New bank can’t handle £1 notes
Monday 21st December 2009, 2:58PM GMT.
Rita Dubois outside HSBC’s new branch in King Street. Picture: ROB CURRIE (00855430)
HSBC bank upset one of its first customers in its new King Street branch when she discovered that £1 notes are not accepted by the paying-in machines.
Caretaker Rita Dubois regularly deposited rents from lodging house tenants by calling in at the business section of HSBC’s Library Place branch, before it closed.
But last Monday she took the cash into their new branch in King Street, where she claims she was told by a member of staff that the new automated machines did not accept Jersey £1 notes.
She was directed to the nearby Halkett Street branch, where staff confirmed to her that £1 notes were not accepted by the machines in the King Street bank, but they accepted all of her cash, including the £1 notes.
HSBC head of personal finance media relations James Thorpe said that the new branch in King Street was automated and those cash machines were not designed to accept any £1 notes.
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Obviously another slow news day.
Why doesn’t Mrs Dubois just pay in at the counter instead ?
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What happened to HSBC’s marketing claims that it is the world’s “local” bank?!
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Is this news?
Caretaker Rita Duboisis is surprised to discovers that the £1 note is a Jersey anachronism!
Interpretive Jersey rules OK?
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“What happened to HSBC’s marketing claims that it is the world’s “local” bank?!”
It’s on King Street, how local does it need to be, in your back garden?
If the machine won’t take one pound notes go to the counter, or enter the Millennum and have tenants pay directly into your bank account, or pay by cheque, what do you want a bank that accepts bartered eggs.
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As an HSBC customer myself all I can say is that this is typical of the way they treat customers. You do it their way or not at all. As for their call centres….worse than Sky,who at least understand and speak english
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dke@ubp.ch
@1
Ugh what counter?? only robots
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@dke@ubp.ch #1
“…Why doesn’t Mrs Dubois just pay in at the counter instead?…”
That’s the point isn’t it? there is no counter in the new branch.
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Oh Goody – another giant leap forward !!!
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Who cares?
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Typical…..
Comes as no surprise really. The Library Place branch used to me able to deal with both the general public services and the ‘businessmen’. Now it seems the personal feel of actually to talking to a human being when paying money in has gone.
Another prime example of ‘the bank’ focusing more towards ‘business’ demands rather than the ordinary person. Makes you sick. What ever happened to the phrase, if you dont like how we opperate, theres a boat in the morning?
Can Jersey PLEASE stop falling on their knews and licking the boots of all these finance companies. Think a bit about Jersey, and not about money….. (like THATS going to happen!)
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“What happened to HSBC’s marketing claims that it is the world’s “local” bank?!”
No problem, with Jersey doing so well and all the Bankers wanting to live here, the Jersey Pound is the obvious choice for the inevitable worldwide currency of choice.
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This isn’t news. Mrs Dubois should probably put this slight inconvenience in context with the problems in this world of ours. It’s Christmas
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Good job they have someone as
Head of personal finance media relations
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The local bank that says yes to a non-local call centre.
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My bank account will accept your £1 notes as many as you like just pay them into this number
123456789 merry christmas from the bahamas
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That’s funny? There are machines in UK programmed to acept Jersey pound notes. And some of them are in darkest Kent.
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Oh no HSBC don’t acceptthe notes. B&Q and the waterfront carpark don’t as well. My first thought was what a complete non story but enough people have commented to make me think instead about how little we have wrong in our lives…
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Nevermind when the US economy goes under the local banks won’t be accepting any money, no matter what the denomination, as it will all be worthless, which is what it has been all along.
However due to group conciousness giving money value it has some at present. When reality sets in the whole lot will come tumbling down…
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The UK abandoned pounds notes (which have an effective life of less than a year) decades ago for pound coins (which will last indefinitely.
Why does Jersey have this mawkish, sentimental attachment for an anachronism like a tatty, filthy banknote of negligible value?
