HSBC rant - Unbelievable!

Keeping_Positive

Id be annoyed if my bank didnt take coinage, Its legal tender isnt it? Thankfully Natwest do and its more than £5 although they ask if you have an account and I usually pay it in and then draw money from cash point. Oh and it includes Saturdays too.

The only other place I know swap is the Coventry building society but that restricts to 5 bags a time.

Shops are unlikely to be happy to take change as each bag would have to be counted. Maybe a bookies because they may have change racks that make counting easier and quicker?

MarkyMarkD

lynzpower wrote: »

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

If you simply spend change at the same pace as you get it, you wouldn't have this "bloody annoying" problem.

I really cannot understand why people hoard change.

The OP wouldn't have been overdrawn if he'd simply spent his change as he received it instead of sticking it in a draw/bottle/whatever.

It's complete madness to be incurring bank charges for being £10/£20/£30 overdrawn whilst having far more than that in hoarded change.

dunstonh

LTSB take it with no limits if you are a customer and its bagged.

lynzpower

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

If you simply spend change at the same pace as you get it, you wouldn't have this "bloody annoying" problem.

I really cannot understand why people hoard change.

The OP wouldn't have been overdrawn if he'd simply spent his change as he received it instead of sticking it in a draw/bottle/whatever.

It's complete madness to be incurring bank charges for being £10/£20/£30 overdrawn whilst having far more than that in hoarded change.

but I get more change than I spend! And so many places WONT TAKE COPPER!!! Its not just banks, but buses and london underground dont take copper, parking meters dont take copper. I do take as much of it to the self service checkouts as possible, and feed it in there keeping my cash in the bank, but I dont like to drag around 15 quids worth of copper when doing my weekly shop - I tore a handbag twice carting copper and thats not moneysaving......

I do think its a scandal that banks can pick and choose what format the money can come into the account. Im sure someone will say that banks can choose what they want to do, which like any business they can, but it just bothers me.

Plenty of kids start of learning to save by saving coppers and I think that It just sends out the wrong message, thats all. All saving & prudence should be appluaded by banks, not rejecting money as it comes in coin format.

gt94sss2

lynzpower wrote: »

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

Some banks (mainly ex building societies) and current building societies don't like dealing with lots of small change or coin deposits and impose limits on the amount you can deposit each day and if it has to be bagged etc.

This is because dealing with these kinds of 'low value' transactions takes up a 'relatively' long time and there is nothing in it for the bank - also if the branch is busy the staff could be serving other customers (with potentially more profitable transactions etc)

Of course, if you ask them why - they will say something like 'our safes are smaller than other banks'

As such, if you want to deposit coins etc., you are better off sticking to the likes of the big 4 banks (HSBC/Natwest etc) rather than the Halifax, A&L or Abbey National.. (though sometimes they don't apply the same restrictions to children's accounts)

Regards
Sunil

dunstonh

I do think its a scandal that banks can pick and choose what format the money can come into the account. Im sure someone will say that banks can choose what they want to do, which like any business they can, but it just bothers me.

Ok, I will have a go at this one

The main branches of the banks have massive safes. They can put the coinage in there and its fine. However, the smaller branches usually have small safes an in the case of some of the building societies they are tiny.

Some of these issues are historical. Building societies never needed to take coinage. The ones that have gone on to become banks often have the same size safe as before. They just dont have the space for it.

For a while I ran a very small branch of a big bank which had a free standing safe about the size of a fridge. At night you turned the alarm off as it only had a panic alarm and you didnt want the cleaners to set it off. You cannot leave money on the floor so you set your coinage (and notes) limit often on a branch by branch basis depending on the logistics of that branch.

I would expect all of the big 4 banks to take coinage without an issue for existing customers. I would expect you to have problems at some of the building societies or ex building societies.

bengal-stripe

wendy24g wrote: »

Id be annoyed if my bank didnt take coinage, Its legal tender isnt it?

Over a certain amount, small coins are not legal tender:

Denomination Legal Tender Limit
£5 Crown Any Amount
£2 Any Amount
£1 Any Amount
50 Pence £10
25 Pence (Older Crowns) £10
20 Pence £10
10 Pence £5
5 Pence £5
2 Pence £0.20
1 Penny £0.20

lynzpower

dunston

what happens to the cash in the safe, I mean, does it get collected, say daily, or what?

the money banks make youd think they could afford a second safe in a branch! I mean it sounds like an excuse to me, ie they cant be ar5ed to count it as theres more profitable things they can be doing like flogging loans or something.

Id say that its quicker to count my tenners worth of coinage, as I know they just chuck it into those auto counting hoppers, whereas if I was brining in 200 quid in a mixture of notes, that would DEFINATELY take longer ( once they have put the queens head the right way round etc)

it just bothers me, that this money is generated by the mint, we all get loads of it through our fingers every day, but the banks wont take it back, and SPENDING it is the only way to allieviate the volume, saving it isnt really a viable option

gt94sss2

bengal-stripe wrote: »

Over a certain amount, small coins are not legal tender:

Also "legal tender" doesn't mean what shops or banks have to accept - I believe its narrowly defined as what Courts accept as payment for a debt.

Regards
Sunil

dunstonh

what happens to the cash in the safe, I mean, does it get collected, say daily, or what?

depends on the size of the branch. We were once a week normally but could arrange a second on demand during the holiday seasons but were charged for doing so. Even the large branch (40 staff, 8 tills) was only twice a week but they had a walk in safe with safes within the safe and a couple of freestanding safes.

the money banks make youd think they could afford a second safe in a branch! I mean it sounds like an excuse to me, ie they cant be ar5ed to count it as theres more profitable things they can be doing like flogging loans or something.

They could afford another safe. Not sure where they would have put it though. Remember its the small branches where this is a problem and space is the main issue.

Ok, times pass but at that branch we still processed manual waste, had no note counters let alone coin counter and had the scales. The only electrical equipment was the kettle and the phone. I know it was a long time ago but the main branch at the same time had all the flash stuff like counter terminals and multiple note counters.

We didnt reject coins apart from once when one of the holiday camps thought it would be funny to get their takings paid into us by securicor. We told them we wouldnt accept it again if they did that. Although it was quite handy on that occasion as they had counted it up wrong and it was about £30 over and we used that to buy a new kettle, cups and supplies for the staff room to make up for their hassle.. Couldnt see that happen at a bank today.