Bank or Building Society?

Rob5342

Branches and passbooks are extremely old fashioned, the ones that do what you want now are unlikely to stay that way for long.

Is it a current account you want to pay in to? Lots of banks let you pay in cash at a post office counter, you just hand over the cash and put your card in the machine. If it's a regular thing then can't you get whoever is giving you the cash to do a bank transfer instead to save you all the hassle of going to a branch?

If it's a savings account then I believe that Yorkshire Building Society and Newcastle Building Society still have accounts with passbooks.

WillPS

Rob5342 said:

If it's a savings account then I believe that Yorkshire Building Society and Newcastle Building Society still have accounts with passbooks.

Pretty sure every building society with branches, excluding Nationwide, issues passbooks still. Many still insist on them even for accounts opened online/at distance.

Nasqueron

boingy said:

I find it bizarre that any bank or BS branch would refuse to let a customer pay in money over the counter. Isn't that what they are there for? 

I get that they want to close branches but while a branch is still open they should let people do their banking. Imagine working in an organisation where you are basically told to dissuade customers from using your services, thus doing yourself out of a job. That's got to be demoralising. 

It means no issues with miscounting or complaints by customers and means they can deal with issues that cannot be done remotely or automatically. Bank staff messing around weighing coins or counting notes and storing them means they can't deal with someone else, while a machine that can do all the process in seconds saves time for everyone except for the person who refuses to use technology 

xylophone

 haven't been to Lloyds for several years, but it did wind me up being told to use the machines 

Relative felt the same - he rarely goes to the branch (uses internet/app) but every six months or so receives a cheque for a few thousand(

(actually drawn on a Lloyds account) which he prefers to pay in over the counter.

The counter clerk told him that it was bank policy that customers should be told to use the machine - he asked if this was in the terms

and conditions of the account  (to which she did not reply).

She accepted the cheque and he thanked her for her help and went home .....

Sarsim

Thanks everyone for your comments. The bank in question is TSB and I've discovered that other people using the same branch have had the same problems with really unhelpful staff and being told that the cashier service is purely for paying in coin(!) or business banking!
It's really frustrating and disappointing as I've banked at this branch for 40 years but now at a point where I need to find an alternative bank or building society

eskbanker

Sarsim said:

Thanks everyone for your comments. The bank in question is TSB and I've discovered that other people using the same branch have had the same problems with really unhelpful staff and being told that the cashier service is purely for paying in coin(!) or business banking!
It's really frustrating and disappointing as I've banked at this branch for 40 years but now at a point where I need to find an alternative bank or building society

The direction of travel is much the same for all banks, in terms of moving on from handing cash to tellers and recording transactions in passbooks, so your best bet is likely to be an old-fashioned small building society if those things are important to you.

WillPS

Sarsim said:

Thanks everyone for your comments. The bank in question is TSB and I've discovered that other people using the same branch have had the same problems with really unhelpful staff and being told that the cashier service is purely for paying in coin(!) or business banking!
It's really frustrating and disappointing as I've banked at this branch for 40 years but now at a point where I need to find an alternative bank or building society

Have you considered filing a complaint? It seems very arbitrary to me and certainly not something TSB are doing chain wide. It could be that head office don't know, and an area or branch manager has gone a bit rogue.

boingy

Nasqueron said:

boingy said:

I find it bizarre that any bank or BS branch would refuse to let a customer pay in money over the counter. Isn't that what they are there for? 

I get that they want to close branches but while a branch is still open they should let people do their banking. Imagine working in an organisation where you are basically told to dissuade customers from using your services, thus doing yourself out of a job. That's got to be demoralising. 

It means no issues with miscounting or complaints by customers and means they can deal with issues that cannot be done remotely or automatically. Bank staff messing around weighing coins or counting notes and storing them means they can't deal with someone else, while a machine that can do all the process in seconds saves time for everyone except for the person who refuses to use technology 

It's absolutely nothing to do with fear of complaints or other "issues". It's to do with finding a reason to justify closing branches because "no-one uses the counter service any more". Here is a daft parallel. Some years ago the BBC wanted to retire Top of the Pops because it had become too expensive to make. They knew that just cutting it would cause lots of bad publicity so they moved it from Thursday night prime time to Sunday early evening grave shift. Then a bit later they killed it off completely and cited the "fact" that it had lost too many viewers. An easy game to play and one that all of the banks are playing, even Nationwide if you look beyond their advert claims.

jameseonline

boingy said:

Nasqueron said:

boingy said:

I find it bizarre that any bank or BS branch would refuse to let a customer pay in money over the counter. Isn't that what they are there for? 

I get that they want to close branches but while a branch is still open they should let people do their banking. Imagine working in an organisation where you are basically told to dissuade customers from using your services, thus doing yourself out of a job. That's got to be demoralising. 

It means no issues with miscounting or complaints by customers and means they can deal with issues that cannot be done remotely or automatically. Bank staff messing around weighing coins or counting notes and storing them means they can't deal with someone else, while a machine that can do all the process in seconds saves time for everyone except for the person who refuses to use technology 

It's absolutely nothing to do with fear of complaints or other "issues". It's to do with finding a reason to justify closing branches because "no-one uses the counter service any more". Here is a daft parallel. Some years ago the BBC wanted to retire Top of the Pops because it had become too expensive to make. They knew that just cutting it would cause lots of bad publicity so they moved it from Thursday night prime time to Sunday early evening grave shift. Then a bit later they killed it off completely and cited the "fact" that it had lost too many viewers. An easy game to play and one that all of the banks are playing, even Nationwide if you look beyond their advert claims.

I don't think you can really compare TOTP with banks tbh.

Also I truly believe the TOTP brand could have been saved if not by the BBC than someone else, it was massive in the day, the TV show, the magazine, the compilation CD's, the PC games, think there was/is a TOTP radio show too (think it may have been on world service?), possibly other spinoffs etc.

There was also the TOTP 2 TV show.

They still did Xmas/new year special shows for years though.

Only reason BBC axed TOTP was because they blamed the rise of music channels for nobody being bothered anymore with the charts etc.

TheBanker

Brie said:

I wonder if it's actually a banking hub the OP was trying to use.  I've yet to figure out how they work if there's a different bank using it each day of the week.  Otherwise I've yet to hear of a bank that won't allow you to deposit cash via the teller.  

One alternative is to continue with your bank but get one of their (hopefully) helpful customer service people to assist you paying in at an ATM.  The alternative, as others mention, is to try the post office.  It will need to be bills, not change.

The Banking Hub counter service is basically a Post Office counter, that only deals with banking transactions (paying in, withdrawing and checking balances) and bill payments (so no sending letters or renewing passports etc).  Customers of most banks can use this service on any day it's open. The requirements are the same as at a Post Office counter, i.e. you need a card/PIN for cash/balance checks and a pre-printed paying in slip for cheque deposits. It doesn't matter whether your bank's representitive is there that day or not.