others use generic head office ones.

The answer was found.

If the banking system was started again from scratch and based on core computer systems I doubt sort codes would be needed, but they are still used at the moment.

System

RBS and BOS were part of the same group as Barclays / Lloyds.
Clydesdale and TSB were joined with NatWest / Midland.

The Scottish banks were all also part of LINK too so you could use practically any ATM in Scotland.

When Barclays, Midland etc joined LINK they attempted to introduce surcharging...

EarthBoy wrote: »

From the mid to late 80s certain banks began sharing their ATM networks, so Barclays and Lloyds accepted each other's cards and the Midland, NatWest and TSB had a sharing arrangement. It was only in the early 1990s that all the banks joined the Link network so that you could use any cash machine.