It’s easier to rob a bank than to make a deposit

caveman38

Now, before I get half of the Essex police knocking on my door – assuming they’re not all on traffic duty – I haven’t really been involved in a “stick up”.
My observations are really just a statement of just how difficult I have found in trying to open this years ISA.
I live in an area whose banks and building societies have all consolidated, merged, ultimately reduced in numbers and all relocated to the town centre. To use these you have to go through the performance of queuing at and driving round the multi-storie car parks trying to find the odd dead man’s parking space.
I have only just found these things out, as for years I used the only out of town BS and put all my dosh in there. It was the Portman, and after the merger with the Nationwide, where we got a Grand each – lovely jubbly. My last easy reach BS / Bank was gone.
To compound things we had the Northern Rock fiasco. We started to take note of FSA guarantees and logged on to sites like this for advice. Martin amongst others suggested spreading all your money around so you only had £35K in one banking group.
Then I realised I had the whole lot now invested in the Nationwide and I would have to take that advice.
Easy to say, but not to do. Every time I wanted to open an account whether a bond or ISA you have to make an appointment with a “Financial Adviser”. When I questioned this, I was told it was law, and if not followed I could sue them if I opened a bond and wasn’t offered advice as to my alternatives.
Two of these building societies even called me a liar when I told them I had never gone through this procedure before. The fact is for the last 15 years I had used the Portman. They’re instant access, ISA and bond interest rates had always been good. From the early days of TOISA accounts till last year, I and all the members of my family had made 60 deposits of £3,000 plus and not once had I seen a “Financial Adviser”.
Every time we opened a new ISA / Bond we filled in an application form took it to the counter with ID and was issued with another passbook. As easy as that. It took 5 minutes.
I know you can use the internet, as I have internet banking and savings accounts with my bank. But after opening an account on line you still have to take ID along to the branch at a later date. I know that is not a chore, but what I want to know is, are there any BS’s / Banks where you can just walk in and open an ISA like I used to be able to do.
For Christs sake an ISA is only £3,000, they’ve been going 10 years plus, we all know what they are and don’t need any advice.

debbie42

caveman38 wrote: »

But after opening an account on line you still have to take ID along to the branch at a later date.

All the ones I've opened have allowed me to send id via post.

Mikeyorks

debbie42 wrote: »

All the ones I've opened have allowed me to send id via post.

Always open them online (and for the OH) .... and never had to send any ID yet. And just opened a Kent Reliance for my mother .. and transferred everything via the post .... no supplementary ID.

caveman38

Why on earth then do they ask for ID in the branches. Only two weeks ago I opened this years ISA with the Halifax and a Fixed Rate Bond with the Abbey.
On both occasions I was asked to take along ID (passport or photographic driving licence) and proof of address (utility bill or bank statement) and NI number for the ISA.
On both of these accounts I only received a receipt as the certificates were issued by head office.
Perhaps they think all us Essex guys are Arthur Daley / Del Boy wide boys.

Mikeyorks

caveman38 wrote: »

Perhaps they think all us Essex guys are Arthur Daley / Del Boy wide boys.

You beat me to the suggestion! But must be a recent thing as I used to live down there - and had no such problem .... I think;)

I find that my relationship with my Bank ... works best at a great distance. So I use an agency for paying in cheques - and avoid Branches like the plague. Generally manage everything online with only the odd 'phone call. But I have learned to avoid the period around 6th April for opening ISAs - as the online system tends to surface most glitches around that period

ManAtHome

caveman38 wrote: »

Perhaps they think all us Essex guys are Arthur Daley / Del Boy wide boys.

More likely they all employ Arfur n Del as 'financial advisors'...

Haven't opened an account in branch for many years now - same experience as Mike with online accounts, most of them seem to be able to verify I'm me electronically these days.

Gillian1912

Just paying in a "large" cheque seems to have become complicated too. In the past I have paid a couple of large cheques into my bank account and been quizzed by the cashier about whether I wanted financial advice. A polite "no thanks" and that was it.

A couple of weeks ago I went into local branch of my bank to pay in a solicitors cheque for 18k (my share of an inheritance) and the cashier said he would need to call a colleague for "verification". His colleague then took me to an interview room where he asked me for details about the cheque although he admitted he could see it was from a solicitors and said they now interview anyone paying in a cheque over £5000.

