What is hacking you off today?

[Holy Joe]

Banks charge about 1.4% on each and every card transaction and that is where they make Billions.
And that is why the rich share holding knobs in power want a cash less society, it is a stealth tax lining the wealthier wallets.
Use cash.

I think it's visa and MasterCard that skim off most of that charge not banks

 

[Billy Bests boot laces]

People who shop and do everything online. moaning about their high street turning to cak..
People who moan (for example) that its X pence for a fuse in the local shop, when you can order 20 for the same price from amazon , then moan that their local hardware shop is now a (drug front )fast food, phone accessory , empty dump with people smoking weed outside it..
we all get the high streets we deserve.

Appreciate Brighton is bigger than Southend, but the amount & variety of shops & stores there is so much superior with very few empty ones as well, unlike poor Southend.
Even Eastbourne has a lovely indoor shopping centre, compared to the mainly empty Royals & Vic Circus precinct.
Walked down Southend High St yesterday, so depressing unless you want a phone accessory shop or something to eat, when your spoilt for choice!.
There's a cake/coffee shop on the corner of The Royals, they all look lovely on display in the window, but at £4.95 to take out or £5.95 to eat in, FFS really??.
Rather wait till i get home & have a toasted crumpet!.

 

[Billy Bests boot laces]

Always makes me laugh a member of staff showing how to use machines knowing full well they'll be doing it again next time!

I use Barclays in Southend to pay bills, as i don't do online banking or set up D.D's with Utility Co's, which suits me fine.
Guarantee 4 times out of every 5, i place the bill on top & my cheque underneath as instructed, & enter them. & the machine rejects them!. The staff member has a go & same thing happens, & they say the machines are 'temperamental' & that i have to join the queue where there is 1 cashier working. 20 mins later i'm served as there's always someone 1 or 2 ahead in the queue who seems to have a problem!!.
IF the machines are temperamental then they shouldn't be operational until working properly, unless it's a deliberate ploy to get customers onto Online Banking?.

 

[Special Blue]

I use Barclays in Southend to pay bills, as i don't do online banking or set up D.D's with Utility Co's, which suits me fine.
Guarantee 4 times out of every 5, i place the bill on top & my cheque underneath as instructed, & enter them. & the machine rejects them!. The staff member has a go & same thing happens, & they say the machines are 'temperamental' & that i have to join the queue where there is 1 cashier working. 20 mins later i'm served as there's always someone 1 or 2 ahead in the queue who seems to have a problem!!.
IF the machines are temperamental then they shouldn't be operational until working properly, unless it's a deliberate ploy to get customers onto Online Banking?.

I remember 20 odd years ago Barclays at Hamlet Court Road promoting online banking and I used to say are you not putting yourself out if a job promoting it?
Why you had to queue is madness! Why not just deal with it at the counter? Just to say the machine is temperamental and join the queue is not great customer service wow!

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

I use Barclays in Southend to pay bills, as i don't do online banking or set up D.D's with Utility Co's, which suits me fine.
Guarantee 4 times out of every 5, i place the bill on top & my cheque underneath as instructed, & enter them. & the machine rejects them!. The staff member has a go & same thing happens, & they say the machines are 'temperamental' & that i have to join the queue where there is 1 cashier working. 20 mins later i'm served as there's always someone 1 or 2 ahead in the queue who seems to have a problem!!.
IF the machines are temperamental then they shouldn't be operational until working properly, unless it's a deliberate ploy to get customers onto Online Banking?.

It's the same at HSBC Southend. I sometimes have to put money in to top up to be able to pay a direct debit, etc. I always see people waiting at the cheque machine for help because it has rejected. Then when I put my notes in the cash one, it rejects half of them. The machines are over sensitive, and any note with the slightest crease is rejected. A lot of notes in your pocket will have a fold on halfway if you look. The machines don't like that fold. It used to be so easy with a cashier, and quicker. But now there is no cashier, just these annoying, time wasting machines, and customers throwing their hands up in the air, also throwing the odd wobbly.

 

[blues exile]

This is all part of the move to a cashless society with all the sinister implications that follow. All over Europe, banks have been closing small local branches systematically and now are even closing ATMs. In the small provincial town where I live 5 years ago there were at least five banks offering a full service, with a manager and members of staff in designated positions. Now there are just cash machines which are only serviced as and when they break down or run out of money, which is often, and some of these are scheduled for closure soon. Following which everything the consumer does will be recorded and tracked and the information available to all kinds of agencies, commercial interests or government snooping. All this would have sounded like conspiracy theory fantasy a few years ago but it is now the reality.

 

[londonblue]

This is all part of the move to a cashless society with all the sinister implications that follow. All over Europe, banks have been closing small local branches systematically and now are even closing ATMs. In the small provincial town where I live 5 years ago there were at least five banks offering a full service, with a manager and members of staff in designated positions. Now there are just cash machines which are only serviced as and when they break down or run out of money, which is often, and some of these are scheduled for closure soon. Following which everything the consumer does will be recorded and tracked and the information available to all kinds of agencies, commercial interests or government snooping. All this would have sounded like conspiracy theory fantasy a few years ago but it is now the reality.

It still does. Is this the banks forcing us or just reacting to how we use banks these days? I can't remember the last time I needed a bank or even a cashpoint. I simply don't use them anymore so I'm not surprised that banks are shutting them to save money when they're not used enough.

