So how do you put money in the bank.

[TimP]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

Infrastructure projects always exceed the estimates because if an accurate forecast was made the project would not even start. So you have to half the realistic estimate and offer that as the project cost. You then have to ensure that you have got another job when the revised costs are revealed.

[Internaut]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

The same thing is happening here in my area of Cheshire with Lloyds Bank. They closed the branch in my nearest town Congleton two years ago meaning I had to go 10 miles to Sandbach if I wanted to put money in or a cheque. Then last December they changed that branch to a no counter service branch just somewhere you can go talk to them! Now the nearest one with counter service is in Crewe which is almost 20 miles from where I live.

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

Online banking? A report out this week says that all of the big High Street banks have problems with IT at least once a week preventing customers from accessing accounts and their money. Whenever this happens they suggest that customers visit their local branch ......

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

As I understand it, Euro rules mean that Euro banks can't be bailed out directly, so the Greek bailout money went vie Greece to bail out those Euro banks, mostly German, who had been recklessly lending to Greeks. The money they had been lending went, via ludicrous projects, into various business persons pockets. Same as over here and the USA. All a bit of a scam, really.

[Otto]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

Online banking? A report out this week says that all of the big High Street banks have problems with IT at least once a week preventing customers from accessing accounts and their money. Whenever this happens they suggest that customers visit their local branch ......

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

Some of the bigger IT problems have been reported in the News, along with mobile phone systems failures, but there are many hundreds of smaller failures that go unreported.


I often need to check the bank for incoming payments two or three times a day, and there have been many occasions when I have been unable to log in for no obvious reason. The system usually reports that it doesn't recognise my credentials, even though I have used the same credentials many times before, or it will simply report "system unavailable please try later".

Maybe Barclays needs to upgrade the 486 server in their basement to a Pentium based server, but that means capital investment which won't do anything for Bob Diamond's bonus.

[Internaut]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

Some of the bigger IT problems have been reported in the News, along with mobile phone systems failures, but there are many hundreds of smaller failures that go unreported.


I often need to check the bank for incoming payments two or three times a day, and there have been many occasions when I have been unable to log in for no obvious reason. The system usually reports that it doesn't recognise my credentials, even though I have used the same credentials many times before, or it will simply report "system unavailable please try later".

Maybe Barclays needs to upgrade the 486 server in their basement to a Pentium based server, but that means capital investment which won't do anything for Bob Diamond's bonus.

Well, capital investment plus perhaps re-employing some of the many UK IT staff that the banks got rid of.

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

Well, capital investment plus perhaps re-employing some of the many UK IT staff that the banks got rid of.

Some of those IT staff knew how the systems worked; and worked with very limited system resources. This knowledge is lost on the current generation of IT staff who seem to be completely out of their depth with anything beyond Windows Server.

[Wee man]

[TimP]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

Some of those IT staff knew how the systems worked; and worked with very limited system resources. This knowledge is lost on the current generation of IT staff who seem to be completely out of their depth with anything beyond Windows Server.

Not completely true in my experience but a few I know have little actual technical training and rely totally on Google.

[OM USer]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

...Not only does Northern Ireland have differing Banks, these banks also produce their own bank notes. They had plastic notes long before the English banks but their sterling notes are not accepted in other parts of the UK?

Ah, I was up in Newcastle Under Lyme (near Stoke On Trent) the other week and went into a shop that did not accept Irish Banknotes. I hadn't realised until then that there was a problem. I've usually found that most places with universities will accept sterling banknotes from any UK bank.

[Otto]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

Tim
Not only does Northern Ireland have differing Banks, these banks also produce their own bank notes.
They had plastic notes long before the English banks

[Naughty Nigel]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

The IOM had a plastic 50 pence note as well. I'm not sure if they still have them but they were certainly in regular use when I last visited a few years ago.

[Otto]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

Yes, I remember the 50p notes too, quite a novelty as our ten shilling notes were long gone by then!

[Internaut]

Re: So how do you put money in the bank.

Not completely true in my experience but a few I know have little actual technical training and rely totally on Google.

We all rely on Google (and Stack Overflow), these days. There's simply too much to know. Compared to ten or twenty years ago, we exist in a massively complex space. What worries me, with the up and coming generation of workers in tech, is the lack of design skills.