Bank - Nosey B'Stard?
Discussion
Had some time today so thought spare 15 minutes so I'd pop a few grand into my mothers bank account to help with her new car purchase as a surprise. When I say a few grand I'm talking low thousands, she won't be buying a 911 Turbo or anything of that ilk.
Anyway I popped into my local branch which my account was set up decades ago and in which my mother has the same account. I won't name the bank but let's just call it the Regal Bank of Alba for now. So I get to the front of the queue and tell the cashier I want to send some money to my mothers account, about to pop my card in the machine and enter the pin.
What comes next from the cashier is some abrupt and intense questions something resembling a prosecution barrister or the Spanish Inquisition. About why I'm transferring the money? who I'm transferring it too?, how I got the money I'm transferring? along with request for photographic ID. I must have answered these questions for at least 20 minutes. Now I think back I should have told her mind her own bloody business.
Then she printed off about 3 or 4 pages and asking me all these anti-fraud and money laundering questions regarding the transfer. Again she ask me for a third time about the money and who it was going to and why. It was almost as if she was trying to catch me out. Then she went to another office and someone else appeared who I assumed was the branch manager came out to authorise it. I've been banking with this branch for about 20 years, never had even so much as an overdraft and always been lucky to never be short of a few grand. I was on my way to an appointment later that afternoon so was smartly dressed. Which I was late because I was in the branch for about 40 minutes.
I've never been spoken to in such a way and I'm about a whisker away from making a complaint. In this age of fraudsters marching pensioners to the bank to rob them of their life savings. Is this how banks react to customers wanting to send what would be a few months wages to a family member.
It just seemed way over the top, is this something new or was I just unlucky to get some nosey b
h on a powertrip?
I was under the impression that any money in my personal bank account was mine to do as I pleased with.
Anyway I popped into my local branch which my account was set up decades ago and in which my mother has the same account. I won't name the bank but let's just call it the Regal Bank of Alba for now. So I get to the front of the queue and tell the cashier I want to send some money to my mothers account, about to pop my card in the machine and enter the pin.
What comes next from the cashier is some abrupt and intense questions something resembling a prosecution barrister or the Spanish Inquisition. About why I'm transferring the money? who I'm transferring it too?, how I got the money I'm transferring? along with request for photographic ID. I must have answered these questions for at least 20 minutes. Now I think back I should have told her mind her own bloody business.
Then she printed off about 3 or 4 pages and asking me all these anti-fraud and money laundering questions regarding the transfer. Again she ask me for a third time about the money and who it was going to and why. It was almost as if she was trying to catch me out. Then she went to another office and someone else appeared who I assumed was the branch manager came out to authorise it. I've been banking with this branch for about 20 years, never had even so much as an overdraft and always been lucky to never be short of a few grand. I was on my way to an appointment later that afternoon so was smartly dressed. Which I was late because I was in the branch for about 40 minutes.
I've never been spoken to in such a way and I'm about a whisker away from making a complaint. In this age of fraudsters marching pensioners to the bank to rob them of their life savings. Is this how banks react to customers wanting to send what would be a few months wages to a family member.
It just seemed way over the top, is this something new or was I just unlucky to get some nosey b
h on a powertrip? I was under the impression that any money in my personal bank account was mine to do as I pleased with.
Edited by EarlofDrift on Saturday 14th September 02:32
My dads just had the same issue yesterday. Over £500. His 35 year old cooker broke down last week so I showed him a selection online. Picked one out and then asked for his bank card so he could pay. Now my dads a complete technophobe. Never sent a text in his life. Doesn’t use a mobile or the internet.
Website requests a verified by visa page but the number set on it is to a old land line number. Oh fk.
So I pay using my card no worries. My dad goes to the bank to put a cheque in and ends up ringing me from the bank as there confusing the poor old boy asking him all sorts of anti fraud questions like he’s a criminal and he’s worried he’s going to get arrested.
What fking business is it of the bank if my dad wants to send £500 to his son. Or repay some money I lent him.
I wasn’t going to complain until I read the op post but thinking about it now (I was busy preparing to go flying when he rang from the bank and could have done without the distraction) I might just ring them up and ask them what all the fuss was about.
Of course I can’t ring the branch direct. I have to speak with a call centre in India who want to know the length of my dead dogs dick and and the 7th and 22nd letter of the 30 random words they insist I give them to get past security.
:sigh:
Website requests a verified by visa page but the number set on it is to a old land line number. Oh f
k. So I pay using my card no worries. My dad goes to the bank to put a cheque in and ends up ringing me from the bank as there confusing the poor old boy asking him all sorts of anti fraud questions like he’s a criminal and he’s worried he’s going to get arrested.
