BEWARE! THE BANKS ARE OUT TO GET YOU!

[Pluggy]

I need an affordable way of a few customers a month to pay me for my services. Cheques over the counter at HSBC worked. Accepting card payments is a non starter for the same reason that most small businesses don't take them. Cash is fine except I need to get some of it into my account to pay the bills which are almost all automated/on-line. Driving to the nearest branch with fuel at the better part of £1.50 a litre doesn't appeal. I don't need the grief of changing banks at my time of life. Routing cheques through my personal account by post is looking favourite, but it kind of defeats the point of having a business account in the first place.......

[Stanley]

Exactly Pluggy. I got fired up yesterday and write an article for bet ABOUT THE CLOSURE AND ASKED THEM TO PRINT IT THIS WEEK ON THE GROUNDS OF TOPICALITY. (bugger caps lock!)

[Tizer]

Stanley's comments in this post elsewhere [LINK] deserve to be linked from here.

Big Society! Perhaps Barlick should set up its own currency. The Barlick equivalent of the Totnes pound [LINK]

[Pluggy]

The wife is wondering what she's going to do, she's secretary of the Majestic church and she puts the collections and offerings in over the counter every week at HSBC. Another item for the next trustees meeting (my side of the court again since I'm the chairman).

The big sign in the window says its closing after business Friday 6th July.

Since I don't strictly need a business account as a sole trader, I'll probably close my account and use my personal Nationwide account. There's a handy (if slow) way of getting cheques in there.

Better the devil you know........

[Big Kev]

I don't need the grief of changing banks at my time of life. Routing cheques through my personal account by post is looking favourite, but it kind of defeats the point of having a business account in the first place.......

I was of the impression that banks now provide a free? service to change. If they want your business I'm sure they would make it as grief free as possible. There are 3 other banks to choose from.

[Pluggy]

Within certain limitations HSBC's low end business account is free to use, outside of introductory offers most others charge for business accounts. Including Barclay's, Lloyds TSB and that Australian bank next door to the Railway Hotel (or what's left of it). The CO-OP bank do a free business account (with even more limitations) but the queues in the post office to pay in can be horrendous.

Favourite is looking like abandoning having a business account and using my personal account which I'm at liberty to do as a sole trader. My bookkeeping is up to scratch, it won't be too much of an issue.

[Stanley]

Kev, but no guarantee that the others are going to stay open.
I've worked out how to carry on without internet banking, another no-no as far as I am concerned. Easy for me because I have only one transaction a month that requires access to the staff but a lot harder for people like Pluggy and his wife. If I was having to get cash somewhere safe I'd be thinking about a building society savings account. One gets the impression that the banks are pushing us towards a cashless society because handling currency is a nuisance. Problem is that the real world still runs on folding money! The root cause is that as far as Main Street banking is concerned the banks have completely lost sight of the concept of service to customers, there minds are on higher things like big numbers and massive profits.

[Stanley]

Kev, you mentioned somewhere that the date was 6th not 12th of July. You're right, I checked and I had misread it.

[Pluggy]

Kev, you mentioned somewhere that the date was 6th not 12th of July. You're right, I checked and I had misread it.

Not Kev, me

The obvious building society is the Skipton, nice shiny branch on Church St, its practically worthless away from a passbook, I opened an on-line account with them, despite what it said on their website, I couldn't put cash or cheques in at the local branch. I was verbally hung drawn and quartered when I turned up at the counter wanting to put some money in.......

There's no on-line access to a passbook account. and there's no branch access to an on-line account. Until they drag themselves into the 21st century (or even late 20th century), its a non starter.

The Nationwide works exactly like a bank, but there isn't a real branch in Barlick.

[Tizer]

Langport, here in Somerset, had its own bank from 1770 run by the Stuckey family. They had their own banknotes, known inevitably as `Stuckies', and by 1909 they were second only to the Bank of England in the number of notes issued. The bank eventually ended up as part of Westminster Bank. Lundy Island once had its own currency, the basic unit of which was the `Puffin' coin.

