Bank opening times

Richard tea

Its crazy that banks are not open mon-fri from 8am to 9pm and 9am to 4pm on a saturday:mad: Was going to use my local branch this morning before my partner informed me that they do not open on a wednesday:eek:

It should have been made a condition as part of this NAMA scandal:(

jameshayes

Richard tea wrote: »

Its crazy that banks are not open mon-fri from 8am to 9pm and 9am to 4pm on a saturday:mad: Was going to use my local branch this morning before my partner informed me that they do not open on a wednesday:eek:

It should have been made a condition as part of this NAMA scandal:(

So you want to hire more staff so the bank can be open more hours - which would cost more money - and in the same statement you're giving out because they cost us so much through the NAMA process? Hmmm.. interesting.

Richard tea

jameshayes wrote: »

So you want to hire more staff so the bank can be open more hours - which would cost more money - and in the same statement you're giving out because they cost us so much through the NAMA process? Hmmm.. interesting.

Im pretty sure the money needed to open more hours would be peanuts compared to Nama money.

The point im trying to make is about bank opening times. Its ridiculous that they are not open to accommodate the public at more convenient hours.

gaz wac

but thats why they have on-line banking?

Richard tea

gaz wac wrote: »

but thats why they have on-line banking?

Oh dear god, Can I convert currency with online banking

gaz wac

no! but in fairness are you saying you cant get to a bank between 10am - 5pm Mon - Fri !!!

talla10

i agree totally banks should be open outside normal business hours and from 9-4 on a saturday to convienence its customers and im pretty sure it would piss off a lot of bankers having to work longer hours and saturdays which is always a bonus :pac:

amcalester

talla10 wrote: »

i agree totally banks should be open outside normal business hours and from 9-4 on a saturday to convienence its customers and im pretty sure it would piss off a lot of bankers having to work longer hours and saturdays which is always a bonus :pac:

Do you actually think the people manning the cashier desks and answering the phones are the "bankers" that helped cause the mess we're in?

Even if the banks were open on a Saturday the top level staff wouldnt be working any longer hours.

Come to think of it neither would the lower level staff, they'd just have a different schedule. And unless more staff were hired it could lead to a reduction in services as existing staff levels were stretched to fit the new 6 day working week.

Richard tea

gaz wac wrote: »

no! but in fairness are you saying you cant get to a bank between 10am - 5pm Mon - Fri !!!

I work shift, so no, its not always handy to pop into a bank.
As far as I can tell the only people that would be against longer opening times are people that work in banks.

talla10

amcalester wrote: »

Do you actually think the people manning the cashier desks and answering the phones are the "bankers" that helped cause the mess we're in?

Even if the banks were open on a Saturday the top level staff wouldnt be working any longer hours.


no i dont think that was jokin hence the :pac:

BuffyBot

Im pretty sure the money needed to open more hours would be peanuts compared to Nama money.

Perhaps, but the simple fact is that the cost of doing so outweighs the benefits brought in. I know AIB trialled opening a few branches on Saturday mornings and until 7 on some evenings in the week a few years back. The branches were like ghost towns - but overheads still had to be paid.

To roll out such a thing across a branch network would end up costing more: and who pays that? The customer - that would be us. And then we'd be complaining about the increased fees, higher interest rates etc - so it's a bit of a no win situation, really.

namloc1980

BuffyBot wrote: »

Perhaps, but the simple fact is that the cost of doing so outweighs the benefits brought in. I know AIB trialled opening a few branches on Saturday mornings and until 7 on some evenings in the week a few years back. The branches were like ghost towns - but overheads still had to be paid.

I know someone who worked in one of those AIB branches that opened evenings and weekends a few years. He said the place was empty in the evenings and weekends.

Thoie

gaz wac wrote: »

no! but in fairness are you saying you cant get to a bank between 10am - 5pm Mon - Fri !!!

I can't do that without taking a half day. A lot of people work from 9-5:30 with nowhere handy to run to during lunch time.

namloc1980 wrote: »

I know someone who worked in one of those AIB branches that opened evenings and weekends a few years. He said the place was empty in the evenings and weekends.

I'm an AIB customer, and I have to say I never heard about this. They seem to manage to send me bits of paper at least once a week - maybe if they'd included a "BTW, X branch will be open on Saturday mornings" notice it might have helped. If they only put notices in those particular branches it wouldn't do much to tell the people who can't make it during normal banking hours.

Davy

namloc1980 wrote: »

I know someone who worked in one of those AIB branches that opened evenings and weekends a few years. He said the place was empty in the evenings and weekends.

