Thursday, March 31, 2011
Friendly banks
Some branches of my bank - HSBC - have handy machines which will eat up the contents of your piggy bank and transfer the proceeds to your bank account without charge - unlike the similar machines operated by your Sainsbury's which charge 7% whether or not you are donating the money to charity.
The only catch is that not too many branches of HSBC have such things. So Epsom no, West Croydon yes. So, visiting Victoria tomorrow, I wondered whether the branch near the station has such a machine. So, off to their Internet site to make enquiries.
First failure is that I cannot find the branch in question using their branch finder, the best that I can do being the one in Vauxhall Bridge Road.
Second failure is that various attempts with their site search facility fail to find out anything at all about this sort of machine, let alone where I might find one. Not even something explaining that this service had been withdrawn. Not even something about the drill if I was a market stall holder and wanted to cash up.
Third failure is the telephone number supplied on the contact page. In order for their computer to talk to me about anything at all I have to key in all sorts of numbers including some security number, not something I carry about with me. Can't be bothered to climb the stairs to find one, so my piggy bank will have to remain at critical for a few days longer. Good job that coin, unless a good deal dirtier than mine, does not tend to heat itself up.
# posted by Jim @ 6:42 AM 