Perhaps HSBC is merely anticipating this letter.
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OH MY, heaven forbid we have to COMMUTE all of 2 mins to go to the counter to pay in £1 notes!!! Having used both the counter and the pay in machines at the new branch i must say Great JOB…. FINALLY WE HAVE A CHOICE!!! Is this really news worthy in the grand scheme of things… UHM i would suggest NOT!!!
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Change your Bank, or Take a boat in the morning.
Zimple.
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@ Adrian #8
“…as it will all be worthless, which is what it has been all along…”
What on earth are you talking about? Quite delusional.
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#19 The UK didn’t, England did!
Some of us actually like them and not for sentimental reasons but rather for practical ones.
If you don’t like them don’t use them, ask tellers/shop staff for the coins instead.
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I would like to say that I have been into the new branch on King Street and absolutely LOVE IT!! Times are changing and people need to start living in the real world and moving with it rather than dwelling in the past.
For the first time in Jersey we are seeing a service that no other bank is even close to providing and I have to say it is something incredible.
Who cares that there is no counter when the staff there are so friendly and helpful and everything is explained so well. If you don’t like phoning the call centre- don’t!! go into town and see them!
Yes Library place was a nice building but all they have done is moved and segregated their business areas to different buildings,they havn’t reduced the service level provided before if anything they have increased it dramatically and given us more choice.
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You can’t pay cash and cheques in to their machines at the same time either – you have to put them in separate envelopes now…
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please….grow up.
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It would appear that the Jersey £1 notes are not good enough for HSBC since they’ve move upmarket to King Street.
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No 25-Mike- Why would you want to put cash and cheques together anyway? Do you not know that cash credits immeadietly whereas if you put it in with a cheque you don’t get it in your account until the next day? I never realised people were so hard to please…it’s a bank not a 5* hotel…just accept the change and get on with it
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Funny how the self-service machines in the supermarkets can accept £1 notes. I guess they’re more keen to be helpful and take your money. Perhaps the bank and parking machines are just too complicated to be reprogrammed and we just don’t have the IT skills over here?
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Never mind the £1 note, I think it’s a sad day when all you have are machines, its now faceless banking.
Gone are the smiles, the small talk of the cashier. If you don’t like the machines, HSBC customers, use your feet and only use the Halkett branch, where real people work. Yes there will be chaos at that branch, but maybe HSBC will get the message and install cashiers at King Street.
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I’m amazed that people still pay their rent in cash, and are still using cheques. I don’t think I have written a cheque in 5 years.
Time people moved into the 21st century!
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Big Bean….cheques will be officially obsolete in 2018.
Meesch73….I agree. These machines are designed for those of us who just want to be “in and out”. The main branch is down the road…this is meant to be CONVENIENCE banking!
Rozel Joe. Perhaps you like to spend all your time queuing up and wasting time chatting to the tellers, but have you considered other customers behind you and the fact that the tellers might not actually want to chat with you but would prefer just to get their job done?
Adrian 18
And what will the banks be accepting? How will any retail transaction be completed if money does not exist?
Strange comment to make???
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j lamborrari(22), what i think, adrian means is the words”promise to pay the bearer”, which is backed by what?
rather like harold wilson telling the british housewife that”the pound in your pocket will remain the same” in the 70′s.
in malaysia or indonesia, a good few years ago, if you had cash in your pocket, go and buy a tin of paint or similar goods for , say£5.00, because by the end of the week £5.00 has become £2.50.
the tin of paint is still worth £5.00.
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‘I’m amazed that people still pay their rent in cash, and are still using cheques. I don’t think I have written a cheque in 5 years.’
The man who cuts the hedges round here views anything apart from cash as the work of the devil.
I recently had a new boiler fitted, 10% discount for cash!
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23 Leah Holmes:
Thank you for your constructive comment.
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One of the greatest things about the island is it’s convenient pound notes which can sit alongside other money in your wallet and not weigh down your pocket – they have the added advantage of being a novelty item you can whip out to impress English people…! NJ.
