Shops open on a Sunday, why not banks?

[Iain]

Given that Sunday shopping is pretty much normal now in the UK, why aren't the banks open on Sundays as well?

[DonnieDarco]

Because the religious people would go beserk :D

[Drew]

My local bank doesn't open on a Saturday and shuts at 4pm on weekdays. Seems like a good idea to work in a bank ;)

[nicemms]

I think it must be something to do with religion either that or the banks are lazy and can't be bothered to open on a Sunday!

[Hazell B]

It's the law, simple as that.

I don't understand why anyone would want a bank open on sundays though. You can use a cash machine for everything from taking money out to putting it in, paying bills, setting up DD's and all that stuff. All the top banks have phone lines open on sundays for advice and so on too. Why open and have a larger wage bill to pay, thus adding to your bank charges? :confused:

Bank Holidays only legally apply to banks and agricultural workers, so they'll not alter I don't think. Other than that, what's the point of banks being open on a sunday?

[Iain]

I don't understand why anyone would want a bank open on sundays though. You can use a cash machine for everything from taking money out to putting it in, paying bills, setting up DD's and all that stuff. All the top banks have phone lines open on sundays for advice and so on too. Why open and have a larger wage bill to pay, thus adding to your bank charges? :confused:


That's all well and good if you have your bank card. If you have a problem with your bank card, then you're stuffed. :mark:

[Brown, Jon Brow]

As someone who works on a Sunday and therefor misses every Grand Prix. I wish Sunday shopping was banned. Customers come into the shop at 3:23pm when I am trying to 'pack-up', so I finish late. Then they shout at me because we don't have what they want as it was all sold on Saturday . Then they hold me up on the drive home going 37mph in a 60 zone :mad:

[Hazell B]

That's all well and good if you have your bank card. If you have a problem with your bank card, then you're stuffed. :mark:

But how often does that happen? Once a year at most. Why open banks every sunday just for the two customers who'll need to ask for a new card? Anyway, it's not like they can ever do much for a ruined card, besides hand you some cash, the first day anyhow. You can easily ring the sunday phone line to get a new card then borrow cash from a friend or family member.

I'm afraid we all expect far too much from the service industry at times. I'm all for some sunday opening, but when staff are working seven days a week it's hardly much fun for them and the family at home. How would we all feel if sundays became part of our normal working week every week?

[Brown, Jon Brow]

How would we all feel if sundays became part of our normal working week every week?

See my post above :rolleyes:

[Iain]

How would we all feel if sundays became part of our normal working week every week?

I work Sundays most of the time anyway, weekends don't mean much to me anymore, as they're just another day in my routine.

I'm just a bit annoyed today, as I'm having some issues with my bank which can't be resolved until Monday morning, as I don't have phone banking and they won't allow me to set it up until it's been resolved. So I'm currently a bit stressed out and worried that I have to wait about 48 hours from when this problem arose, to get it sorted out. :s

[Hazell B]

Pop round, I have cash here and I'll shout at them over the phone :p :

[Iain]

It's Halifax, so maybe they'd listen to someone from Yorkshire! :D

[Drew]

Hang on, you can put money in, at the cash machine? Since when?!

[BDunnell]

I agree with the comment about expecting too much from the service sector. It is now hard to recall how we got by without Sunday shop opening, but we all used to manage. I'm able to manage without my bank opening on a Sunday.

My only beef with my bank is purely out of self-interest. My local branch has stopped having the paying-in machines and cashpoints in its foyer, and thus thereotically usable at all times. I found this very handy, as I have to pay cheques in quite often and can't get to the branch within working hours unless I take time off work. I'd imagine vandalism and the presence overnight of various down-and-outs in the foyer put paid to this facility. Shame, but understandable.

[allycat228]

I also work some sundays in a shop but i dont even think about it now, my mum is a nurse and she also works on sunday's. We would all be in trouble if the emergency services did not work on sundays.

I for one am glad banks dont open on a sunday they make loads of money as it is without getting anymore .

[tinchote]

Hang on, you can put money in, at the cash machine? Since when?!

I've been doing my deposits on an ATM at least since 1995, in Argentina. In Canada, since 2002, I have never deposited money/cheque on a bank branch, always at the ATM (even foreign currency).

