Which banks have all their call centres in the UK?

First Direct

Natwest i am pretty certain have a couple of big ones in the UK

Bitstring , from the wonderful person Snuggles said

True, but as soon as you need something like a bank draft in $$ you are down to using HSBC (FD having no branches) and talking to ... yep .. India).

Wrong question. Ask rather: Are there any banks which have no call centres at all, where you can phone your local branch, just like in the good old days? Or where you can pop in for a chat and a nice cup of tea and a chocolate hobno****BRRR*BRRR*BRRR*BRRR****SLAM! Gosh, I think I've just had a daymare, or whatever you call a *nice* dream.

Yes. RBS group (including NatWest) let you talk to somebody in your own branch. Moreover with the interest they pay on an an average current account balance of 1000, each month the interest accrued would allow you to buy a very small cup of tea or a very small chocolate hobnob.

I'm about to desert NatWest and move over to Nationwide, where I can (soon) get a credit interest rate of over 4% - rather than the 0.1% NatWest offer. After all there is another way. And I'm not aware that Nationwide use call centres in India either.

Brian

Donno.

I /will/ tell my (gran)children about the time I once found myself in a UK city, after losing my wallet (ATM cards & one of those old-fangled chq guarentee cards)[0], and holding *no* ID, but only a cheque book.

I got cash from the Head Office of the bank by walking in, saying "I'm Alan, I've got an account at $FOO branch - give them a call - ask for Mary $BAR, the redhead - she was in my class at school and can describe me - I'd like to cash this cheque for 20 quid".

In terms of local banking[1], I recall the student friend who had no hassle about overdrafts or loans - I always wonderd if the fact that her father used to pay in his CAP farm subsidies at the same branch had anything to do with it...

Nowadays, I'm older (& a bit richer), so fully realise that I'm doing my bank a favour by dealing with them.

rgds, Alan [0] >20 years ago, never again, hence wife+I swap one card when travelling. [1] I maintained my main current a/c (& got a mortgage), from a branch

Nationwide publish the telephone numbers of their branches. When I phone Nationwide it's usually the actual branch in Clacton-on-Sea where we opened our account. There are obviously also national numbers.

Eh? Why do I want to talk to some shop assistant who might be a step above the Asda ones next door, but still.

Of course you might get lucky and find someone who's been in the branch 40 years, but for how much longer until they retire?

I came back here to Exmouth recently and found the HSBC had moved, and it now had a little coffee machine out front with buscuits.

Jim.

If you're trying to imply that call centre staff are all highly trained highly experienced senior staff who are in every imaginable way superior to anyone you might expect to find in your local branch, I think they've hypnotised you.

At least with a local trainee, you know who it is and can complain about him/her to the local manager, though that's unlikely to be necessary. If trainee can't help, just ask to speak to someone who can.

The trouble with call centres is that, if you need to phone again to follow up on an existing matter, you're unlikely to speak to the same person twice, and have to explain everything again. With a local branch, you can speak to the person you know has been dealing with your problem before, and who is "on the case".

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

No, you just have to wait a few seconds for them to read the previous call centre operator's notes off their screen...

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

... as long as they are not "in a meeting" or "at lunch" or "on break" or "off sick" or "on holiday" or "no longer work here" ...

And then another few minutes to inwardly digest them, especially if they don't seem to make sense.

I'll take my chances. I can always give my (t)rusty zimmer-frame an outing and pop round there in person.

No, I'm suggesting they're just as incompetent but you can talk to them from the comfort of your own home.

You're talking as if the local manager actually knows something, most of those retired years ago.

You mean they're not able to deal with the issue in a single instance? That shows the poor training surely?

Jim.

I don't see the relevance of home comfort. In what way does phoning the call centre from home differ from phoning the branch from home?

Oh, perhaps you mean that the branch will be staffed only during working hours, and the call centre more of the time, and so you'd have to phone from the discomfort of your place of employment? I don't see that making a lot of difference.

And I certainly don't see how I was expected to read that into your "but still". Perhaps you accidentally for

Be that as it may, he is nevertheless responsible to you so the initial buck stops with him. Also, despite standards having dropped, I'd still expect him, even today, to know a bit more than your average call centre operative.

Not necessarily. It might be a matter which is inherently incapable of being resolved in a single interaction, e.g. if it depends on action by a third party, and if you don't want them to phone you back because you don't want to hang around waiting for them to. "Don't call me, I'll call you".

Er, you previously said you were popping into your local branch for coffee...

Why do you expect the "manager" of a local branch containing maybe 3 staff to be better equipped to deal with your call than the managers of a call center containing lots, and responsible end experienced of a wide range of situations?

More senior people exist in call centres every bit as much as in branches.

Jim.

Not for coffee but for a chat. The coffee is just thrown in.

Unless it's a particularly rare matter of some complexity, he will, and is more likely to be accessible. If he can't, he can refer the matter up the chain of command to a reional specialist.

Indubitably, but they're too remote. You can't go in and wave your arms at them so that they understand you better.

Call Centres are used to dealing with telephone calls constantly and have more experience of communication over the phone (supposedly) unless you're unlucky enough to be patched through to one in Bombay and you can't understand the accent.

Local branches are better for dealing with people in person or over the counter not over the phone.

You are not likely to be able to speak with a branch manager whenever you need to over the phone, more likely one of the assistants in the branch, and it would be far better to speak with someone in a call centre over the phone IMHO who is trained to deal with telephone calls, not mainly dealing with people in person within the branch.

If the people in the call centre can't deal with your call which is unlikely they would still be able to put you through to someone who can as quickly as possible or to get an answer for you from someone else very quickly.

John

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

That only works with deaf people...

Interesting you say that - when I called FD asking about a foreign draft, I spoke to someone in a UK call centre.

FD's call centres are in Leeds and Hamilton.

Bitstring , from the wonderful person Paul said

So did I, the first time; then they referred me to HSBC for further details.