Did people really know about the extended hours? And surely saturday opening would be more suited to more people, even till lunchtime saturday.

I used one of the aib branches with extended hours and remember something about no cash transactions. So if you wanted to get currency you couldn't. Only express lodgements and the likes with made the whole thing pointless imo

stepbar

I have had an account with AIB for c10 years now. I think I've been in my home branch about 5 times. With respect the vast majority of transactions can be done without even walking into a branch. Foreign exchange can be even got at the airport before you leave!!!!

I'm afraid the sort of transactions you'd get in to a branch on a Saturday would be cash lodgements / withdrawals and chq lodgements which actually cost the bank money.

I'm sure if customers are happy with an increase in bank fees they would consider it. And you might want to also consider the experience of Halifax as well.

emanresu

Richard tea wrote: »

Its crazy that banks are not open mon-fri from 8am to 9pm and 9am to 4pm on a saturday

I doubt that there is any country in the world where banks have opening hours like that, except maybe in airport branches.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

emanresu wrote: »

I doubt that there is any country in the world where banks have opening hours like that, except maybe in airport branches.

The US does.

But they pay a lot more than we do to the bank in transaction charges and stuff.

stepbar

And may I add if you're smart enough you shouldn't pay any fees at all. I'm afraid you can't have it both ways and Halifax have just gone and proved that.

EDIT: My 5,000th post!!! LOL

herya

emanresu wrote: »

I doubt that there is any country in the world where banks have opening hours like that, except maybe in airport branches.

In Poland all banks are open until 6-7pm, and until 1-2pm on Saturdays. I was kinda shocked to find out that banks are only open during business hours in Ireland. Often they even close at 4. So how is a working person supposed to visit them? And yes, if you have mortgage arrangements or need to lodge cash often it is a major pain.

One of the reasons I chose Halifax was their Saturday banking option and yes I used to avail of it frequently. Sigh...

It's similar with shops. My local shopping centre is losing tenants left and right and yet there is no way for me to shop there during the week. So I well, don't. I guess it's a bygone era arrangement when shopping was only done by stay at home mums and ladies who lunch.

stepbar

herya wrote: »

In Poland all banks are open until 6-7pm, and until 1-2pm on Saturdays.

I think you'll find the Polish pay for that prvilage. I've kindly attached the fee structure for a bank in Poland that is majority owned by AIB.

And just so you know -> 1 Polish zloty = 0.254569827 Euros and the average wage in Poland is a quarter of what it is here.

Now ask your self... would you be happy paying a tenner a month just to have a bank account (on a comparative basis)?

Would you fcuk....

almalahide

stepbar wrote: »

And may I add if you're smart enough you shouldn't pay any fees at all. I'm afraid you can't have it both ways and Halifax have just gone and proved that.

Exactly! At the very least the banks could do 9-5 like any other business????? Seriously.

stepbar

almalahide wrote: »

Exactly! At the very least the banks could do 9-5 like any other business????? Seriously.

And do you think bank staff are sitting on their arses between the hours of 9-10pm and 4-5pm ? Seriously.

almalahide

stepbar wrote: »

And do you think bank staff are sitting on their arses between the hours of 9-10pm and 4-5pm ? Seriously.

Well I couldnt tell you what the staff are doing but if the Halifax staff could fit in whatever goes on why could the others not do the same?!

stepbar

almalahide wrote: »

Well I couldnt tell you what the staff are doing but if the Halifax staff could fit in whatever goes on why could the others not do the same?!

Well why do you think Halifax are pulling out of Ireland?

Halifax staff could fit in any amount of work because they had lots of time to do same. Halifax branches were never busy places. There's 2 city centre branches in Dublin (St Stephen's Green and College Green), neither were ever very busy. On the otherside where I worked, we would regularly have at least 20 people queuing up waiting for the branch to be opened.

almalahide

stepbar wrote: »

Well why do you think Halifax are pulling out of Ireland?

Halifax staff could fit in any amount of work because they had lots of time to do same. Halifax branches were never busy places. There's 2 city centre branches in Dublin (St Stephen's Green and College Green), neither were ever very busy. On the otherside where I worked, we would regularly have at least 20 people queuing up waiting for the branch to be opened.