Sapphire

I find it strange that you have had so much trouble. Most of my ISAs (and I've opened/switched a few) were opened by post and I never had to send verification or had any particular problem in opening them. The companies I've dealt over the years include Nationwide, Kent Reliance, National Savings & Insurance and Alliance & Leicester.

Nationwide were slow in sending my money to a new provider when I switched an ISA from them, but apart from that I've never had any trouble.

caveman38

I've never said I had trouble opening these accounts. I only remarked that instead of just going to the counter, I had to make an appointment with an adviser and open the accounts in a private room.
That was certainly the case with the Abbey and Halifax. In fact the Halifax was just for £3,000 for this years ISA. Perhaps I could have done this by post or on-line. I had never opened branch based accounts with anyone else but the Portman as I said in the original post.
I am sure that I have not been singled out and that it must be company policy for these two banks at least.
I know that I am not imagining it either when I said that one of the two banks suggested opening the account by telephone and then taking my ID to the branch at my convenience.
60 million people now live in the UK and I'm the only one who has to show ID and go through this rigemerole?

Jada

Don't be fooled by a financial institution stating that by law you must have an appointment with its advisor to open a bog-standard savings account; it's all part of the sales process and the key way for the company to find out personal information about you.

For instance, I worked at Portman Building Society a year or so ago, as the 'Sales Consultant' (like a deputy manager), and the main element of my job was to open accounts for new and existing customers. I had to make sure that only I and no other member of my team opened accounts as I had to confidently and seamlessly ask MANY questions that had nothing to do with the opening process. Customers either had to make an appointment to see me or if I wasn't with another customer when they came in I'd see them straight away.

Yes, you could argue that a few questions were for the purpose of money laundering, but those were few and fair between, believe me.

The questions I had to ask were to get a general, but large, idea of the customers finances as a whole to see if I could market any additional products to them (and if I did so, that would count towards my targets and earn me a salary bonus). These questions ranged from how many ISAs do you hold, what's your salary, do you have a mortgage, life insurance, children, any credit card debt etc, and I had to record all of the answers on the computer system. It even got as detailed as what type of house do you live in, detached, semi, terrace etc. I was monitored for the percentage of the 'questionnaire' I filled per customer, and if any were less than 100%, you'd be asked why you couldn't get that information out of them.

This built up a database of info about each customer for the society, and over time (seeing how the account was run and using the information someone like me input) the system would give a 'star' rating for the customer, with one star deeming them expendable, up to four stars where they were to be treated as royalty (because they either had a lot of money or products tied up with Portman).

Don't get me wrong, this was a useful process for a customer who was coming in to open a savings account but knew nothing about cash ISAs which, once knowing their information, I could suggest as a better alternative as I'd be tax free and usually have a higher rate of interest compared to the savings account they were initially go for. There was never any hard sell; I'm more of a friendly girl who suggests things but if you don't want it, you don't want it, we're all entitled to choice.

I think the same system occurs in every bank/society where sitting down with you to open a savings or current account is an opportunity to sell insurance or a credit card. It's a free way of getting to know you, purely for marketing purposes. Once you hand over your application, ID and money, that's where the compuslory information you have to give ends.

If memory serves, I think the only time it is by law is where there is an element of risk to your money or you are actually being sold a product, and even then your appoint is with a FSA regulated advisor (Financial Manager/Planner), not a standard employee.

Actually, maybe even then it might not be by law that you have to see them; I think for certain products that have a slight amount of risk, (eg a bond that tracks the FTSE for five years, and although you'll never lose your capital there's a possibilty you won't earn anything on top of it) you just have to be offered an appointment to se the Financial Planning Manager to make sure you understand the product, but you can turn this down and sign a form declaring to declare you were given this opportunity but declined.

I was only there for three months as my branch was awfully disorganised, the training nonexistent, the manager sat in his office not doing anything and the team (except one lovely lady) indifferent to all the customers. Not a pleasent working environment. To be honest, I enjoyed sitting down and opening these accounts only for the fact it gave me the chance to have a pleasant natter with the folk who came in.

Personally, whenever I open an savings/current account, I do so online and if I'm asked to bring my documents in to a branch I'll do that (such as the Barclays ISA this year) but turn down any 'appointment system'. If the branch persists that I must have one, I state that I won't give them any marketing information so if they want to waste their time as well as mine I will not be impressed.

Hope this info helps someone (sorry for the length but I thought the more details the better)!

:staradmin Jada :staradmin

convict90210

And the banks wonder why people hate them!!!