Tesco bank suspend new applications

badger09

bigadaj wrote: »

Or £1 a thousand times.

I doubt even the most ardent MSEer would go that far:p

agrinnall

badger09 wrote: »

I doubt even the most ardent MSEer would go that far:p

And it wouldn't actually be possible with Tesco, because they aren't a full member of FPS there is a wait in each direction for the payment to complete and there aren't enough days in the month for a single pound to pass backwards and forwards 1000 times. Although it could in theory be done between two full member banks.

JuicyJesus

TheShape wrote: »

But 'how many' is 'many'?

I expect that for at least 95% of the population that all the above apply to one of the current accounts that they hold and I imagine the vast majority of the population don't hold more than one current account anyway.

My completely anecdotal experience over my years working for a bank is that this is the case. The average person has one bank account they use for everything, maybe a joint account as well if they have a partner they live with, and a savings account or ISA.

It's important to recognise that the average person who regularly posts on these forums is weird relative to most of the UK. While someone here is going to be willing to devote the time and effort to mess around with sending money around each month, opening sacrificial accounts, ensuring that funding requirements are met, opening Tesco savings accounts etc, the average person simply doesn't actually care that much - their bank account is something that they keep in the background of their life rather than something they obsess over. Their bank is as much of a utility to them as their electricity or water supplier, and they'd view the concept of swapping accounts every few months to benefit from incentives as absurd as switching electricity suppliers every few months to get cashback off Uswitch, and the idea of setting up Tesco savers just to have some Direct Debits to switch to be a pointless waste of effort.

These offers are targeted at that sort of person; someone who doesn't really care that much about their bank and has to be bribed in order to switch, and will then hopefully like the bank enough to stay. The problem for the bank then is trying to separate them out from the MSErs doing it solely for the cash and trying to meet whatever criteria are set out.

masonic

agrinnall wrote: »

And it wouldn't actually be possible with Tesco, because they aren't a full member of FPS there is a wait in each direction for the payment to complete and there aren't enough days in the month for a single pound to pass backwards and forwards 1000 times. Although it could in theory be done between two full member banks.

My experience with Tesco is that payments in either direction normally turn up within about 10 minutes of being sent, so it probably is possible. However, the Tesco account doesn't require £1000 per month to be cycled through it.

Shakin_Steve

agrinnall wrote: »

And it wouldn't actually be possible with Tesco, because they aren't a full member of FPS there is a wait in each direction for the payment to complete and there aren't enough days in the month for a single pound to pass backwards and forwards 1000 times. Although it could in theory be done between two full member banks.

Payments between my Tesco and Barclays accounts are within seconds....either way. Tesco have a front page up today saying that, due to essential maintenance, FP's will all be credited Sunday night. I did one at three o'clock and it went straight over.

badger09

JuicyJesus wrote: »

.............
Or just put the payment of the bonus at their discretion and allow them to refuse. I believe the likes of First Direct can and have refused to pay bonuses if they believe the p*ss is being taken.

Are you seriously suggesting that banks should be able to pay switching incentives 'at their discretion'?

What about interest, should that also be at the bank's discretion?

JuicyJesus wrote: »

My completely anecdotal experience over my years working for a bank ...........

Did the bank where you worked for many years adhere to its published T&Cs, or did it do everything at its discretion?

eskbanker

dave_hendy wrote: »

I expect the reason they offered this account open to everyone was to get good publicity after their poor internet security which gave them a lot of bad press.

Since they launched this account back in June 2014, predating their internet security issues by over two years, this seems somewhat unlikely!

Although their rate guarantee seems to have generated plenty of coverage, including the weekly MSE emails that have doubtless contributed/caused the opening frenzy, the account itself has been available and offering the same 3% throughout that 2.5 years and isn't the new proposition many seem to believe it is (which is why the [STRIKE]weird[/STRIKE] hardcore MSEers snapped up multiples of these accounts ages ago, 'rightly' or 'wrongly')....

JuicyJesus

badger09 wrote: »

Are you seriously suggesting that banks should be able to pay switching incentives 'at their discretion'?

What about interest, should that also be at the bank's discretion?

If it's in their terms that it can be subject to certain conditions such as making an account your main account and that their definition of the same is at their discretion, yes.

End of the day, it's their money and they're allowed to set whatever hoops they like to jump through. As of yet, the various banks offering incentives haven't done so on that scale. They'd be fully entitled to do so however.

Did the bank where you worked for many years adhere to its published T&Cs, or did it do everything at its discretion?

It did things by the T&Cs and stuck by them. I'm not entirely sure what you're getting at.

masonic

JuicyJesus wrote: »

If it's in their terms that it can be subject to certain conditions such as making an account your main account and that their definition of the same is at their discretion, yes.

No it is not "at their discretion" if it is not properly defined in the terms and conditions. Such a condition would be regarded as unfair because it is not clear. If the customer complained and maintained that they fulfilled the conditions using any reasonable definition of main account, the FOS would uphold if the bank was not willing to back down.

djpailo

JuicyJesus wrote: »

My completely anecdotal experience over my years working for a bank is that this is the case. The average person has one bank account they use for everything, maybe a joint account as well if they have a partner they live with, and a savings account or ISA.

It's important to recognise that the average person who regularly posts on these forums is weird relative to most of the UK. While someone here is going to be willing to devote the time and effort to mess around with sending money around each month, opening sacrificial accounts, ensuring that funding requirements are met, opening Tesco savings accounts etc, the average person simply doesn't actually care that much - their bank account is something that they keep in the background of their life rather than something they obsess over. Their bank is as much of a utility to them as their electricity or water supplier, and they'd view the concept of swapping accounts every few months to benefit from incentives as absurd as switching electricity suppliers every few months to get cashback off Uswitch, and the idea of setting up Tesco savers just to have some Direct Debits to switch to be a pointless waste of effort.

These offers are targeted at that sort of person; someone who doesn't really care that much about their bank and has to be bribed in order to switch, and will then hopefully like the bank enough to stay. The problem for the bank then is trying to separate them out from the MSErs doing it solely for the cash and trying to meet whatever criteria are set out.

Interesting and insightful post, thanks.