What is the rationale behind Banks keeping such limited hours? Most people can’t take the time away from their working day to contact the Bank, so the best time is after working hours or on weekends, and yet all Banks are closed at those times, even their support and Call Centres.
What’s the deal with this madness? No other business operates this way, they all have at least some limited access after hours, and do so without a problem. And obviously it’s not about affording to do it, because Banks have bajillions to spend on such things, most of which is taken via questionable and unnecessary fees.
Is there any real explanation for this unfair behaviour?
Tradition and inertia. I know that doesn’t sound very factual, but it’s how it is. Some banks are opening on Saturdays now. Rarely Sundays, these seem to mostly be in grocery stores.
Maybe you just need to switch banks. Where do you live?
I live in San Jose. The nearest Wells Fargo branch is open all day Saturday. If I want to go a mile and half from home, that branch is open 10-7 every day except Sunday, when it’s open 10-4.
My bank (UK) is open on Saturdays, and the main call centre is open 24/7 - although some of the specific call centre departments aren’t. Plus, of course, ATMs are operational 24/7.
I am not a banking insider, but in pre-computer days banks spent a few hours conducting transactions, then the clerks had do spend a number of hours booking the transactions. I suppose this was alleviated somewhat in the Information Age, although I’ll bet there is still work that the bank employees have to do after the lobby is closed.
With the advent of ATMs (I think I first used one around 1977), you no longer need to queue up to get cash, which was a huge source of transactions before that.
That being said, my bank is Bank of America and the closest branch is open 9-5 plus Saturday mornings. Drive-up is open until 7:00. ATMs are open all the time. That pretty much covers any possible banking need I ever have. I suppose this scheduling would be difficult for someone with a retail business account who needs to deposit checks, for example.
I do not need the Bank for money purposes in this instance - they have ATMs out the wazoo and online banking, all very good and useful that I partake of quite readily and are available at all hours of the day and night.
But I need specific information from them about my accounts, so I travelled into the Bank at my lunch hour to ask. They said that they did not have the information I sought, I would have to call a number instead. Strange, but whatever.
I didn’t call straight away, I had to have my lunch and then get back to work. I planned instead to call when I got home and had some free time.
I did that. The automatic voice said “Please call again during normal business hours, 9 - 5PM weekdays” or whatever it was. And I thought, for phone access only, that was ridiculously outdated, and seemed to align with this crazy situation of the physical Bank buildings only being open at the most inconvenient times possible.
Are only American banks online? I think the only time I’ve talked to a person at my bank was a few years ago when I went in to get something notarized. Aside from that, I have access to the same information the bank has regarding my accounts. I never considered it wasn’t that way in most developed countries. Ignorance fought.
In NYC, many banks stay open to 9pm, I can’t think of any bank that isn’t open on the weekend at least one day, and doesn’t have at least 6 day/wk phone service. Even when I lived in a town of 9,000, our local bank branch was open on Saturdays. Where do you live?
Yeah, I can do everything I want to do with my bank online, except one thing. Until matter transmission is perfected, it will be difficult to access your safe deposit box online.
Quitcherbitchn, you young whippersnappers! Back in my day ALL banks were open only from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, weekdays only. That’s where the term “banker’s hours” came from.
It’s a lot better than it used to be. I remember I was a kid in the late 80s and a branch of my mother’s bank was open on Sundays in Naperville. I remember her being in shock any back would be open on a Sunday.
I used to work in banking, ten years back. Back then we were open till four (or when the last customer left, whichever was later) on Mondays through Thursdays, till six (or when the last customer left, whichever was later) on Fridays, and half a day on Saturdays. Our branches in grocery stores – where you could open and close demand deposit accounts (checking & savings) but not do things like start a mortgage or line of credit, would be open till 7 on weekdays and, I think, until 5 or 6 on Saturdays. And of course ATMs were and are available 24 hours a day.
Trust me - there’s a huge amount of “back shop” work that goes on at night, and it’s all got various deadlines. It’s not like the people in the data center can just turn out the lights at 6 PM and go home. We’ve got so much stuff processing at night that for some systems, there’s only a couple of hours at about 3 AM where planned work like patching servers or upgrading network hardware can be done.
The simple answer: Because they can. But at least one bank in Canada (TD Bank which is also operating in the US) has a whole ad campaign based on opening 8AM-8PM six days a week with at least some Sunday hours. The ads show two old codgers (my age at least) looking at their calendar watches and unable to believe that the watches claim it is Sunday because the bank is open. A year ago, the same codgers were incredulous that the bank was open till 8. Nowadays I suppose the clerks have to do things like count cash (just like supermarket clerks), but basically all the operations are automatically posted. And yes, all banks are online. There are still some transactions I have to go to the bank for (e.g. paying driver’s licence bills and tax bills for which I still need a receipt, although they are gradually moving online too). Also, my wife still gets cheques for her translation business and she has to deposit them (and she won’t do it in a machine). I don’t think I’ve gotten an actual cheque in years.