[Galveston dunes]

What astounds me is if you spend an amount on your atm and your account is overdrawn your 24 hour phone inquiry will tell you you are over drawn but if you inquiry before the purchase its always 3 days behind or atleast 36 hours.I know you should keep a register of your own but sometimes its in the truck and i'm in the store.I have kept the same bank because I know its my own fault and not thiers but surely if they know at a momnents notice your overdrawn then the machine could tell you if you have the availible funds to beguin with.

[Christina]

Banks dont open sundays because they're smart. i think working sundays is stupid. mainly because today is a sunday and i'm stuck at work after attending a birthday party last night. Ouchy! my head hurts!

If the church got one things right, it's that sundays should be a day of rest.

*grumble* i hate working weekends!!

[Galveston dunes]

Banks dont open sundays because they're smart. i think working sundays is stupid. mainly because today is a sunday and i'm stuck at work after attending a birthday party last night. Ouchy! my head hurts!

If the church got one things right, it's that sundays should be a day of rest.

*grumble* i hate working weekends!!

Orange tylonel works great. Good luck with the head thing and rememeber its only a moment away till its over.

[tinchote]

What astounds me is if you spend an amount on your atm and your account is overdrawn your 24 hour phone inquiry will tell you you are over drawn but if you inquiry before the purchase its always 3 days behind or atleast 36 hours.I know you should keep a register of your own but sometimes its in the truck and i'm in the store.I have kept the same bank because I know its my own fault and not thiers but surely if they know at a momnents notice your overdrawn then the machine could tell you if you have the availible funds to beguin with.

Many banks do tell you that (at least in Argentina and Canada, which is where I have bank accounts): the show you your balance, and your available money, as two separate products.

As a possible solution to your problem, both bank accounts I use have overdraft protection, so I can go several hundreds in the red for a little while if I need to (or if I forgot to secure a balance before that cheque). Then I have to pay some interest, but it's not a big deal, and I don't risk bounced cheques.

As a general comment on North American banking, when I came from Argentina I was a little surprised about how "primitive" banks are here. A couple of examples:

1) In Argentina, same city cheques clear by the end of the same day. In Canada, they put a hold on your money for five days, even on cheques of the same institution, same branch.

2) Ten years ago I had a Visa card in Argentina, and whenever I made a purchase (well, not a "manual" one), I could immediately see it in my banking web page. Nowadays, in Canada, with any of my credit cards it takes two to three days for the transactions to appear in the web page :s

[Galveston dunes]

[quote="tinchote"]Many banks do tell you that (at least in Argentina and Canada, which is where I have bank accounts): the show you your balance, and your available money, as two separate products.

As a possible solution to your problem, both bank accounts I use have overdraft protection, so I can go several hundreds in the red for a little while if I need

I chose not install the overdraft protection opting to pay the $30.00 if I go over. Being on the road sometimes you have to purchase something you need to get where you need to be.
My problum is my checks come in on Friday and I have to wait till tuesday for an accuate acount balance.But if I go in the red it will show me in less than 2 hours. So how come it can't give me an accuate balance that fast; in the U.S. that is.
No real biggy really just something to whine about. I'm ussually pretty responsable.

[Dave B]

Providing current accounts is barely profitable for the banks as it is, even when they charge £30 for bouncing a DD or going overdrawn. Opening on Sundays when online banking and ATMs can cover the majority of needs would be a huge cost for them,

[Alexamateo]

One thing I didn't see listed here is that shops open on Sunday because they are retail, and they want to sell you something. They need to be availible to you as much as possible to achieve maximum revenue. Banks are a service business and while they do "sell" various financial services, it is not a "retail" type good or service.

[GridGirl]

It doesn't really bother me that banks don't open on a Sunday. I do daily bank reconcilations first thing everyday anyway so I usually know how much I have in my accounts to the nearest £5 or so. I did one before I can on these forums infact.

What does annoy me is that I no one is available to see me in a branch when I go into see them. A few months or so I pointed out to my bank on a Sunday that a substantial amount of money had gone missing from my bank account and had to tell them to stop my cards and such as they didn't seem that interested when I rang them to tell them. Trying to report the fraud was even more of a joke as every time I went into the branch no one was available and they kepts cancelling all the appointments I made to see them. Eventually when someone could see me they had the cheek to ask why I hadn't reported the fraud sooner.

I was in Scotland this weekend and stopped for cash in Pitlochry and only one machine in the town centre had cash on a Saturday afternoon. The queue was a mile long. Its not great when its a Scottish bank holiday weekend. :s

[Hazell B]

Hang on, you can put money in, at the cash machine? Since when?!