I do, however, have sympathy with people that still want to use them (banks and machines), but don't really know the solution.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

It still does. Is this the banks forcing us or just reacting to how we use banks these days? I can't remember the last time I needed a bank or even a cashpoint. I simply don't use them anymore so I'm not surprised that banks are shutting them to save money when they're not used enough.

I do, however, have sympathy with people that still want to use them (banks and machines), but don't really know the solution.

With sorting thru my late mother's accounts, as executor of her will, it would have been much much harder if bank branches locally had been closed, and without the face to face contact, useful advice and, generally good service.

That was pre covid, and I would guess a lot of the branch footfall has never recovered from the pandemic and changes in the way folks manage.

 

[ESG]

You don't get a spare wheel even a small temp one with newer cars. So as Mrs just found out at the mercy of the AA and the mobile tyre services......ching ching

 

[blues exile]

It still does. Is this the banks forcing us or just reacting to how we use banks these days? I can't remember the last time I needed a bank or even a cashpoint. I simply don't use them anymore so I'm not surprised that banks are shutting them to save money when they're not used enough.

I do, however, have sympathy with people that still want to use them (banks and machines), but don't really know the solution.

Banks are making vast profits and paying ridiculous bonuses to executives (not ordinary staff members). Whole communities are being effectively debanked because of closures. A cashless society is an essential part of a surveillance society. UK Government just given itself powers to view bank accounts when it chooses as mentioned in today's Guardian. Those who take the line 'I have nothing to fear because I am squeaky clean ' should remember the words of Martin Niemoller: 'first they came for ... etc'

 

[Napster]

Banks are making vast profits and paying ridiculous bonuses to executives (not ordinary staff members). Whole communities are being effectively debanked because of closures. A cashless society is an essential part of a surveillance society. UK Government just given itself powers to view bank accounts when it chooses as mentioned in today's Guardian. Those who take the line 'I have nothing to fear because I am squeaky clean ' should remember the words of Martin Niemoller: 'first they came for ... etc'

Much worse in Eastern Europe I hear

 

[blues exile]

Much worse in Eastern Europe I hear

Yes, certainly in the Baltic states at the moment but Uk is not far behind and will no doubt soon be world beating.

 

[londonblue]

Banks are making vast profits and paying ridiculous bonuses to executives (not ordinary staff members). Whole communities are being effectively debanked because of closures. A cashless society is an essential part of a surveillance society. UK Government just given itself powers to view bank accounts when it chooses as mentioned in today's Guardian. Those who take the line 'I have nothing to fear because I am squeaky clean ' should remember the words of Martin Niemoller: 'first they came for ... etc'

I'm not denying any of that. I'm saying it's a consequence of they way we bank and not something that is being forced on us by the banks. We're forcing the banks to close by not using them.

 

[THE SEVENTIES NORTH BANK]

I think people could start hiding more cash at home in the future, if this bill goes through, that the Government and DWP could look at and monitor bank accounts for anyone receiving any benefits, and now they have just added anyone on a state pension. Apparently for fraud purposes. But the money they will rake back from the poorest in society is a p in the Ocean compared to what the rich get away with. I bet they don't pass a bill to look into their bank accounts. So of course, the banks will lose trust with the ordinary person, and even more will close.

 

[cerbera45]

I'm on a tiny island (39 square miles) - population 4,400 and I bump into 2 Jehovah's bloody Witnesses!!

 

[Supershrimper]

Son and Daughters school is closed as no water. Just about to head for a shower and we have no water too. Must be a big issue in Corringham / Stanford-le-Hope.

Also can't report it on the Essex and Suffolk website

 

[graingerroad54]

Son and Daughters school is closed as no water. Just about to head for a shower and we have no water too. Must be a big issue in Corringham / Stanford-le-Hope.

Also can't report it on the Essex and Suffolk website

Its back on!

 

[Supershrimper]

Its back on!

And off again :(

Annoying as it will probably only be off for an hour or so, but the School closes all day. Wouldn't mind but they tell everyone to bring in a full bottle of water for the school day so they should be good for an at least the morning. I understand its for hygiene reasons (toilets etc) but surley make a decision after an hour, sending out a message to parents to say we currently have no water. If in an hour we still have no water we will be closing the school.

Nice day off for all those teachers that work so hard for 39 weeks and only have 13 weeks off a year.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

On recent few occasion I have visited a bank half the staff were teaching elderly people how to use a banking app/cash machine.

This is an issue at my local branch of the Caixa in Spain (not for me but every time I pop in to renew my bankbook,which I normally use in the automatic cashpoint outside as well as banking online every day. There was even a slogan here a year or so ago by an ex-university professor ."soy veijo pero no soy tonto "I'm old but not stupid".

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

And off again :(

Annoying as it will probably only be off for an hour or so, but the School closes all day. Wouldn't mind but they tell everyone to bring in a full bottle of water for the school day so they should be good for an at least the morning. I understand its for hygiene reasons (toilets etc) but surley make a decision after an hour, sending out a message to parents to say we currently have no water. If in an hour we still have no water we will be closing the school.

Nice day off for all those teachers that work so hard for 39 weeks and only have 13 weeks off a year.

They could always come to Spain where our older daughter (who is a teacher) is currently on holiday in France until the WE:Yesterday and tomorrow are public holidays in Spain whereas today is a "puente" or bridge and thus also an official holiday( for many).