What f
king business is it of the bank if my dad wants to send £500 to his son. Or repay some money I lent him. I wasn’t going to complain until I read the op post but thinking about it now (I was busy preparing to go flying when he rang from the bank and could have done without the distraction) I might just ring them up and ask them what all the fuss was about.
Of course I can’t ring the branch direct. I have to speak with a call centre in India who want to know the length of my dead dogs dick and and the 7th and 22nd letter of the 30 random words they insist I give them to get past security.
:sigh:
I don’t think it’s the banks it’s the regulators. I’m with the Spanish formula 1 bank. A few years ago I tried to withdraw £600 from the main branch in the financial district of leeds.
It was as if I had asked them if bin laden could hide in their back office for a few months. They eventually agreed to the withdrawal but suggested I use the cash machine over a number of days rather than getting the cash all at once. I certainly found it an odd lecture to get from a bank about withdrawing money.
I recently went into a different tbank with my wife and they had someone on the door notifying everyone this is a cash free bank, and no cash withdrawals or deposits are possible.
Just hope your bank card doesn’t stop working or you’re plumbed.
It was as if I had asked them if bin laden could hide in their back office for a few months. They eventually agreed to the withdrawal but suggested I use the cash machine over a number of days rather than getting the cash all at once. I certainly found it an odd lecture to get from a bank about withdrawing money.
I recently went into a different tbank with my wife and they had someone on the door notifying everyone this is a cash free bank, and no cash withdrawals or deposits are possible.
Just hope your bank card doesn’t stop working or you’re plumbed.
Standard operating procedure for dealing with money laundering regulations. You shouldn't take it personally. It can seem pointed but they're obliged by law to satisfy themselves that the source and purpose of the money is legitimate.
Granted it seems a bit weird to essentially be asked "are you a criminal?" but that's the system for you.
You might have banked with them for 20 odd years but chances are the cashier doesn't know you personally, doesn't know that you haven't now turned to a life of crime, etc. They would be in serious st if it turned out they could've identified the cash as suspect and didn't ask the requisite questions.
Granted it seems a bit weird to essentially be asked "are you a criminal?" but that's the system for you.
You might have banked with them for 20 odd years but chances are the cashier doesn't know you personally, doesn't know that you haven't now turned to a life of crime, etc. They would be in serious s
t if it turned out they could've identified the cash as suspect and didn't ask the requisite questions.Edited by Durzel on Saturday 14th September 05:51
EarlofDrift said:
What comes next from the cashier is some abrupt and intense questions....................
I've never been spoken to in such a way
Can you give us an idea how they spoke to you? How did the abruptness manifest itself?I've never been spoken to in such a way
Has no one ever been verbally unpleasant to you? Then you must have had a very sheltered life.
Next week OP’s mum goes in, transfers 100k to a Nigerian scammer, gets asked no questions (because they’re intrusive according the the OP) and loses her life savings.
Is that better?
More and more people get scammed every year by bank transfer fraud so banks are clamping down on it, along with trying to stop money laundering, just answer the questions.
Or, sign up to internet banking, do the transfer on an app on your phone. It would have taken you roughly 36 seconds.
Is that better?
More and more people get scammed every year by bank transfer fraud so banks are clamping down on it, along with trying to stop money laundering, just answer the questions.
Or, sign up to internet banking, do the transfer on an app on your phone. It would have taken you roughly 36 seconds.
Had the same questions the other day. Took no more than 5 minutes, and that was for alot more money. I thought it was rather good, better than when I was 18, "lost my pin" ahh that's fine, here's £60 for your night out. No pin, no ID just my card.
The good old days where youd get a night out on £60, including taxis home and change.
The good old days where youd get a night out on £60, including taxis home and change.
Friends of ours are building an extension. They are both self employed and declare very little so cant get a decent mortgage to buy a new house. They pay everyone cash, they have saved so much money doing it that way, but as they are not paying it into the bank no one bats an eyelid. They are up to 25k now spent over a 2 year period. He reckons 5k of that was done via bank transfer.
Seems staying out of banks is both cheaper and less intrusive!!
Seems staying out of banks is both cheaper and less intrusive!!
Seems like the regulators and banks are attacking the problem of money laundering and fraud from the wrong direction. Just because someone has cash in hand doesn’t make them a crim. Does anyone know what happens to all the paper compliance forms that are filled in? Is the there an office with the job of cross checking these, and search for people making multiple deposits, or are the forms all tipped in a box in the back of the branch before being sent for recycling when they take up too much space?
I wanted to pay some cash and a cheque (from my grandma to her) into my daughters account last year, it was less than £100 in total, I needed a signed (by my daughter) paying in slip as opposed to asking them to look at my account to see my daughters account details and paying it into there; same bank as me too!
Fortunately the cashier had a bit of common sense and could see that it was unlikely that both myself and my daughter were planning on funding terrorism with a £25 cheque from an old lady and about £50 in cash so let it slide but she did say, in future either my daughter pays it in or I need to come armed with a signed paying in slip!
