Bank Opening Hours

jaceq wrote: »

There is a difference between regular long queues and an occasional queue.
And here you have regular long queues... this isn't a good service.
There are few solutions for this:
1. Get more staff at peak times
2. Enable customers to do majority of their business online / over the phone.
3. Get ATMs that enable customers to lodge money into their accounts.
None of the above is present here.



You are right, If there would actually be a choice in banks here I would (4 banks offering same stuff, having same opening hours aren't a real choice) change my bank in a flash (that's why I moved to halifax from AIB in 2 weeks after they started their operations in Ireland).



I am an occasional customer during lunch time, sometimes I need to make some lodgment or change the address (as I moved recently)



Not true, I had current accounts in US and Poland and none of them had higher charges than Irish accounts.

I think you are just making excuses for this poor system...

All branches that have the budget, hire extra staff for peak periods. Some branches simply do not have the extra counter space to open up extra teller points. Like I've said, actually opening for lunch causes the delays. I do agree opening hours need to change, but it will not stop the q's.

Your attitude that because the q's exsits its bad service. I see the angle you looking at here, but every business in Ireland has its peak periods. They increase the staff for those periods, its not good business to have this increase for the whole day just to meet the possible q's. Every business suffers this, so you must be one unhappy person.

Online Banking, every Irish banks offer this. Some have better features than others. Apart from cash/fx and drafts(to which you could to a Electronic transfer) you can do 99% of your banking online. But like I said the features vary from bank to bank.

Telephone banking is more or less internet banking, except its on a phone. The services you can get over the phone with your branch varies from Bank to Bank.

ATM's, various banks in the larger towns have lodgement enabled ATM machines. If you actually think about it, the amount of ATM grabs has lead banks to re-think the ATM issue. So no bank is going to jump and get lodgement enabled ATM until a more secure ATM solution is found. I do agree with you that the ability to lodge at an ATM would be helpful.

Your attitude is simple. A long regular q ='s bad service. The fact that your an occasional customer at lunch doing 2 things,

1: Lodgement, use the fast lodgement feature.
2: Change of address, write a simple letter.

So those 2 things you do can be done without q'ing. So who's fault is that. Its yours for not taking advantage of the full services that are there for you, that some banks even charge you for in the monthly/quarterly fees.

As for Fee's, basic day to day charges are far higher in our closest neighbour England. As for non standard charges, an unpaid chq in England can cost 10-20 Stg, paying your bill in a bank your not a customer of can cost 5stg. In Ireland this charge is as low as 51c if not free.

So, I think your just making excuses for your poor lack of knowledge of the banking services avalible to you.

jiggawigga wrote: »

I wonder how many replies come from bank employees.

I'm a customer, fair point - you can do a lot of things online but not everything. I want to be able to wander into my bank at what I think is a reasonable time i.e. after 9am and before 6pm and do my business WHATEVER that may be. The current opening hours just aren't good enough. It's simply ridiculous that banks don't open regular hours.

Too many of you are prepared to settle or reply telling people to use the Internet. Meh.

As for the busy q's at lunch. Not an easy one to fix. Longer hours probably wouldn't remedy this, but they couldn't hurt.

Well its a banking forum. So your going to get alot of replies from them.

I agree that opening hours need to change. But you can not possible complain about q'in if your waiting too lodge money and there is a fast lodgement unit staring at you.... Even when you tell someone about them a week later there back in the q.... :rolleyes:

To be honest banks do not want customers to move over entirely to internet banking. They just want customers to be smart about how they bank.

Apply you attitude to other business....?

I feel apart from opening hours banks are doing there utmost to make there customers happy. Again, banking opening hours will change but it'll not get rid of the q's.

jiggawigga wrote: »

Hah. Yeah I'd imagine you get a lot of that. I personally have been told about a few services I can do via the phone or online and if it's convenient I would do this as opposed to going into the bank. But not being able to walk in at 9:30 is fail.

I understand you bankers do administration and 'stuff' before and after public opening, how busy is it at this time? Is there a lot of sitting around pretending to be working or are you flat out?

You would be surprised the amount of stuff people refuse to do to make their own banking experience better.

As for opening times in the morning. Some branches could easily open earlier than 10am, maybe 9.30am. It was covered in another treat last week but the Irish Regulator forces Banks to very often change policies and working practices. There are mass training sessions held with all staff, those behind the scenes to those on the counter to update them. Its not every day but then again somethings can be important enough to be held a short notice.

The 10.30 thing is a joke. I don't agree with it and its only a few banks that still carry this practice out. Of course they'll say they need it.

Of course the needs of the time vary from from bank to bank and from branch to branch.

As for the closing times.... that's a different story altogether.

In a supermarket, there are tight budgets for staffing, there are also targets for ques. If there is more than 1 person in front of you, a computer system picks this up and if the percentage of customers having to wait behind 2 people is over a number such as 8% then the check out manager won't be staying in their job.

Sure there are variables that cannot be controlled such as, big trolley, customer complaint, purse full of 1c coins! But at the end of the day the technology exists to manage ques if they really wanted to.

I haven't been into the branch in about 3 years, Internet banking directed me to the branch to do something but I can't risk it as I'm pregnant and couldn't guarentee I wouldn't faint in the ques!

I thought this tread had ended.

I agree bank opening hours need to change but its not going to happen as quickly as people like. There is 100% a antibank attitude in this country at the moment and be always aimed at the wrong front line staff, I've been hit with, we bailed you out so you should open longer and on a saturday! People can make there banking experience better by doing very simple things. There are a good few recent treads on this exact matter. Fast lodgements, internet and the dreaded not going in a lunch time! As I said its actually staying open for lunch that causes the bloody q's in the 1st place.

Its not as simple as just choosing to open later. Unions are the main oppisition against this. I'm pretty sure all the bank top dogs want to open later and on saturdays, but as pointed out staffing is the problem. Staff in banks have signed contracts that state there working hours. This can not be simply changed. Hiring extra staff on lesser contracts will solve this but first they need to off load all the staff whom want. The 2 main banks have not even started the process to recovery so they ain't going to be changing the way they do business anytime soon.

As for Agent99, one must question your need to have the book stamped? To me, you sound like your being akward for the sake of it.

gogo wrote: »

Are you really comparing a supermarket to a bank?
Banks have this technology already, q's are monitored,and have been for years, im not going to go over the whole thread again just +1 on Unclebills point.

Right so ..... 'we know there are ques but we won't do anything about it'....5 years ago most other business' had fixed working contracts also.

As I said I try keep my visits to banks down to once per 3 year period...Thank God!