[Whyperion]

Time for a credit union for Barnoldswick ? I dont think Earby has any banks , and Salterforth no post office. Pluggy you can get cheaper Card Taking /processing facilities from Federation of Small Businesses .

Do we all break into HSBC on July 5th and have a sit in in support of banking ( reversal of occupy London ? )

[Stanley]

Chris Aspin tells me that the NatWest branch in Helmshore closed a few months ago. Made my last visit to the branch yesterday as I have taken steps to ensure that I do not need the branch in future. End of an era for me.

[Tizer]

For all the many years when our business took credit card payments from customers worldwide we had a standard account with a bank for handling the transactions but on our web site we used a free shopping cart service from Mals E-Commerce to provide all the usual links and choices leading up to the purchase. It also can offer arrangements for credit card services but we never needed those. We used the cart service and picked up the credit card data through the secure link. As far as the shopping cart service is concerned I recommend it 100% - it is very simple and never let us down in all those years. It was a case of set it up and forget it, it worked perfectly. The service is here: http://www.mals-e.com/
Information on accepting credit cards is here: http://www.mals-e.com/acceptcards.php

[Whyperion]

Doesnt Nat West make a promise that they will stay open if they are the last branch in town ?

[Whyperion]

Should this be in the dialect thread ?
...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17535156

[Stanley]

I'm getting feedback already from people abroad to whom I send a preview of the BET articles. It would appear that closure of local banks and the attitudes of management towards customers is a universal problem. The article will be published tomorrow.....

[Stanley]

Forgive me for being cynical but do I really believe Bob Diamond of Barclay's is being ethical? Or is there a loophole in there somewhere that he can exploit. (LINK)

[Stanley]

Bumped

[Tizer]

Forgive me for being cynical but do I really believe Bob Diamond of Barclay's is being ethical? Or is there a loophole in there somewhere that he can exploit.

Yes, there is a benefit for him and his company. They were expecting the big shareholders to revolt at the annual meeting because the company is giving too much to its execs and not enough to shareholders. So Diamond's move came just before the meeting to try to scupper their protest.

Paul Lewis has reported how the banks are making life misery for people who have power of attorney by not accepting their authority, being inconsistent in applying their rules, and imply not understanding what it's all about. It beggars belief that such large companies can be so incompetent.

[Stanley]

I am convinced that one of the major problems we see today universally is incompetence. We see it every day in governance, services and understanding amongst the public of an increasingly Byzantine world structure of regulation.

[Stanley]

I was button-holed yesterday in the town by a local businessman who had read last Friday's BET article on the HSBC bank closure. He told me I was quite right about the problem of cashing the takings. He also told me that if he paid cheques in it was free but if he deposited large amounts of cash he was charged for the service. Can this possibly be true?

[Pluggy]

Its a feature of their 'free' business account Stanley, I have the same limitation. I can put 20 cheques a month in without paying for them, but cash is charged at 1%.

As business accounts go, its fairly reasonable. Most business accounts have a monthly fee and/or charges for everything. Personal accounts these days are usually only free if you're depositing your salary in every month.

[Whyperion]

HSBC ( and others no doubt ) also charge businesses to withdraw cash ( lower rate if a hole in the wall cash card is used ). Rates per £1 paid in/out are normally subject to negiotiation off the published tariff. Part of the coinage ( and bank note ) costs is the cost of sending the physical items around the country - G4S charges to banks vary on a per drop or per £ basis ( and then the bank staff have to re-count the money received to check the order fulfilled correctly ).

[catgate]

Here's one to make you chuckle...or not.

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=47619

[Stanley]

Today's AGM of Barclays Bank is being watched closely as a shareholder revolt is expected. They don't hold enough shares (estimated at about one third) to force an issue but in the present climate of unrest with the banks they could prove to be influential.