Living miles from a bank

fgaughan

I live in a village 26 miles to a nearest city.
I work Monday to Friday 9am to 5am so you can imagine it's impossible to visit a bank in the week unless you go on time off.
Yes I know banks open at weekends but I am not travelling 26 miles to deposit cash savings etc.

Only thing we have is post office open on a weekend till 1pm.
I have asked for leaflets but they gave me a phone no. which is useless as I prefer leaflets so I can make a choice.
I understand that some high street banks allow you to make payments through post office free of charge
Only want an ordinary link card deposit account (cos of my credit ratings)
Can anyone tell me what banks does this and it would be nice to have online banking with it

Rikki

I have a Co-op bank account which I can use at the post office free of charge. I have a debit card to pay in and withdraw money. there is a system to deposit cheques too. Easy to use online banking.

I think the Allience and Leicester do too.

omega27

Why do you need leaflets when you have the vast power of the internet?!

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/content2?mediaId=load101007&catId=1400104 has a PDF file detailing which accounts can pay-in over the counter. Basically it's
Alliance & Leicester, Bank of Ireland, Barclays, cahoot, Co-OP, Lloyds TSB, smile. Some basic bank accounts can also, although the list is shorter.

fgaughan

rjlawson wrote:

Why do you need leaflets when you have the vast power of the internet?!

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/content2?mediaId=load101007&catId=1400104 has a PDF file detailing which accounts can pay-in over the counter. Basically it's
Alliance & Leicester, Bank of Ireland, Barclays, cahoot, Co-OP, Lloyds TSB, smile. Some basic bank accounts can also, although the list is shorter.

DOH!! yes your right the internet :-)
just that post office on my door step cos i am new to area the yorkshire accent very strong when asking questions

BigSammyA

fgaughan wrote:

DOH!! yes your right the internet :-)

The internet? Is that thing still around?

Ember999

Voted Best Bank Account repeatedly and I have had a SMILE current a/c, savings a/c, ISA a/c and Gold Visa for 4 years now. Excellent Customer Service, use Post Office like a branch, full Internet Banking and Phone Banking. It will cover all your needs.

www.smile.co.uk

Spendless

I'm with FD. I use either telephone or internet. If I want to deposit any cash/cheques I put money into their machine (can't think what it's proper name is)in the towns main HSBC branch.

It's very rare that I need counter service

Rafter

First direct also supply you with envelopes so you can pay cheques in by post. Delay compared to over the counter doesn't seem too bad and their customer service has been great in over 8 years with them.

Problem may be credit rating though and you may find you have to use one of the big 4 banks and get a basic bank account.

R.

Ember999

I've been with FIRST DIRECT for 14 years (as well as SMILE for 4 years) and First Direct are fantastic! However, they are a little 'fussy' as they were originally set up as a premier bank from HSBC, their parent company. They do not as far as I am aware, take customers with poor crediting rating, but they may have changed their policy over the last 10 years, so phone them and check. Or apply online at www.firstdirect.com

margaretclare

Hi

I use cahoot. Pensions income drops straight into the account, I check my accounts daily online, no problem at all. To pay in cash you go to the nearest post office. To pay in a cheque, either put it in their special envelope across the PO counter, or send it by post.

My husband banks with RBoS and we also have a joint a/c with them just for household bills which all go out by direct debit. Their nearest branch is about 3 miles away but he can't remember the last time he had occasion to go into a bank branch - he does everything online.

I did have an a/c with Alliance & Leicester for a while. However, I found it was nowhere near as satisfactory as cahoot. I made it clear to them that I wanted to do everything online including receiving statements etc, but they insisted on sending paper statements with advertising leaflets for loans, mortgages etc which I didn't want. Online banking is very 'eco-friendly' because you don't get the wasted paper.

I have had this argument many times since direct payment of pensions and benefits started - several of the smaller sub-post offices around here have closed accompanied by much wailing and lamenting. I can understand the difficulty if people are creatures of habit and don't want anything ever to change. However, it doesn't affect me, because I've done online banking for several years now. It's great for people who want to do their banking outside of normal office hours. If you can't do online banking then you could do telephone banking - that has been around for nearly 20 years now!

Aunty Margaret

jen_jen_2

FYI - i think i read that the PO is to make their cash machines free withdrawls too following the hu ha about charging ones - yipee good news for us onliners, now we dont have to queue either!!!