As for not being able to pay them in, surely if she was so cut up about it she could have withdrawn some tens and twenties from her account at the same branch, paid in the equivalent and pocketed the pound notes for herself? Has anyone else already thought of this?!
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Again, Who cares? This is not important.
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1) Why receive rent in cash are the tenants being paid cash?
2) Pay cash separately and in credits instantly
3) Photocopies of your cheques-how cool and useful for your records, dont dismiss it until you try it
4) Jersey moves forward into the C21 with state of teh art banking (albeit 10 years a little too late)
There is more important things than this story going on around the World – just accept the change, adapt to it and move on.
The people uploading comments against this change are probably those who complained about the internet and JEP going online!
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I don’t have much trouble understanding what Adrian is on about.
Basically, cash is passed around as a promise to pay in gold (ultimately) but we all know that this is never going to happen! If the economy is already borrowing up to the hilt, Adrian is probably correct. The money will be worthless if the bank doesn’t have the gold to honour the promise.
Here’s a thought: If everyone accepted forgeries as valid exchange tokens we could leave the treasury out of the equation!
Coins have a scrap value of course so keep on hoarding those real copper ones (the ones which won’t clonk onto a magnet).
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JP, if it’s not important to anyone, why are you reading this topic? Nothing better to do?
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How sad is everyone here…
Having a debate about £1 notes.
World is changing and so should everyone….
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#35 sorry if it seemed a little curt, I just re-read it and thought it did, but it was just meant as a factual statement.
#34 Beware of people who will only take cash. I refuse to pay cash in hand to any tradesman, I do not wish to be paying tax while others go all out to avoid it.
#36 You’re right about the novelty item thing. When I go abroad I always bring my nephews back some examples of the coinage used in the country I visited, so I gave them a Jersey and a Guernsey pound note. Despite still having Scottish pound notes they loved it.
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OMG i went into this branch to pay some cash in and they told me the same thing. I didnt know what to do. i thought i was going to be stuck with the 4 quid in notes forever!!
Lets be honest who the hell pays 1 pound notes into the bank? and what kind of lodgers do you have? 5 yr olds. do they pay in coins too?
Put the lil 1 pounds in a cookie jar somewhere and dont bother with the bank unless you have some real cash to pay in.
Also:
a) join the rest of the world in 2009 and use electronic payment systems, internet banking, credit cards, direct debits etc etc
b) when these trivial problems face you in day to day life talk to someone who has time to fritter away. but dont go as far as the papers ffs.
Plus im guessin these machines are UK wide, you want them to customize these just for Jersey?
This island just gets worse lol. Id love to see how we would deal with some real problems.
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Adrian @18
What are you going on about?
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R B Bougourd may I congratulate you for seeing what is and not what appears to be so.
As far as I am concerned this why a bank can never honour its debt, if everyone asks for their money back at the same time, as it has lent out more than it has in its bank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is why runs on banks are dangerous as they show the reality of things behind the scenes. Hence governments are keen to bail them out with tax payers money as someone has to make up the shortfall or panic will engulf the whole system destroying it.
Jersey Boy. Money gives the appearance of having value i.e. a ten pound note has a value of £10 but what is this in reality? It varies from day to day! It might buy you two chickens today but one tomorrow or none the day after if the currency has a run on it, i.e. peoples’ confidence takes flight.
What is £10 worth if you broke it down to its constituent parts, i.e. a piece of paper and a few bits of cheap metal strip? Answer it is all but worthless in its own right.
Let me put it another way. At least with UK notes different coloured notes denominate different values, so there is a visual difference.
Now what about the US dollar. Are they all different colours? Answer no they are all identical except for the amount of ink on them.
A $1 bill has one dollar printed on it. A $10 has the number 10 printed on it etc.
So what is the difference between a $1 bill and a $100 bill? The answer is two zeros 00.
Can you see where I am coming from now?
