Financial Transacations Rant

Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
463
Location
Cambridgeshire
In the last month or so I have wanted to make a couple of transactions that the banks etc do their utmost to prevent me doing.

I was travelling abroad and I wanted to get about £200 worth of Euros. I went to my local Post Office as they were doing a zero commission offer. So far so good. I get to the front of the queue and say "£200 of Euros please" and I am asked how I want to pay. I offer my debit card and I am then asked for my passport. I don't have it on me. I question why I should need this and I'm told it's a security thing and to prevent money laundering. I was told though that if I had the cash then I wouldn't need ID! So, if I use my card which has "chip and pin" and is suposedly secure and holds an electronic/traceable record of my dealings I get asked for ID but I walk in with a bag of cash there is basically no questions asked. I walked over the road to the cashpoint, took out £200 and job done.

Fast forward to to last Friday. I am in the very fortunate position of being able to make a final payment on my mortgage so I took a Friday afternoon off work and went to my Woolwich branch to find out what needed to be done. All I wanted to do was for them to send a final payment demand and to arrange for my direct debits to be stopped. "Oh, you will need to speak to our mortgage advisor to do that" I was told. "You will have to make an appointment". Hmmm... I walk out. They weren't prepared to do anything about it. I get home and phone the Woolwich mortgage people and after about 30 mins I managed to speak a lovely young lady who new what needed to be done and on Thursday morning my final statement arrived. So, yesterday afternoon I phone them again to confirm that I can go into my local branch and make the final payment from money in my savings account. Apparently, "Yes", I could do that. I went back to my branch this morning and told them what I wanted to do and was then asked "Do you have your passport?". Aarrrgh !!! I want to transfer money from one of my accounts to another so I could only possibly stealing my own money.

It was too late to go home and fetch my passport so it will have to wait another week. Very frustrating and it's put me in a very bad mood.

Rant over
 
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