In message , at 17:09:16 on Mon, 9 Jan
2012, Tim Roll-Pickering remarked:
It may just be me or my banks, but my experience in the UK is that lobbies
are being steadily phased out by banks, sometimes by refurbishment,
sometimes by simply fully locking the door overnight.

The only UK bank that I'm aware of that ever had lobbies was Lloyds (and
they needed an ATM card swipe to get in). The practice in other
countries of having a lobby open 24x7 which was separately doored off
from the bank itself never caught on.
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:

It may just be me or my banks, but my experience in the UK is that lobbies
are being steadily phased out by banks, sometimes by refurbishment,
sometimes by simply fully locking the door overnight.

The only UK bank that I'm aware of that ever had lobbies was Lloyds (and
they needed an ATM card swipe to get in). The practice in other countries
of having a lobby open 24x7 which was separately doored off from the bank
itself never caught on.

Midland/HSBC were quite big on them back in the 1990s - it was one of the
reasons I took my first child account with them. They were originally ATM
card accessible but following cases of fake machines designed to capture
card details being placed on doors in the mid 2000s they moved over to a
completely open-access, press a button model. Then they found the lobbies
were becoming unsafe and nasty - I wonder why - and so moved to phase them
out altogether.

Halifax also had some lobbies back then and a few survive to this day.

On Jan 9, 10:30*am, Bolwerk wrote:
On 1/9/2012 5:31 AM, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at
23:44:00 on Sun, 8 Jan 2012, Bolwerk remarked:
I don't really ever see a need to go to the bank, and if I do I
prefer to use the ATM and skip the line.

Here in the UK the ATMs often have a line as well.

Well, let me elaborate: ATMs often have lines here, but generally not as
bad as tellers' lines. *It's probably because people to 2-3 predictable
things with ATMs (withdraw, deposit, balance check) while all unusual
business probably goes to the teller (e.g., withdrawing dollar coins or
$2 bills).

While people at ATMs are usually doing fast transactions, there are
usually more of them on line than there are on a teller's line.
Unfortunately, when you get on a teller line, you usually are behind
some bozo who wants to do 6 months of banking in one visit. That's
also true of the drive-through- where people sit with their engines
idling for 30 minutes (I turn mine off, on the rare occasion I use it)
while they wait.

But I get dollar coins about twice a year- I use a roll of them as
stocking stuffers for my kid at Christmas, and I sometimes stock up on
them to use at Muni-Meters...I keep a roll or two hidden in the car
for those rare times I need to feed a meter. It's worth the wait. I
will say that there have been times that my bank (TD) told me I had to
call ahead to get rolled dollar coins- they only had loose ones- but
they always had some to give me.

As an aside, TD Bank also has a nice system, but few people are aware
of it. Most branches have 2 ATMs in the lobby, but only one will take
deposits. That speeds things up for people who just want some fast
cash for lunch or something.

Chris


And getting back to trains, so do automatic ticket machines, which
can have a longer line than the windows.

In NYC, our most immediate option for subway fare purchasing is a TVM.
I'm not sure buying from station attendants is an option anymore, and if
it is it's limited to certain types of rides.

But pre-purchased tickets can only be collected from the machines.

That, unfortunately, is something we don't have. *Amtrak does it well
though.

Bolwerk wrote:
In NYC, our most immediate option for subway fare purchasing is a TVM.
I'm not sure buying from station attendants is an option anymore, and if
it is it's limited to certain types of rides.

Station booth attendants who sell Metrocards certainly do still exist
in NYC. Not every station or entrance has them, but there are plenty
that do.

The only type of fare you can buy at a machine but not from an
attendant is a SingleRide. (It used to be true of 1-day passes as
well, but those don't exist any more.) Also, machines take credit/
debit cards and attendants don't.

There are some things attendants can do that the machines can't, such
as combining the value from multiple Metrocards.

Jimmy

On Jan 9, 12:09*pm, "Tim Roll-Pickering" T.C.Roll-
wrote:
Peter T. Daniels wrote:
Here, smaller branches may have only a single ATM, and there are ones
not physically attached to a bank (for instance in retail locations),
but many city bank branches have lobbies, accessible after-hours with
the ATM card, with several ATMs.

It may just be me or my banks, but my experience in the UK is that lobbies
are being steadily phased out by banks, sometimes by refurbishment,
sometimes by simply fully locking the door overnight. Several of my banks
are also making it almost impossible to deposit out of hours, whether by
removing lobbies, sealing letter boxes and/or withdrawing the ability to
deposit cheques & notes through ATMs.

