The Big Banks Boo Thread

[Pleng]

I'm sure everybody has a favourite "Down the evil Banks" story. Here's mine:

Today I went online to make a payment with Halifax.
"There has been a problem making your payment. Please try again later or call us on...."

so I leave it a couple of minutes and try again.
Same message.

This would, by itself have been rather irritating, but not massively high on stress levels. What made matters worse is that when I checked the transactions on my account, both had in fact been debited. Stress level by this point is increasing.

I phone the bank and am taken through the usual security procedure. Except there's a new question that crops up. One that I've never been asked before. And one that stumped me. "And what date did you open your bank account, sir?" I'm logged into online banking. I have everything in front of me they could ask for; direct debits, recent transactions, overdraft limits..... but they ask me for the one bit of information I am clueless about.

Apparently upon inquiring with the quizmaster "it doesn't have to be exact. if you don't give me anything you'll get a fail. just a rough date should be enough. but you do have to actually give a date. I can't accept a range". This is not very helpful as all I know is that I've been with this back about 4 or 5 years. I fail security. Stress levels high.

I'm told to call back and go through security again and perhaps a different set of questions will be asked. Stress levels at danger point. Though at this point I do myself no favours. The wise thing to do would be to swallow my pride, take the advice and try again. Of course this is not how I roll when faced with teleBureaucracy so I demand to speak to the supervisor, knowing deep down that all I'm going to do is waste both our time with a futile argument and then have to actually call again. So we have the pointless debate. I put to him that had he not been working at that bank, he probably wouldn't know when he opened his account. He conveniently ignored the conditional and replied "actually I know when I opened mine, but that's beside the point". I point out how ridiculous the question is, he awkwardly tries to justify it as is his corporate duty - though you can tell that in his mind he's thinking "of course it's stupid! you think I make up these daft rules? We're told our bosses a gazillion times people aren't going to know this information. But you think they listen?"

The conversation ends with a line about "we have to try and strike a balance between customers getting access to their account, and not letting anybody else get access". I bluntly point out that they've got it very, very wrong and hang up the phone.

So I make the next call. As we go through each step of security my stress levels are reaching new previously unrealized limits, anticipating that I might be asked the same question, or the date of some other anniversary which we are all now somehow expected to know. Luckily all goes relatively smoothly. A form is filled out and sent to head office and I should have the money back by Wednesday.


tl;dr Next time you open a bank account, put the date in your diary, as now it is not only wives that can give you the could shoulder for forgetting an anniversary

[bonnielass]

Pleng,
I have to disagree with your last statement.
Why should we, the customers, have to put up with this bullsh**?
The only way to stop the heavy handedness of banks is to push back.
To inform them that their policies are totally unacceptable.
It is our money and they have no right to lock us out with their robotic attitudes.

My family visited Thailand in April and the bank blocked their card at the ATM - unusual activity.
They hadn't informed their bank that they were going to Thailand, were not aware they had to.
When they phoned to get it sorted and didn't have all the correct answers, they hit a brick wall.
A totally unsympathetic and uncompromising bank employee who refused to help in any way.
Had they not been able to borrow cash from me, they would have been in a serious jam.

Upon their return to the UK, the bank were hugely apologetic about their treatment.
However, they still closed their account and took their funds elsewhere.

You may say so what, what good will that do?
I firmly believe that if more of us take action, the banks will get the message.
It's the power of the people.
We cannot let them away with this sort of behaviour!
Fight Back.

As you can tell I feel very strongly about this issue.

Rant Over. :-)

[Big Boy]

My son lost his wallet a few weeks back. One of the things in his wallet was his Halifax ATM card. Not wanting to take any chances, he contacted Halifax to have his card stopped. Unbeknown to us, they had mailed him a 'special' password just after he had left the UK. All of our mail goes to my brother's address, and he advises anything important - in this instance, he says that he never ever saw the 'special password.

It was important that my son retained his UK bank account for about 4 months after the move to allow various monies to be paid in.

Halifax said that they could not do anything to his account without the 'special' password. My son explained the seriousness of the situation, but still no good - they would have to send him another password via my brother.

He suggested closing the account - not without the special password.

He said, OK, I'll transfer all of the money out of the account using online banking.

You can't do that there may be charges - you have to leave money in the account.

You just watch me - money transferred to my account at the stroke of a button.

Eventually, the new 'special' password arrived. Back on the phone, I want to close my account.

We can't do that over the phone, we have to send you a piece of paper to be signed. Again this had to come via my brother's address. That paper was received, signed and returned. We've heard no more, and far as I'm concerned, I couldn't care less if we do. My son has jumped through far too many hoops for the Halifax already.

The Halifax - Not Good In A Crisis.

[PeteC]

Just a side note about wallets. If you usually wear cargo shorts like I do, keep your wallet in one of the zipper/button down side leg pockets. Just about impossible to fall out, or be pick-pocketed as thieves don't target that area of clothing. It's also helped my bad back immensely while driving by not sitting on a big lump in my back pocket for hours on end. Pete

[Big Boy]

sitting on a big lump

Oooh, how I wish that I had that much money