Banks and the Internet, I need a rant!

Mum was able to use her photo bus pass for voting, but it's not acceptable for banking. My son's bank baulked at his second form of ID being and HMRC warrant card! I mean FFS, what more can they want?

At least the insurance is done now.

I agree that ID is a nightmare. I don't drive now so ID is what I use my licence for. I was wondering if your Mum has an ID card for voting and if that can be used. When my son reached 16 a photo ID was requested for registering on NHS services and one of the options was a driving licence even though he is too young to drive?

In respect of changing banks. I am probably a rarity but when I wanted to change I made a checklist and went to the local banks customer service desks and asked them the questions. This also helped to work out the helpful banks. I decided to bank with a large one who does not have shareholders. I have always found them very helpful.

I think stay as you are my best friend in fact my only friend has no internet at home no email nothing he loves it

S C R E A M  !!!!!!!!

Yes, TheCatWoman.......it drives me mental......whatever alleged benefits there are from "digitalization" and "interwebilisation" of my world, I DON'T CARE FOR THEM.  It is not my way.  It all gets in my way......and it has an unusually effective knack of making me ANGRY.  It is all so flipping "the computer says no"......but I never care what any of the friggin computers say.....!

Theres a long story about me and tech, which I won't bore everyone with again or I'll risk getting told off by members who get frustrated with my total lack of skill.

No I feel your pain on this.You either love online and tech which I do or you hate it like my Dad does.You must do as you feel comfortable.

All I could suggest is if you could find someone kind to teach you or some sort of course you may like some elements of technology.

I will give you something I have sorted embracing which is video conferencing.This has enabled me to have a weekly ion line meeting with other people in our community.it has saved my bacon the last few weeks.

i think you know me also the chap having issues with the Police and council.

They embrace tech by emailing me bad news constantly !

Thank you, I thiink I can get either full power of attorney or none. Mum dosen't do online, I do it for her, I manage her emai etc, neither of us do much online. I won't do online or mobile banking I'm not computer savy enough and Mum certainly isn't, given that I can crash a digital egg timer, the gods alone know what I could accidently do to the worlds banking system!

I had an interesting one a couple of years ago when paypal called and asked for my friend who also lives here, as he wasn't in they asked me to go through his stuff and find the codes etc they needed. I refused and called the guy a scammer, he kept insisting he was for real, so I asked him why if he was for real was he asking me to do all the things that banks tell you not to do? He really was real as my friend called back later. I did have a phone scammer a couple of years ago try and get me to let him into my mobile banking, I strung him along and played stupid, then told him forcefully that I knew he was a scammer and that I had no such account, he hung up.

I think the staff at many banks leave a lot to be desired, I had one staff member at my bank, try and tell me she couldn't print out a statement for me, even though I thought money was missing from my account, as I could do it all online. I told her I had not internet banking and had learning difficulties and ASD so she spoke loudly and clearly at me, I told her 'I have dyslexia and autism not stupidity or deafness', she did eventually do as I asked, but I went back a couple of days later and spoke to the manager and made a complaint. The woman yesterday seemed like she didn't see it as her job to sort anything out for anybody.

Nobody wants to be scammed, but anti scam measures dreamt up by someone in Whitehall don't aren't really thinking that "everybody" isn't like them, not everybody travels and needs a passport, not everyone can drive or is even allowed to drive. We need proof of address, but that can't be something printed off an online utility account, how do most people pay for their utilities, online.

Theres a real and increasing risk of large numbers of people being excluded through no fault of their own, because people in Whitehall and other places, don't think, or lack the imagination, or just don't care about those without driving licences or passports.

There are few things I hate more in this world. Digital Agenda for a cashless society.

TheCatWoman said:

Anyone got any recomendations for a UK bank, because I think we'll all be changing

My mother uses Nationwide (she is 87) and they have always been helpful to her when she is in the branch and looking to get them to sort out something or other that isn't working.

I'm guessing it is largely down to the staff at a particular branch as I've had ones in London who couldn't be bothered to help but in the same bank in Scotland were going out their way to help.

I am not sure we are allowed to personally recommend one on here but look at some of the money websites they give really good independent advice.

Also app based banks are ok too I am afraid you have to do bit of research 

I feel your pain however I also get very angry when these scammers manage to get elderly vulnerable or even hard working people ti trust then so they can clear their accounts out.

I would say you sound like a fantastic daughter and I would get the bank to accept you as some sort of power of attorney on her account.Alternatively you could help with online and be with her when she does it ?

Because of scammers I have had it when i open a new savings account and want to transfer from a current account you end up with the fraud department contacting.It is annoying but I never want to be scammed and would not wish it on anyone it literally destroys people mentally as well as financially.

My final tip is if the bank ever calls always assume it could be a scam and call back from another phone

What album did you get?

In the world of Globalism, everything's about security; rather than choice.

I think it might be hard for Mum to open a new account as she dosen' thave any of the documents they want to prove ID, she's never driven and her passport expired years ago. It's totally wrong that these are the only proofs of ID allowed, there must be loads of people excluded from banking because of it? I wonder how many of them are elderly?

I can feel a letter to the national press consumer pages coming on!

Well we went to the first bank and got stonewalled, just a complete refusal to engage, blamed it on the card issue-er and not them, even though it was a debit not a credit card. They said as they can't see any attempted transaction theres nothing they can do, they didn't really believe us about a screen that appeared and gave us no way of pregressing, they asked for a print out or a photo of it, when I said that was not possible, they refused to help any further. A person we spoke to in the queue, who was coming round to "help" people, said that they do home insurance and they're not on any comparisson sites, would we like to insure with them? We said said no thanks, but it made me wonder if the reason the payment couldn't proceed was because they don't actually want you to go elsewhere and stop you from doing so.

Then we went to the other bank Mum uses and got her mobile number updated for OTP's, she had to scrawl her signature on a piece of paper so as they could check it against their records, but it was all fine. The lady there said that the government keep putting so many checks on them that it's really hard for people to do normal banking. I thought to myself, I bet the only people that have all the right documents when they go in a branch are scammers as the rules are so arcane no normal person would know.

Now my friend is having problems with yet another bank who seem to have lost several hundreds pounds of his. Another friend had massive problems buying some premium bonds, they didn't like it that she dosen't have a smart phone.

Anyone got any recomendations for a UK bank, because I think we'll all be changing?

I hear you loud and clear TheCatWoman. The closure of so many bank branches doesn't help either, especially for people who prefer to discuss banking matters face-to-face.

I hope so, too.

I was only saying recently that there are many things I can't do, so I wondered how older people managed. I am glad I can't drive as I definitely don't want to put an app on my phone to park. I wonder how the elderly in my town park, or perhaps that is why so many shops have shut. 

I can say that the bank stopping a transaction did help here, but contact did rely on sending a text. I missed the call but then I might have thought that was a scam. Life is so complicated today. I hope you are able to get it sorted for your Mum without too much more hassle.

I bought an MP3 Album, off Bandcamp, this evening; and received a notification to check my app; to confirm that I wasn't scammed.

Alas, algorithms don't cut slack; in such scenarios. And Bank Staff may just infodump you with Spin. But I do get the issue with dealing with the elderly. It's too Technocratic for your Mum.