So If Halifax had been a big puller of people, do you really think they would have said well we have the same amount of customers as UBank so we better take an hour off the mornings and evenings, half morning on wednesday to fit in admin and staff training? I dont think so somehow. I dont see what the big deal is about matching Halifaxs hours. As a customer leaving them and moving to AIB/BOI/UB its like stepping into the dark ages in so many ways..........

stepbar

almalahide wrote: »

So If Halifax had been a big puller of people, do you really think they would have said well we have the same amount of customers as UBank so we better take an hour off the mornings and evenings, half morning on wednesday to fit in admin and staff training? I dont think so somehow. I dont see what the big deal is about matching Halifaxs hours. As a customer leaving them and moving to AIB/BOI/UB its like stepping into the dark ages in so many ways..........

O holy god... you believe that rubbish? Halifax had more customers than Ulster Bank? LOL

I mean you've already admitted you haven't a clue what you're talking about so we'll just leave it at that.

almalahide wrote: »

Well I couldnt tell you what the staff are doing

almalahide

stepbar wrote: »

O holy god... you believe that rubbish? Halifax had more customers than Ulster Bank? LOL

I mean you've already admitted you haven't a clue what you're talking about so we'll just leave it at that.

The 4th word.......Of course, I know they didnt have a big customer base thats obvious.

stepbar

almalahide wrote: »

The 4th word.......Of course, I know they didnt have a big customer base thats obvious.

O but somehow if they did (Halifax had the same amount of customers as UB), they would be somehow different? UB can't even get the simplest things right, I'd dread to think how they would handle another 10% of market share. And before you say "PTSB"... not even in the same league as the top two banks in this country. BOI / AIB share c70-80% of the current account population in this country.

BuffyBot

Well I couldnt tell you what the staff are doing but if the Halifax staff could fit in whatever goes on why could the others not do the same?!

Halifax provided about only a part of the services the other big banks do.

herya

stepbar wrote: »

I think you'll find the Polish pay for that prvilage. I've kindly attached the fee structure for a bank in Poland that is majority owned by AIB.

And just so you know -> 1 Polish zloty = 0.254569827 Euros and the average wage in Poland is a quarter of what it is here.

Now ask your self... would you be happy paying a tenner a month just to have a bank account (on a comparative basis)?

Would you fcuk....

It's not true really, BZ WBK is one of more expensive banks to bank with. I'd never take my business there for this very reason.

Poland has a gazillion of banks compared to Ireland - 55 commercial banks and about 600 societies (in 2006, probably more now) - and they have very competitive fee structures especially since pure internet banking establishments were launched a couple of years ago, as most of them have free banking as standard. It's all about competition and making it easy for your customers to bank with you, a bank which closes on 4pm sharp with no Saturdays would not survive a week. Halifax tried to do it here with their innovative products and more lax opening hours but they never got the required scale.

unclebill98

stepbar wrote: »

O but somehow if they did (Halifax had the same amount of customers as UB), they would be somehow different? UB can't even get the simplest things right, I'd dread to think how they would handle another 10% of market share. And before you say "PTSB"... not even in the same league as the top two banks in this country. BOI / AIB share c70-80% of the current account population in this country.

Man your really starting to bust my balls

TBH I feel all banks have there off days. It would be fair to say the people experience bad service from all banks.

I do agree that its branch staff that are dreading the sat/late opening. People think its tuff ****e let the bankers do it. Its not those who made all the errors that are going to be sitting there serving people.

When it does go ahead it will be not a full service, only basic cash service. So not as useful as people might think. I worked for 5 years and never went into my bank at all. As pointed out there is 24/7 banking. Before I get the smart reply with some saying "you can't lodge cash into you laptop", this is true. If you need to go into the bank on a reg basis then your job needs to be flexible in that regard.

Sat/Late opening will be coming in for all banks. Consumers want it banks will give it. Also, its only going to be in large cities and towns.

narwog81

they have drive through ATMs (and in some cases cash desks) in the US, it could just work here?

unclebill98

There would not be enough demand.... They have drive tru Starbucks too :-(

keary79

im sorry people. im an employee with one of the banks.
many of us good be facing redunancies in next few months not just in my bank.
although late opening and saturday openings makes sense.. wont be happening anytime soon

phormium

Some years back I worked in a bank that opened Thursday evening until 7, waste of time! The only customers that came in were ones that could have come any time but seemed to like to wait until the last minute. We had one customer, a teacher, who left it until 5 to 7 every Thursday, wtf. Bank scrapped it after a short space of time, didnt work anywhere and before you say they should have opened Saturdays, they did that too for a while in specific areas. Turns out people dont want to bank on Saturday morning, offices were generally very quiet, would have been more demand for Saturday afternoon opening so maybe thats the next thing that should be tried. To be honest I never minded working the odd hours, it meant you could get time off other days, I find it hard to get to other businesses that are open normal 9 -5 hours when I work same hours.