For withdrawing cash there's usually enough open air machines, but every so
often the banking industry threatens to remove the LINK agreement that
allows people to use different banks' ATMs without charge and intoduce fees,
sometimes with the appalling title of "disloyalty fees". This is especially
annoying if you live in a suburb where your own bank hasn't bothered to
establish a small branch because there are large branches in neighbouring
suburbs to handle business and, crucially, enough branches from other banks
plus standalone ATMs that customers needing instant access to cash are
currently served well enough without fees.

That all sounds utterly bizarre. Have your designers never heard of
electronic locks that will admit someone who has an ATM card to swipe?

Our banks encourage the use of ATMs so they can fire more and more
(low-paid anyway) tellers.

Some banks even pick up the fees charged to ATM-users who don't have
an account at the bank it belongs to.

On 1/9/2012 4:48 PM, Jimmy wrote:
wrote:
In NYC, our most immediate option for subway fare purchasing is a
TVM. I'm not sure buying from station attendants is an option
anymore, and if it is it's limited to certain types of rides.

Station booth attendants who sell Metrocards certainly do still
exist in NYC. Not every station or entrance has them, but there are
plenty that do.

The only type of fare you can buy at a machine but not from an
attendant is a SingleRide. (It used to be true of 1-day passes as
well, but those don't exist any more.) Also, machines take credit/
debit cards and attendants don't.

Yeah, I was thinking they only sell single rides, but wasn't sure. I
Maybe I've asked an attendant a question about three times since tokens
went out. The last time I actually bought something from an attendant
it was a token.

I usually only buy unlimiteds these days, and prefer to use a card for
the security in case I lose it anyway.

There are some things attendants can do that the machines can't,
such as combining the value from multiple Metrocards.

Jimmy

"Tim Roll-Pickering" wrote in message
...
Roland Perry wrote:


Midland/HSBC were quite big on them back in the 1990s - it was one of the
reasons I took my first child account with them. They were originally ATM
card accessible but following cases of fake machines designed to capture
card details being placed on doors in the mid 2000s they moved over to a
completely open-access, press a button model. Then they found the lobbies
were becoming unsafe and nasty - I wonder why - and so moved to phase them
out altogether.


My local HSBC had a lobby which was removed and replaced with outside ATMs a
year or two back. I didn't know abut the fake machines outside lobbies
although I have heard of similar scams to capture card details.
Incidentally most HSBC branches still have ATMs inside and in my experience
tend to be laid out to dissuade customers from joining a queue and dealing
with a human

Martin

My local HSBC had a lobby which was removed and replaced with outside ATMs a
year or two back. I didn't know abut the fake machines outside lobbies
although I have heard of similar scams to capture card details.

ObNYC: A Romanian guy was arrested for putting skimmers on 40 ATMs at
HSBC branches in downstate NY and making cloned ATM carss, then
stealing $1.5M from customer accounts. Details he

http://www.bankinfosecurity.com/arti...hp?art_id=4388

In the NY area, ATMs tend to be located in an inside lobby, with a
latch on the door you can open by swiping any ATM or credit card.

R's,
John

Peter T. Daniels wrote:

It may just be me or my banks, but my experience in the UK is that
lobbies
are being steadily phased out by banks, sometimes by refurbishment,
sometimes by simply fully locking the door overnight. Several of my
banks
are also making it almost impossible to deposit out of hours, whether by
removing lobbies, sealing letter boxes and/or withdrawing the ability to
deposit cheques & notes through ATMs.

For withdrawing cash there's usually enough open air machines, but every
so
often the banking industry threatens to remove the LINK agreement that
allows people to use different banks' ATMs without charge and intoduce
fees,
sometimes with the appalling title of "disloyalty fees". This is
especially
annoying if you live in a suburb where your own bank hasn't bothered to
establish a small branch because there are large branches in
neighbouring
suburbs to handle business and, crucially, enough branches from other
banks
plus standalone ATMs that customers needing instant access to cash are
currently served well enough without fees.

That all sounds utterly bizarre. Have your designers never heard of
electronic locks that will admit someone who has an ATM card to swipe?

Yes and we used to have them (and for a few banks still do). But reports of
fraudsters removing the locks and replacing them with devices to capture
card details caused a scare and the lobbies started to be opened to all,
then when undesirables started using them the banks started phasing them out
altogether.

Martin Rich wrote:

Incidentally most HSBC branches still have ATMs inside and in my
experience tend to be laid out to dissuade customers from joining a queue
and dealing with a human

Nice - the Stratford (non-Westfield) branch still has the lobby layout and
the machines and receptionist point are clumped in such a way that at busy
times it's very difficult to even join the right queue. Conversely in the
new Westfield branch the layout makes it all too easy for roving staff to
pounce on you - something I find annoying when I'm just there to quickly use
the machines (especially the coin deposit machine as many other branches
don't have them).