Bothered and Bewildered! !

Which still leaves the Big Issue seller, the charity collection box, the poppy seller, the £6 for my weekly dance class (cash only), several small traders I know who don’t accept cards, the supermarket trolley, and tips, which I still prefer to leave as cash. And the grandsons’ money boxes - they don’t take cards yet.

I dont think that coins will be used for parking for much longer to be honest. I would guess most people pay by phone

HSBC is our bank too. DH regularly changes a £10 note for pound coins for the parking payment machines in the town centre. When he went in this week all the counters had been closed down. We do use our contactless cards for most things but have always used coins for parking so it looks as if we will have to change to cards for parking.

Grammaretto I live on the Isle of Wight. We have Lloyds, Barclays, TSB, Santander and HSBC in the main town of Newport, and there may be others I don't know of. There is
also a mobile bank which visits some of the more rural villages. I don't think there has ever been a bank in our village, but our small Co-Op store has an ATM, as does the Post Office in the next village.

Hetty are you playing devil's advocate here?

For the Big Issue seller
The trolley £1 (no, I didn't have one yesterday and DH's token didn't fit, he had to go in and change £10.
Collecting boxes (no, I don't want to join every charity with a monthly direct debit, just contribute to most with coins in a box)
The car park fee
Tips?

What, exactly, do people need cash for? Every honest trader accepts cards or bank transfers, even cabs and ice cream vans. The vast grey economy deprives our services of vital funds. I wouldn't be happy to contribute to it, as it's immoral, if not illegal, to do so.

Speaking as a family of both active and retired cops- the habit of keeping large amounts of cash on ones person and stashed under one's mattress will creep back in! And the royal unwashed of society will already be hooking into that concept. Crime of burglaries and street assault will increase and even shoot up as people particularly older people without the means to travel afar to an active bank, will be holding large cash amounts both at home and in their purse/bags! It's a ticking time bomb planted by an increasingly greedy mindset of the corporate Institutions. Remember this post........ Says the ghost of things yet to come.......

Where do you live Happysexagenarian to have all those bank branches?
In our town of pop 20k, 3 branches have closed in the last couple of years leaving one at the far end from me.
Apparently there is a mobile bank - which parks in a side street for an hour on a Wednesday afternoon.
The stories emerging on here describe a world which discriminates against older people who were at school at a time when we learned £sd.
And n some cases it's downright cruel.
Mummer may I ask please which bank or shop will take the cash the burglars find under the bed?

A few years ago my sister who was over from Canada went to a branch of Lloyds Bank in Felixstowe to change some sterling travel cheques. The bank flatly refused and we had to go to a travel agent who made a charge. The world is going mad.

We have someone who begs in our city centre. If you haven’t got cash he can take your money on his debit card machine!!!!

I withdrew money from an atm inside a branch of the Halifax. I was the only customer and the teller watched me. As all the notes came out in £20s I asked the teller if she could split a 20 into 4 £5 notes, she refused as in order to do so I need to bank with them. I would have to first pay the £20 into my account and then withdraw it. She asked me if I wanted to open an account!

The horrid cashier guy in our local branch of Lloyds was rude and wanted to refuse to take my notes as I had rolled them up. He told me loudly over and over again that he "didn't have to accept them" and "couldn't I see how hard it was for him to count the notes"? He must have mentioned it no less than ten times.
My hubby was furious when I got home and told me that I should have snatched the money back and informed him that I would take them to open a new bank account - somewhere that didn't have rude staff.
Lutterworth branch in case anyone from Lloyds sees this! Odious man. I avoid going now.

As an ex bank cashier of many years this is all so sad to read. I always enjoyed the daily interaction with customers, messengers and couriers, and watching kids faces as I hand sorted coins and notes at lightning speed. I know banks have to move with the times, but many older customers are unable, or unwilling, to use online or phone banking so they really should be able to conduct ALL their financial business in a manner that suits them in familiar surroundings.

Where we live we are lucky to still have at least 5 banks in our small local town and 1 PO. Our village PO only opens for a few hours a day and closes one half-day a week, but they're very helpful about changing up notes or cashing cheques etc.

