Wednesday, 7 July 2010

Crap Britain - Cheque Woes

I wanted to pay off a credit card today using money in a current account of another bank. I brought what I thought was my cheque book but it turns out it only had paying in slips left in it. Bit of a pain but I went to Santander and asked if I could pay off the balance using my debit card, "No", I then said I didn't have my cheque book, could I write one on a piece of paper instead? "No", he didn't understand and then said "No chance" he had never even heard of this happening (although a quick scan of the internet shows that other people do!). He suggested getting a cheque from HSBC. I went to HSBC, "can you give me a cashier cheque?", "No but we can give you a bankers draft which is like a cheque and which costs £20", "£20 for a cheque? No thanks", "You could always pay online", "I could always walk in front of a train, not really helpful though, I want to pay it today so I can close it today while I'm in town", "Sorry".
What a load of toss. You can have £1500 in a current account and all the ID and info you could possibly needs and again the computer says "No". Everything takes time or hassle or for things that actually work like a bank wire, you have to pay some ridiculous fee. I fear that unlike some other countries, we still haven't understood that if a computer doesn't make something easier, you should go back to pen and paper!

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