Bastarding banks

[Squeamous]

So right, I go into the bank yesterday morning to pay in some cash. As I'm paying it in I get the usual sales spiel about my bank account being really basic and old fashioned (ie. free) and how I should upgrade. First of all that pisses me off, because I'm a captive audience and nowhere else do you go somewhere for a service then get it advertised to you when you're standing there.

Anyway, I'm paying in quite a lot because I pay all the bills and my husband likes to pay his share to me in cash. The cashier asks if I am self employed, to which I reply 'no' and then she says 'Oh, I was just wondering because you often pay quite a lot of money into your account' and then she looks at me. So I just go 'oh right', and then there's an uncomfortable silence while she awaits the answer and I realise I have nothing to hit her with and even if I did they have an anti-enraged customer barrier between us.

I mean, wtf??? These people in banks think they have some sort of inroad into your life because they have your money, but they're just glorified sales people (bad ones at that). Now I'm wondering if banks can report you to the Inland Revenue for things like this? Might I get carried away by the men in badly fitting suits?

[bigboab]

I tell them that I am just the message boy. It works most times. That might not work in your case.

[Barbarossa]

So right, I go into the bank yesterday morning to pay in some cash. As I'm paying it in I get the usual sales spiel about my bank account being really basic and old fashioned (ie. free) and how I should upgrade. First of all that pisses me off, because I'm a captive audience and nowhere else do you go somewhere for a service then get it advertised to you when you're standing there.

Anyway, I'm paying in quite a lot because I pay all the bills and my husband likes to pay his share to me in cash. The cashier asks if I am self employed, to which I reply 'no' and then she says 'Oh, I was just wondering because you often pay quite a lot of money into your account' and then she looks at me. So I just go 'oh right', and then there's an uncomfortable silence while she awaits the answer and I realise I have nothing to hit her with and even if I did they have an anti-enraged customer barrier between us.

I mean, wtf??? These people in banks think they have some sort of inroad into your life because they have your money, but they're just glorified sales people (bad ones at that). Now I'm wondering if banks can report you to the Inland Revenue for things like this? Might I get carried away by the men in badly fitting suits?

Yeah, this happened to me too last time I paid a cheque into the bank. It wasn't Lloyds TSB was it (name and shame )

I get paid by cheque every month because I work for a small company and it's not worth them setting up automatic payroll. This pissed the bank off from the outset and they refused to give us a decent overdraft facility because I wasn't getting paid by BACS or whatever.

Anyway, last time I went in the cashier was saying "did you know that if you upgrade to our premier bumlicker account you'll get 5% interest on this money rather than just the 0.001% you're getting now?" I just looked at her blankly and said it'll be gone in a matter of days anyway, what's the point?

Then she went all "whatever" on me, "I was just trying to help", etc.

Banks are scum.

[devilsadvocate]

You shouldn't blame the cashier, they are just doing what they are told and unless they get commission are probably as uninterested in you getting a new account as you are. It's the banking equivalent of asking if you want fries with that. Yes it gets annoying after a while but it seems to be a trend wherever you go these days.

[lynx]

The reason she wanted to know if you are self-employed is because you were paying money into a personal account. If you were self-employed they would try to argue that you should have a business account, and charge you lots of money for the privilege.

Cunting credit-mongers.

[Squeamous]

You know what Lynx, I hadn't thought of that, the shits

Agree totally with Barbara, banks are scum. But what really gets me is they never used to be, and I still in the back of my brain think of them as a responsible public service, so when asked personal details I tend to instinctively want to answer like I would to a policeman. Am I alone in this? I probably treat the tellers with way more deference than they deserve, way more than I would a normal salesperson. That's going to stop now.

I'm with Natwest B, but they're all the same. I know they charge for the upgraded account. I have refused about a dozen times FFS. Today I went in again, and the woman who served me looked better dressed than the other one and put the cash through straight away with no comment and no chat. It occurred to me that the other one always gets me to put my card and pin in twice. I figured out it's because she uses the first time to look at my account to see what she can sell me, before actually processing my transaction. In future I'm going to ask that she doesn't access my account except to deal with the transaction, and to not try to sell me anything. Politely of course. And I'll tell her how much of a disgusting intrusion into my private life I think her doing it is. God I am so mad right now! In fact I might write to the fricking bank and CC it to the banking ombudsman, or whoever regulates these bastards.

[j2k4]

You know what Lynx, I hadn't thought of that, the shits

Agree totally with Barbara, banks are scum. But what really gets me is they never used to be, and I still in the back of my brain think of them as a responsible public service, so when asked personal details I tend to instinctively want to answer like I would to a policeman. Am I alone in this? I probably treat the tellers with way more deference than they deserve, way more than I would a normal salesperson. That's going to stop now.

I'm with Natwest B, but they're all the same. I know they charge for the upgraded account. I have refused about a dozen times FFS. Today I went in again, and the woman who served me looked better dressed than the other one and put the cash through straight away with no comment and no chat. It occurred to me that the other one always gets me to put my card and pin in twice. I figured out it's because she uses the first time to look at my account to see what she can sell me, before actually processing my transaction. In future I'm going to ask that she doesn't access my account except to deal with the transaction, and to not try to sell me anything. Politely of course. And I'll tell her how much of a disgusting intrusion into my private life I think her doing it is. God I am so mad right now! In fact I might write to the fricking bank and CC it to the banking ombudsman, or whoever regulates these bastards.

That'll be a government agency of some sort, I think you'll find.

[Squeamous]

Didn't write that letter in the end. Apathy .

[j2k4]

Didn't write that letter in the end. Apathy .

Why apathetic?

Doesn't sound like you.

[The Flying Cow]

They're sharks, they are.

I hate the banks meself. I just think they're slimey, what with all the fucking publicity I get in my flat with the monthly credit reciepts that come via mail. I always have to shove a bucketload of their shite in the dustbin.

In fact, when I make a good amount of money, I'll buy gold, and keep it in my house, to avoid this kind of predatory in-your-face "where did this come from?" bollocks.

True story (with an eye upon the future, like).


-Sherman