Drive-thru banking: would you like fries with that transaction?

No need to find and pay for parking, I may try it out.

I’m not sure if I would use this, but at least it does not present a new security risk – unlike many of the new developments in the banking sector.

I’m sure that Clydesdale Bank used to have a drive-through counter at Piccadilly Circus until the 1990s. No doubt they withdrew it when telephone banking and subsequently online banking replaced cheques.

It’s hardly surprising that this concept is big in the US because of their banking system’s reliance on cheques. Although most developed countries abolished cheques long ago, if you make a payment in the US by online banking to a third party, your bank doesn’t send an electronic payment as would happen in any other country, but your bank puts a cheque in the post to the payee. As the UK has mostly moved away from cheques (but is still lagging behind most other developed countries), I don’t see the need for drive-through banking, except for cash machines.

My bank’s on-line banking system is down today. Thank goodness I can issue a cheque. A drive-through bank sounds like a ram raid! I suppose if this takes off, town centre branches will close and new outlets will appear on the ring roads and by-passes alongside the retail sheds. I hope Metro Bank check the water in the dog bowls to make sure it is still potable – good way to attract new deposits.

This sounds like a great idea to me – I would definitely use drive-thru banking. In my town, cash machines are fairly sparse, and to get to one often requires paying to park, or stopping in inconvenient places.

Providing a drive-through banks (I have not gotten accustomed to terms such as ‘drive-thru’) would be expensive. Most of my visits to my bank are to post cheques accompanied by paying-in slips through the door when I pass the branch. What would be a real help is to have short-term parking near banks. The NatWest and HSBC banks near to my home are near a crossroads on busy roads.

Thank goodness for cash dispensers at supermarkets and anywhere else with convenient parking.

I also think we should consider those who manage to survive without a car more than those who cannot be bothered to do more than open the driver’s window.

I used the Metro Bank drive-through at Slough to get £30 cash on Wednesday. The right lane has full counter service and works fine, though I was surprised to have to sign rather then enter a PIN. I have suggested that the website should say more about the facilities at the drive-through.