Fortunately the cashier had a bit of common sense and could see that it was unlikely that both myself and my daughter were planning on funding terrorism with a £25 cheque from an old lady and about £50 in cash so let it slide but she did say, in future either my daughter pays it in or I need to come armed with a signed paying in slip!
EarlofDrift said:
Had some time today so thought spare 15 minutes so I'd pop a few grand into my mothers bank account to help with her new car purchase as a surprise. When I say a few grand I'm talking low thousands, she won't be buying a 911 Turbo or anything of that ilk.
Anyway I popped into my local branch which my account was set up decades ago and in which my mother has the same account. I won't name the bank but let's just call it the Regal Bank of Alba for now. So I get to the front of the queue and tell the cashier I want to send some money to my mothers account, about to pop my card in the machine and enter the pin.
What comes next from the cashier is some abrupt and intense questions something resembling a prosecution barrister or the Spanish Inquisition. About why I'm transferring the money? who I'm transferring it too?, how I got the money I'm transferring? along with request for photographic ID. I must have answered these questions for at least 20 minutes. Now I think back I should have told her mind her own bloody business.
Then she printed off about 3 or 4 pages and asking me all these anti-fraud and money laundering questions regarding the transfer. Again she ask me for a third time about the money and who it was going to and why. It was almost as if she was trying to catch me out. Then she went to another office and someone else appeared who I assumed was the branch manager came out to authorise it. I've been banking with this branch for about 20 years, never had even so much as an overdraft and always been lucky to never be short of a few grand. I was on my way to an appointment later that afternoon so was smartly dressed. Which I was late because I was in the branch for about 40 minutes.
I've never been spoken to in such a way and I'm about a whisker away from making a complaint. In this age of fraudsters marching pensioners to the bank to rob them of their life savings. Is this how banks react to customers wanting to send what would be a few months wages to a family member.
It just seemed way over the top, is this something new or was I just unlucky to get some nosey bh on a powertrip?
I was under the impression that any money in my personal bank account was mine to do as I pleased with.
OP if you had used the banks App you would have been done in less than a minute.
Anyway I popped into my local branch which my account was set up decades ago and in which my mother has the same account. I won't name the bank but let's just call it the Regal Bank of Alba for now. So I get to the front of the queue and tell the cashier I want to send some money to my mothers account, about to pop my card in the machine and enter the pin.
What comes next from the cashier is some abrupt and intense questions something resembling a prosecution barrister or the Spanish Inquisition. About why I'm transferring the money? who I'm transferring it too?, how I got the money I'm transferring? along with request for photographic ID. I must have answered these questions for at least 20 minutes. Now I think back I should have told her mind her own bloody business.
Then she printed off about 3 or 4 pages and asking me all these anti-fraud and money laundering questions regarding the transfer. Again she ask me for a third time about the money and who it was going to and why. It was almost as if she was trying to catch me out. Then she went to another office and someone else appeared who I assumed was the branch manager came out to authorise it. I've been banking with this branch for about 20 years, never had even so much as an overdraft and always been lucky to never be short of a few grand. I was on my way to an appointment later that afternoon so was smartly dressed. Which I was late because I was in the branch for about 40 minutes.
I've never been spoken to in such a way and I'm about a whisker away from making a complaint. In this age of fraudsters marching pensioners to the bank to rob them of their life savings. Is this how banks react to customers wanting to send what would be a few months wages to a family member.
It just seemed way over the top, is this something new or was I just unlucky to get some nosey b
h on a powertrip? I was under the impression that any money in my personal bank account was mine to do as I pleased with.
OP if you had used the banks App you would have been done in less than a minute.
Edited by EarlofDrift on Saturday 14th September 02:32
Butter Face said:
Next week OP’s mum goes in, transfers 100k to a Nigerian scammer, gets asked no questions (because they’re intrusive according the the OP) and loses her life savings.
Is that better?
More and more people get scammed every year by bank transfer fraud so banks are clamping down on it, along with trying to stop money laundering, just answer the questions.
Or, sign up to internet banking, do the transfer on an app on your phone. It would have taken you roughly 36 seconds.
That's the challenge the banks face.Is that better?
More and more people get scammed every year by bank transfer fraud so banks are clamping down on it, along with trying to stop money laundering, just answer the questions.
Or, sign up to internet banking, do the transfer on an app on your phone. It would have taken you roughly 36 seconds.
With all respect to the OP he'd probably be on here complaining if his mum had walked in and transferred and been scammed out of a few grand no questions asked because she was "smartly dressed".
They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
I don't think I've been into my bank in literally 10 years for anything other than to use the cash machines.
Even my mum does online banking and she's a complete technophobe.
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