Now you and others like you propose taking this a step further and are happy to be using virtual money consisting of binary digits in a computer’s memory!!! Computer hackers will love this. Why not do away with all of it and make it up as you go along?
Sorry but as far as I am concerned the whole lot is a sham.
If someone can try and point out what they think are any errors in what I have said I will read with interest.
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Progress !
Before you had a series of tills for personal banking and a series for business at Library Place,as well as ATMs and automated credit machine which took both cash and cheques. The queues were never too long.
Now, in King St, you have to queue for the machines, one for cash (except £1 notes) and the other for cheques, or go too Halkett St where there are two tills open and a queue all the way to Dix Neuf. They have machines there also, but when I visited earlier this week, to pay money (including £1.00 notes) into my business account, there was a long queue for the one machine that was working.
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@ Jersey Boy #43
“…Lets be honest who the hell pays 1 pound notes into the bank? and what kind of lodgers do you have?…”
The story describes this customer as a caretaker, therefore if she is paid rents she may be obliged to pay them into the bank.
Say the lodging house has 20 room @ £91pw she may end up with 20 £1 notes which if she doesn’t pay in she would have to explain to her employer.
It’s all very well saying use another form of payment, but not everybody is able to live their life as you do yours.
How would you feel if you went to pay for your meal with your credit card, only to find that the cafe doesn’t takes cards? not their fault you didn’t check beforehand and made an assumption is it?
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@ Adrian #45
“R B Bougourd may I congratulate you for seeing what is and not what appears to be so…”
Before you get too smug; it’s very obvious that that was the point you were making; I just don’t get why you bothered making it?
I don’t think anybody’s under any illusion that the worth of money is intrinsic; the same is true of stamps, AirMiles points or property deeds.
I just simply don’t see this as any issue whatsoever.
“…If someone can try and point out what they think are any errors in what I have said I will read with interest…”
“…Now what about the US dollar. Are they all different colours? Answer no…”
Actually since 2003/4 I believe they’ve been ‘colored’
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I agree with everyone moaning here, the Jersey 1 pound note is an instituition and should be revered from on high!!! WHEN OH WHEN will I be able to simply drive past my bank and throw a fistful of JERSEY 1 POUND notes at the front door while simply shouting my name out of the window safe in the knowledge that within 30 seconds of them hitting the door, that money will be in my account!?!? Woe is us!….. I have taken it upon myself to write a letter to Santa asking if he can help us in our most dire hour of need!
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R B Bougourd
I think you’ll find that the gold standard was abolished quite some time ago.
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Thank you AGD, I was going to point this out myself, we came off the gold standard shortly after the WWII in order to repay our debts – we used to pin all currencies to the US Dollar but even this system is being abolished.
As Adrian points out, this means that ‘fiat’ currency essentially has the value we assign to it. In fact the amount of currency in circulation is greater than the value of all precious metals in the world so we couldn’t really return to a gold/silver/palladium standard and there are few who advocate a return to this (apart from a few Austrian economists bizarrely enough).
That said cash is an easy and convenient way to pay for small items of value, particularly if you don’t have a bank account. (According to BBC News around a tenth of people in the UK do not).
Even for those with a bank account, it is very useful. For example, I withdraw cash over the counter and pay it into my housemate’s account so she can pay our rent.
If I waited for a funds transfer to clear, particularly at this time of the year, it could be well over ten days before the money ends up in her account. It would then take another 3-5 working days for the rent to be paid.
Some people might think that’s the landlord’s problem and I sympathise deeply but funds transfers also make it hard to keep track of your expenses, particularly when you have very little money as I do and every penny counts – if you don’t know exactly when an amount will be debited, you could be hit with extortionate (though apparently legal) bank fees!
Frankly with the court ruling about bank fees and the recession still going strong, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more people using hard currency – provided you get a signed receipt for it, I can’t see it as any less risky then giving out your card or bank details to a stranger. NJ.
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