HSBC rant - Unbelievable!

wolseley_2

I have also posted this on another forum, so appologies if you have already seen it.

Over the past year I have collected all of my small change in a pot. Recently I sorted and counted it into those little bank coin bags and found that I had £79

So, today I decide to pay it into my bank. I stuff the considerably heavy cash into a bag and head down to the high street only to find that my local branch no longer opens on a Saturday. D'oh!

So, I carry it home again and check on the HSBC website to find an open branch - OK, the one in Richmond is open for another couple of hours. So, off I set on the bus. When I get there I find that there is no counter service. Yes, there are people serving, but only from the customer service desk. So, I ask if I can pay in my cash. The answer: no. I am slightly bewidered that I have just walked into an open branch to find that I can not do something as simple in banking terms as pay in some cash.

So, I ask how I am supposed to pay it in if I work during the week, my local branch is closed on a Saturday and they wont take it. The bloke at the bank said that I should get it changed into notes and then pay these in. I asked him where he expected me to do this, if not at my bank. His answer was to go to another bank and get them to change it. I told him that I was not going to go into another bank, which I am not a member of, and get this done as I suspect that I wouldn't get very far. His next suggestion, seriously, was to get it changed at an off license. I made my excuses and left at this point.

So, I still have the cash. HSBC don't seem to provide any way for me to pay it in on a saturday (when I am not at work). I have wasted 2 hours of my time, am down two bus fares and as my account is currently overdrawn I am paying interest on £79 of it which this cash would have paid off. Not amused.

dunstonh

I'm sorry but I dont know why you want to rant at HSBC.

At no point has HSBC told you that they operate a counter service on a Saturday. Many banks dont. You tend to find they will take cheques and sometimes notes and small quantities of change that can fit into a sealed envelope but thats about it.

So, I still have the cash. HSBC don't seem to provide any way for me to pay it in on a saturday (when I am not at work). I have wasted 2 hours of my time, am down two bus fares and as my account is currently overdrawn I am paying interest on £79 of it which this cash would have paid off. Not amused.

None of which is the fault of HSBC. It may be a pain for you that your bank doesnt operate a service that you have obviously never needed before today but they cannot be blamed for you not knowing this.

Paul_Varjak

You acknowledge that your rant is unbelievable and I fully agree with you.

So, you may pay a few pence pence in interest charges on £79 - I am sure your bus fares cost more than a few pence you would have paid in interest even if if you had made a successful deposit!

You have a job, so why not use the £79 as spending money and stop wasting your time posting on here (and other forums) and wait for your account to get back into credit?

D_e_n_i_s_e

vote with your feet - change banks

gt94sss2

I have to say the OP was a bit unfortunate not to go to a HSBC branch that they have already "upgraded/refurbished" with their various Express Banking machines

You can tell which branches have been as they seem to have rows of different machines - as these branches have also been fitted with automatic coin deposit machines.. of the sort you find in supermarkets - which count and deposit change straight into a HSBC account (but without being charged a fee) and those machines would have been available today.

To be fair to HSBC though - their website does say on their branch locator:

Note: There is no counter service available at our branches on a Saturday. Alternative facilities such as ATMs and deposit machines are available.

which you must have seen to get the opening times of their branch at Richmond - even if you didn't notice it at the time.

Regards
Sunil

Debt_Free_Chick

I haven't been to a bank for more than 20 years so I might be talking pants but .....

As Saturday is not a business/banking day, does any branch of any bank provide a full service?

Local independent shops are the best place to take bagged change. They have to pay get change from their own bank, so they're often more than happy to take it off your hands. It helps if they know you - otherwise, they might be understandably dubious.

wolseley_2

OK - it appears from the replies that I was in the wrong here to expect to be able to do this. When my local branch did open on a Saturday, it did have a counter service which allowed me to pay in cash. I also chose to go to Richmond as the opening times for the Kingston branches explicitly stated that the counter was not open in the times, whereas the Richmond ones didn't - so I assumed that this meant that they were open. Unfortunately, I missed the:

Note: There is no counter service available at our branches on a Saturday. Alternative facilities such as ATMs and deposit machines are available.

bit which gt94sss2 mentioned.

EDIT: Also, is there any way to know which branches have these deposit machines which can take coinage?

wolseley_2

dunstonh wrote: »

None of which is the fault of HSBC. It may be a pain for you that your bank doesnt operate a service that you have obviously never needed before today but they cannot be blamed for you not knowing this.

Except that I have needed this service before in the past and my local branch did provide it before they stopped opening on a Saturday. I had no reason to beleive that this was a special one off branch.

Paul_Varjak

I think you can get a full counter service at Halifax agencies at the weekend (not sure about their own branches though)

lynzpower

the problem is that qwith this level of coinage Id be surprised if ANY bank takes it at all!

I have had loads of experience of this, I too am an avid copper saver, and most banks ( alliance & leiecester, natwest, ltsb are 3 Ive had direct recent experience of) and none of those will take more than a fiver in coinage even if all bagged correctly.

Conversely, if you have credit cards, we have wqorked out you can pay any random coinage off a barclaycard balance at a barclays bank, and also some post offices will allow you to change a couple of quids worth.

Ive been putting most of my shrapnel in vending machines or self service checkouts, it seems the only way to get shot of it bloody annoying

gt94sss2

wolseley wrote: »

When my local branch did open on a Saturday, it did have a counter service which allowed me to pay in cash.

I think at one stage all HSBC branches which opened on Saturday provided a full counter service and then at some point over the last year or two, HSBC decided to withdraw the service nationally - as more and more pay-in machines etc were installed at branches.

EDIT: Also, is there any way to know which branches have these deposit machines which can take coinage?

No idea - I presume you could check with HSBC.. I have seen them in Central London.

Otherwise, I have been to Croydon and Wimbledon and know those branches have been refurbished in the last year or so - so I presume they may have them but have never specifically looked..

The branches you are looking for will also have their new note and cheque paying in machine - i.e. the cheque paying machine scans the cheque and gives you a copy as a receipt.

Regards
Sunil