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

TheBanker

gsmh said:

Many Co-operative food stores had a little counter where you could write a Co-operative Bank cheque, payable to yourself, to obtain cash. I used the facility often.

My mum worked part time for the local council, who banked with the Co-op and paid her by cheque. She didn't have a bank account in those days, so every Friday she'd go down to the local Co-op supermarket, cash the cheque, then do the shopping. The left over money was taken home and sorted into a complex system of envelopes and jam jars to pay the milkman, pay for the newspapers, pay for my school dinners/bus fares, saving towards Christmas etc. 

When the council started paying by BACS, she opened an account at Midland Bank (purely because I had my 'school bank' account with Midland), and discovered Tesco was a much cheaper place to buy the groceries.

Rob5342

ChirpyChicken said:

Does anyone miss branch banking as it used to be 

Not in the slightest. A trivial 30 second task like moving some money from one account to another used to take days. I'd have to wait until I had spare time when the bank would be open, and then hsve a train journey that was about 20 minutes in each direction eith the cost of that too. That's without having to queue up once I got there. Using branches was so inconvenient, if you hadn't grown up with them it would be hard to imagine how anyone could have lived like thst. 

I seem to remember our big Sainsbury's having a bank branch upstairs at one point, I think it was Abbey National or maybe Santander. 

TheBanker

eskbanker said:

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.

You're right, the closest they've ever come is travel money kiosks. Although I think Tesco Bank originally let you pay in cash and cheques at the customer service desk.

My point was that Barclays and Tesco could deepen their new relationship by Tesco renting space in their stores to Barclays, the same as they rent space to dry cleaners and opticians in some stores. Tesco would benefit from some rental income, and Barclays would benefit from lower costs. And given the Barclays/Tesco relationship there have to be some mutually beneficial cross-selling opportunities. 

EarthBoy

TheBanker said:

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

I don't know about Abbey National, but I know that some Morrisons used to have a branch of Midland Bank (now HSBC).

Morrison to open in-store banks | The Independent | The Independent

COIAHLGW

I can remember when the Tesco opened in my old home town, they had ATMs from Midland/HSBC, Abbey National and Barclays rather than the Tesco Bank version.

EarthBoy

ChirpyChicken said:

Does anyone miss branch banking as it used to be 

Good Lord no!

Why should I miss the early 80s, having to queue in the bank with a cheque made out to "cash" or "self" in order to withdraw money?  The banks were only open 09.00 - 3.30, although some of them, e.g. TSB and Yorkshire Bank did have a late night opening until 6.00 PM once a week.  No banks that I knew of were open on Saturdays, only building societies were open then.

My first bank, TSB, didn't even have ATMs until the mid 80s, but I'd moved away to Williams & Glyn's by that time, and they did have cash machines, but they only had branches in the city centre, so they were a bus ride away.  ATM sharing didn't come in until the early to mid 80s, so if there wasn't a branch of your own bank nearby then you were stuffed.  

Who in their right mind would want all that back again?

lr1277

Thinking back to when £1 coins were introduced. The internet says 1983. The internet also says the £1 note was discontinued in March 1988.

But I have memories (somewhat hazy admittedly) paying for drinks at the bar with £1 notes until the late 80's, but perhaps those were £5 notes and not £1 notes. And perhaps I got £1 coins back in change.

Maybe the clue is in my memory in that I was buying drinks with my money.

Edited to add: I know this is OT, but back in the 90's and 00's, people putting their card behind the bar. Is that done nowadays? Or are there too many fraud/security risks?

UKX69

lr1277 said:

Thinking back to when £1 coins were introduced. The internet says 1983. The internet also says the £1 note was discontinued in March 1988.

But I have memories (somewhat hazy admittedly) paying for drinks at the bar with £1 notes until the late 80's, but perhaps those were £5 notes and not £1 notes. And perhaps I got £1 coins back in change.

Maybe the clue is in my memory in that I was buying drinks with my money.

Edited to add: I know this is OT, but back in the 90's and 00's, people putting their card behind the bar. Is that done nowadays? Or are there too many fraud/security risks?

The last time I did that was 2003 at my son’s wedding reception. 😁

EarthBoy

lr1277 said:

The internet also says the £1 note was discontinued in March 1988.

But I have memories (somewhat hazy admittedly) paying for drinks at the bar with £1 notes until the late 80's, but perhaps those were £5 notes and not £1 notes. And perhaps I got £1 coins back in change.

Well 1988 was the late 80s, so your memory might not be far out, but there wouldn't have been many £1 notes still in circulation by then.  

eskbanker

EarthBoy said:

lr1277 said:

The internet also says the £1 note was discontinued in March 1988.

But I have memories (somewhat hazy admittedly) paying for drinks at the bar with £1 notes until the late 80's, but perhaps those were £5 notes and not £1 notes. And perhaps I got £1 coins back in change.

Well 1988 was the late 80s, so your memory might not be far out, but there wouldn't have been many £1 notes still in circulation by then.  

....except north of the border (into this century!):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Bank_of_Scotland_£1_note