Telephone Banking

Banking by phone is convenient, but you won’t get the same service you’d expect in a branch.

According to First Direct customers, telephone banking is exhilarating… but then NatWest abandoned its call centres because customers were leaving in droves. Clearly telephone banking is a double-edged sword, and only some banks get it right. Rule 1 must be: I want to talk to a real person, quickly, who has my account information to hand!

Telephone banking is an interesting halfway house between branch and internet banking- in the case of First Direct it’s a complete business. What you can do over the phone is limited compared to online, but depends entirely on the bank’s setup. All banks will let you make balance and statement enquiries by phone; most will examine statements, list standing orders, tell you if a cheque has been cashed etc. Sometimes this is done through a call centre where you will speak to a real person; sometimes it is done using your phone buttons, the miserable godforsaken process of “Press 1 for balances, 2 for….”

So if you know you won’t be popping into branches (you’re lazy like me, parking costs too much, you’re housebound, or simply live in a rural area) then before opening a bank account, ask what their telephone banking facilities are. And most importantly ask to have a number for your branch as well as a general enquiry line. Call centres are invariably abroad these days, so don’t expect an investment decision over the phone unless you can chat to your own bank manager.

There is one other use for telephone banking, and that is for offshore purposes. Lloyds TSB Offshore, for example, operates a telephone banking service for its offshore customers, which makes perfect sense for managing finances on a global scale.