The Halifax has always had that option on it's machines since I've been with them (about 16 years now I guess) but they used to only have paying in on one machine at each branch.

After many, many complaints from me about driving all the way there only to find it had run out of paying in envelopes, they found it cheaper to add another machine than keep paying me (and some other customers) twenty quid compensation for each occasion. Shame, it was a nice earner while it lasted :laugh:

[Camelopard]

On a recent trip to Germany I was supriseed that next to nothing was open on sundays. We wanted to give our hire car a quick wash before returning it to Frankfurt Airport and couldn't find one open. Even the coin operated self wash places were closed! Now I know that it would be nice for everyone to sundays off (I don't as we work 24/7 shiftwork), I was suprised that an operation where there is no interaction required with anyone else that this should be verboten!!

[tinchote]

On a recent trip to Germany I was supriseed that next to nothing was open on sundays. We wanted to give our hire car a quick wash before returning it to Frankfurt Airport and couldn't find one open. Even the coin operated self wash places were closed! Now I know that it would be nice for everyone to sundays off (I don't as we work 24/7 shiftwork), I was suprised that an operation where there is no interaction required with anyone else that this should be verboten!!


The thing is that many automated things still need some control, and somehow it doesn't make sense to pay for an employee being there.

If you want to complain, go to Trieste: when I was there, there were no supermarkets on Sundays (hardly surprising), nor Monday and Wednesday afternoons :eek:

[CarlMetro]

I went into my local branch last week only to find that it had been completely refurbished since my last visit. I mentioned to the young lady behind the counter that it looked rather nice in there now, to which she replied that the refit was done during the Christmas holidays.

I guess that shows just how often I go into a branch because I do the majority of my banking either online or via ATMs. I think I've used the telephone banking service twice in the nine years I've been with them but I know that it's available 24/7.

[Dave B]

I went into my local branch last week only to find that it had been completely refurbished since my last visit. I mentioned to the young lady behind the counter that it looked rather nice in there now, to which she replied that the refit was done during the Christmas holidays.

She then proceeded to pour me a lovely pint.

:p

[BDunnell]

If you want to complain, go to Trieste: when I was there, there were no supermarkets on Sundays (hardly surprising), nor Monday and Wednesday afternoons :eek:

Or France, where the concept of customer service is so advanced that nowhere bothers to open at all for most of the middle of the day.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Heck Ben, I have heard of Restaurants closing for lunch..so there you go....

[Dave B]

Or a pub holding a New Year's Eve party that finished at 11:45. True story. :\

[BDunnell]

Or a pub holding a New Year's Eve party that finished at 11:45. True story. :\

That's my sort of New Year's Eve party. Rather crap.

[fandango]

Or France, where the concept of customer service is so advanced that nowhere bothers to open at all for most of the middle of the day.

That happens here too. Between 1 and 5 in the afternoon you can't be 100% sure somewhere will be open, if you don't know their business hours. And as for August, there are lots of places shut for the entire month. It doesn't even count as judicial days. This means if you have five working days to do/pay for something and it's 31st July you have until the 1st week in September.

Some supermarkets are open on Sundays in beach areas, but only until 13:30 or 14:00. It's funny, but you get used to it. Most consumer stuff can just wait. In the end I think this is more relaxing than rushing off to the shops every ten minutes.

[schmenke]

Or France, where the concept of customer service is so advanced that nowhere bothers to open at all for most of the middle of the day.

:confused:

I think you'll find that most French aren't complaining :mark:

[martinbalmer]

In early June we hoildayed in Co. Kerry, Ireland. It's a lovely place, I can't wait to go back, and some what of a culture shock at times.

Rarely did roadworks have traffic lights, just trusty stop-go signs; then when the men went home for tea, or during the weekend, everything was moved to the side of the road. And why clutter a 'construction zone' with cones when motorists can just as easily pick their way through?

Delightful multicoloured streets are lined with quaint local shops, pubs, hotels and restaurants. This is the land where cars reversing out of parking spaces into the main road have an unofficial priority, there is no limit to the number of direction signs that can be mounted on one post, the attendant fills your car up for you, and you can only buy stamps at the post office.

Even so, home from home, within 30 minutes of our river-side cottage, via spectacular picturesque roads, was a Tesco 24 Hour. Unlike home though, this one is open _all day_ on Sunday. Like I said, a culture shock at times :p :