DH went to our bank today. He was offered a chair as there were two people in front of him. The cashier had time to chat about Christmas, Covid etc and his request to transfer funds into my a/c (at a different bank) was completed quickly and without query. It is often said that our area is 50 years behind the rest of the country, and quite frankly I hope it stays that way if it means we keep our old-style customer service, trust and friendly good manners. Advancements in technology and progress are not always an improvement.

Interesting I heard that the collections with tins etc are better for raising awareness of orgs than money.

Calistemon

This is ridiculous- what happens to all the money paid in from various cash-raising events eg the recent Poppy Appeal?

It will go somewhere else to be counted . In the far distant past I used to empty the envelopes for charity donations and count them as part of my bank daily work . That no longer happens .

I think moving to a cashless society and things like charges for charity bank accounts are dreadful, but I’m utterly gobsmacked at all these stories about shouting at bank staff! They can’t actually refuse to enforce the rules without losing their job, so please be courteous even if you don’t like what you’re being told.

Disgusting.

Hetty58

I can't see how people still manage without banking online. I've never had a problem with it for 30 odd years (there's no bank or post office around here) and I don't use cash at all, just pay with my card or phone. Maybe stop living in the past and get with the times?

I've banked online for 30+ years too, but there are some things an online service can't do, including providing coins in exchange for notes.

I went into my local branch of Santander recently, for the first time ever. I needed a form (from the German state pension authority) stamping to confirm that the bank details I'd given them for payment were indeed mine.

My bank doesn't stamp forms apparently.

When I asked what I should do to get the details confirmed, they suggested my GP could do it. How my GP would know whether the bank details were mine is anyone's guess.

I'm only 62 and am really struggling with the idea of not being able to deal in cash any more if I want to. I talked to the family about it a few weeks ago, and asked how young kids would learn about money, if they couldn't go to the shops with coins as they themselves had done, and was horrified to be told that even little kids will have cards to use!!!

As 'Mummer' said, I'm tempted to draw out all my money and keep it under the bed. Why should we have to explain where we got our money and how we're planning to spend it? It's an absolute disgrace, and as another poster said, none of it seems to make a blind difference to the criminals as they're always one step ahead anyway.

A few years ago , my
Local branch wouldn’t let me draw a largish amount out of my account because I only had one piece of photographic evidence to identify me. ( I had household bills, bank statements, etc). Then I noticed that although her badge said Manager, she didn’t match the manager’s picture on the display board. I demanded to know what she had done with Alison -the manager in the display pic. Could she produce sufficient photographic evidence to assure me that Alison was not tied up in the back room or that she, wearing the Manager badge, was actually a manager? “How would you like your cash ? “ was the answer.

coast35

Despite having my driving licence and passport my bank wanted to see the tradesmans invoice before i could take out my hard saved money to pay a garden landscaper. I was furious. How come a young whippersnapper in the bank gets to judge what I can and cannot take out of my own savings account.

You know what's going to happen dont you? Exasperated customers will withdraw ALL their cash and use from home,. Burglar's delight! It's a crime spree just waiting in the wings....

They are going to get rid of cash and we'll all have to use digital money, which means, 'they' can push a button and your account(s) will be empty if they think you aren't being sensible with your money. I recently moved some money from the household to my spending account and a page came up asking what I was doing eg, moving it to another of my accounts, buying something, or (I can't remember the third I was so gobsmacked).

Marilla

I went into MY bank, the HSBC and withdrew money from the cash point. I needed to exchange the notes for one and two pound coins. I walked towards the teller point and could hear shouting. It was an assistant trying to get my attention.
I said that I needed to exchange the note for coins.
I was promptly told, “the bank do not handle cash.”
“But you are a bank! My bank”
“But we do not handle money” said the assistant while looking at me as though I was the mad one!
“I need coins! You are a bank!”
“You can try the Post Office! she replied.
I had to keep my dignity in tact and not allow the temper rising in me to surface and leave the premises furious and bewildered.

AAAAARGH! Don't talk to me about HSBC!!! Just spent all the last 2 days trying to deposit some collected charity cash into the account via post office as branch gone! They refused and walked off! When I rang the bank she said I could make more journeys on a bus to full HSBC branch ten miles away more often? I asked her to calculay how many journeys it would take to deposit £8k cash?!?!? She put phone down!! What IS the matter with these people????

But we don't have a post office!

I have tried unsuccessfully to get change at the Post Office. At MY bank I was firmly told they could only give change to Business account holders and not to personal account holders. …….