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I love banks

The wild and wacky world of banking. I have been a "happy" customer of Halifax for some 20 years now. However, the nearest branch (local cherry, oak and chestnut trees excepted!) to me is either a 40-minute walk in one direction (no, not walking there surrounded by the five tah-ood X-Factor irritations!), or a bus journey in the other.

However, there is a Lloyds Bank, which owns Halifax, within five minutes' walk. So I phoned up my own bank to enquire if it would be possible to chuck some cash I'd received into my account via the Lloyds branch. "Yes" came the helpful reply, from a UK-based call centre operative, "it will be credited no later than within two hours". Fabulous, I thought.

Trotted off to Lloyds. But lo, they cannot accept cash (or cheques etc). I need a Lloyds debit card. I did my best to explain I was a Halifax customer and that Halifax is part of Lloyds. But to no avail. I suggested the use of a Bank Giro slip. Nada. The cashier said she would have to go into the back office to get a form and then it would take "up to 7 working days to verify my deposit". What is there to further verify about cash the cashier would have to count and check before accepting it from me anyway!

The helpful chappie on security and crowd control/directing overheard my plight and suggested I pop to the Post Office. Which I did. I paid in using my bank card. By the time I had left the Post Office, my phone pinged to tell me my bank account had received the money.

Methinks Lloyds have not heard of computers. It works for RBOS and NatWest, so why not for Lloyds and Halifax. I would love to know how they further "verify" cash they have to count on the spot, unless they send all the coinage back to the Royal Mint.

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