Bank practices or branch practices that have ceased....

username

You'll be disappointed by the new Natwest chequebooks, very little effort in the design, it's just a generic security pattern on the background of the cheque itself. Even the logo positioning on the front cover of the chequebook itself is very odd, not even centred or left/right aligned but 2/3rds down the way in the middle, looking lopsided, as if someone's just stamped it on without much thought to the aesthetics.

Back on topic for bank practices that have ceased, branded remote cash machines. I know Natwest still have a presence in the National Rail terminal stations, and you see the occasional a Barclays machine in a shopping centre.
You don't see many of them about these days, I remember when you'd see an HSBC machine in the London Underground, a Lloyds one in the station etc. But they're all farmed out to Notemachine/Yourcash etc these days.

WillPS

username said:

You'll be disappointed by the new Natwest chequebooks, very little effort in the design, it's just a generic security pattern on the background of the cheque itself. Even the logo positioning on the front cover of the chequebook itself is very odd, not even centred or left/right aligned but 2/3rds down the way in the middle, looking lopsided, as if someone's just stamped it on without much thought to the aesthetics.

Back on topic for bank practices that have ceased, branded remote cash machines. I know Natwest still have a presence in the National Rail terminal stations, and you see the occasional a Barclays machine in a shopping centre.
You don't see many of them about these days, I remember when you'd see an HSBC machine in the London Underground, a Lloyds one in the station etc. But they're all farmed out to Notemachine/Yourcash etc these days.

Natwest have a habit of leaving cash machines in former branch locations, presumably to workaround access-to-cash after branch closure issues. The Carrington branch in Nottingham had one stuck outside until recently. A shop beside the former branch in New Quay, Ceredigion still has one.

Tesco's cash machines are all Natwest Group ones with Tesco Bank branding still too, a remnant of the days when Tesco Personal Finance was a joint venture between Tesco and RBS.

Teapot55

IanManc said:

When I did a week's work experience from grammar school in a NatWest the branch had a cheque printing machine. There was a metal plate for each account. You got a a pre-printed branch chequebook from a locked cupboard and filled in a register to say which name you were going to print on it, loaded the machine with the plate, and manually printed the account number and holder's name on each individual cheque . . . 

I used to work in the school summer holidays at the factory that made those plates. We operated an embossing machine with a wheel on the front that you turned to choose each letter or character. Then you pressed the foot pedal to emboss each character. All the students got to do that job because if you made a mistake you could throw that metal plate in the recycling and start again. 

The newer plastic cards were starting to come in but you could only do those if you were experienced and accurate because otherwise it wasted the card. This was early seventies. 

Teapot55

gsmh said:

BlueonBlue said:

The fact they are closing all the branches is a major PIA .

It’s interesting that three top rated banks have no branches at all - First Direct, Monzo and Starling. I think that speaks volumes about the supposed need for branches. All my life when I’ve walked into palatial branches and witnessed people queuing to do things they could have done by other means I’ve questioned the need for them. Some of them must have cost an absolute fortune to run - just for the Luddites who dislike change.

I opened one of my current accounts because back in the day you could pay cheques in by posting them in a designated envelope c/w paying-in slip in the nearest pillar box, which for me was fifty yards away from my house. I had just started a job where they paid you weekly by cheque. Wouldn’t dream of doing it nowadays of course, but it seemed secure back then in the eighties. You could also cash cheques or pay them in at the nearest post office. If you needed to speak to the bank about something it must’ve been by telephone, which would’ve been landline in your house. But I don’t remember it being a problem like it would be now. Probably didn’t need to speak to them very often.

Rob5342

In the 1990s I had a Nationwide Invest Direct savings account which you could only operate by poat, sending off a cheque and paying in slip in their pre paid envelopes then getting replacements back in the post. It was quite convenient then when a trip to the branch required having a couple of free university study periods and a train trip to the town centre. It's funny how they were quite forward thinking then yet now they are so old fashioned. 

ChirpyChicken

Does anyone miss branch banking as it used to be 

gsmh

ChirpyChicken said:

Does anyone miss branch banking as it used to be 

Absolutely not! Most people never need to visit a branch these days, everything can be done online or in an app. To think all I need to do to pay for something is hold my phone near a terminal in a retail premises. I can even access cash using my app by tapping a code into a NatWest/RBS ATM. I love that we have little need for these metal coins and polymer notes any more. I can move finances around in seconds wherever I am. Why would I want to go back to palatial branches which cost a fortune to run?

ChirpyChicken

gsmh said:

ChirpyChicken said:

Does anyone miss branch banking as it used to be 

Absolutely not! Most people never need to visit a branch these days, everything can be done online or in an app. To think all I need to do to pay for something is hold my phone near a terminal in a retail premises. I can even access cash using my app by tapping a code into a NatWest/RBS ATM. I love that we have little need for these metal coins and polymer notes any more. I can move finances around in seconds wherever I am. Why would I want to go back to palatial branches which cost a fortune to run?

Agreed but I bet those branches made more money back then (proportionally) then they do now.

TheBanker

WillPS said:

There was a bank branch (Midland IIRC, presumably also a sub branch) at Alton Towers too, just inside the main entrance to the left. Replaced by cash machines which are still in the same position. Allegedly the whole branch is still there behind them...

I remember for a period in the late 90s/early 00s Lloyds TSB opened 'autobank' branches inside some newbuild Asdas, which as the name suggests had no teller windows, but did have paying in machines and a member of staff to do other account-related admin. Didn't last long.

https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/lloyds-tsb-puts-banks-in-store-asda-deal/55242

Didn't Abbey National used to have branches in some Safeway/Morrisons stores, or am I imagining that?

We may see a return to these days. Pure speculation but given the new relationship between Barclays and Tesco... Tesco have plenty of big stores with surplus space. Put a little Barclays branch in there and Barclays would save a fortune in real estate costs. Tesco might get a bit of extra footfall and the customers probably wouldn't complain too much as the branch would be in a convenient place with free car parking. Everyone's a winner. 

eskbanker

TheBanker said:

We may see a return to these days. Pure speculation but given the new relationship between Barclays and Tesco... Tesco have plenty of big stores with surplus space. Put a little Barclays branch in there and Barclays would save a fortune in real estate costs. Tesco might get a bit of extra footfall and the customers probably wouldn't complain too much as the branch would be in a convenient place with free car parking. Everyone's a winner. 

I take the point that the Barclays acquisition may change the dynamic but don't recall Tesco opening in-store branches to build the Tesco Bank brand when they had the opportunity to do so, and the same for Sainsbury's, although do recall an branch of M&S Bank in one of their stores.