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by Ron Delnevo, Managing Director, Bank Machine
Cheques Checking Out?
The Treasury Select Committee has decided to enquire into the future of cheques.
This could be seen as trying to close the stable door after the horse has bolted.
It is true that some people remain attached to cheques as a means of payment. However, the fact has to be faced that there has been a rapid decline in their use in the last decade. Quite simply, for most people, there are now better ways of making payments.
Cheque clearing is due to end in 2018. In the intervening years, further replacements for cheques will emerge so that the current remaining users will have no reason to mourn their end.
I am personally actively involved in encouraging alternatives to emerge, in my role as Chairman of the Payments Council Cheque Replacement Steering Group. All of those serving on the Steering Group are committed to ensuring the end of Cheque Clearing is used as an opportunity to make more efficient payment methods available to the UK public.
Of course, cash is and will remain the "King" of payment methods, with the public continuing to prefer warm "tenners" to cold plastic. That will not change by 2018 - or at any point in the future.
I look forward to a new and exciting future for payments in the UK, with King Cash being challenged but never usurped by "Young Pretenders"!
February 2010
Please Can We Have Our Football Back?
Britsh Football has become both the target and the victim of foreign speculators. Some people think that money is the root of all evil. It certainly causes horrible greed.
With the advent of Sky Television, money poured into British Football as never before. For a while that money stayed within the game, which is right and proper.
Then, along came the new wave of football club "owners".
First, there was a Russian Billionaire. Many were worried by this intrusion BUT at least he WAS a Billionaire i.e. he had money to invest in improving the club he bought.
The second wave of foreign intervention was, however, even more worrying. People with large appetites for profit BUT little or no money of their own arrived on the scene. Liverpool and Manchester United are now both owned by such opportunists.
This has lead to successful clubs, with sound profitability - and proud histories - becoming debt vehicles.
It is time to call time on these dangerous profiteers.
Football is too important to become the plaything of "business" men who care nothing for the game, other than its potential to provide lining for their pockets.
If they leave of their own accord, well and good. If not, they must be ejected by any legal means available.
Football can then be given back to the Public - that's you and me, by the way!
January 2010
Happy New Year - And That's A Bonus!
I must say that I think it is more than a little unfair that bankers bonuses have been singled out for so much criticism.
In truth, I think the public - that's you and me, by the way! - feel that ANY Multi-Million pound bonus is over-the-top, whatever industry the recipient happens to work in..
Of course, some would argue that objections to huge bonuses stem only from simple jealousy. Perhaps so, but part of the problem is surely that recipients of such bonuses seem all too ready to claim "I am worth it".
You know, I have never, ever, heard a supposedly spoilt footballer claim that he is "worth it" in terms of the massive tranfer fees and salaries they command. If they comment at all, it is invariably with a mixture of humility and embarrassment.
So if those in business - ANY business - want less criticism in relation to Multi Million Pound bonuses, they should take a leaf from the footballers book - AND SHOW SOME HUMILITY.
After all, the "Public" are also your Customers - and whatever consideration you can give to a Customer is definitely "worth it"!
December 2009
British Management - It IS the Business!
As someone who is lucky enough to travel the World, I am well-placed to judge the impact of Team UK around our Planet.
The first thing to say is that the BBC World Service remains the most respected and trusted provider of news. In every country where it can be heard, those listening rely on the World Service to give them the Truth.
If, in the words of the X Files "the Truth is out there", it is in large part out there because of the BBC.
Secondly, British Managers can be found in important positions everywhere.
It is clearly widely recognised that "Brits" bring personal and team-related qualities that are far above the norm.
Those qualities are in great demand and make British Management an irreplaceable asset around the Globe.
My countryman Robert Burns recognised that it is right and proper that people have a "guid conceit" of themselves.
Whilst complacency must always be avoided like the plague, British Management can rightly have the "conceit" that they continue to set a standard that others can only have as an ambition.
November 2009
Pay For Convenience OR Have A Nice Walk. That's Choice!
As you may be aware, the Bank Machine Team are very proud of the work we have been able to do to bring ATMs to communities which have not previously had ATM services or where High Street Banks have closed their branches/removed their machines.
Sometimes we are able to operate these ATMs as Free To Use. On other occasions, only Pay To Use is viable.
In any event, what we bring is a high level of service that the community in question has never enjoyed before.
In light of the good work we have been doing, I feel able to take issue with some individuals who have contacted me in relation to providing Free To Use ATMs for their areas.
Their requests are often couched in language such as "it is a disgrace that no free cash machine is available".
Disgrace? Well, if a High Street Bank has simply walked away from a community, taking its ATM with it, there may well be a genuine cause for complaint - and Bank Machine will always try to help neighbourhoods that have suffered in this way.
However, where no Free To Use ATM has ever been present, I do not believe any criticism can be leveled at the operators of Pay To Use ATMs.
They have stepped in to provide a new service and that service has to be economically viable to survive.
Part of that viability is being able to afford to pay reasonable rents to local shopkeepers. Such rents are often important in helping those shopkeepers survive, so the new ATM can be seen to be supporting the local community in two ways.
It should also be remembered that Bank Machine suggested to Link (who connect up all the ATMs in the UK) several years ago, that ALL ATMs in particularly needy areas should be subsidised so they could operate a Free To Use service.
That idea did not suit Link at the time because it may have cost as "much as" £20M a year for the whole UK..
With hindsight, most fair-minded people would see that as a tiny price to pay, particularly in the context of the losses many High Street Banks have subsequently run up in complex mortgage lending around the World.
Finally, sometimes when I am told in correspondence that there is no local Free To Use ATM, I find there actually IS such an ATM in the neighbourhood, but the writer does not feel like walking a few hundred yards to the machine in question!
Whilst appreciating that some people cannot get about very easily or even at all, it does have to be recognised that ATMs cannot literally provide a "home delivery" service.
For most of us, a nice walk would be a bonus in terms of getting out of the house and keeping fit.
So "Take Up Your Wallets And Walk" would be my sporting message to those able-bodied individuals who perhaps complain too much!
October 2009
Honouring History
Yesterday, Bank Machine restored ATM services to Rainhill Village, the home of the historic 19th Century Railway Trials, that lead to Stephensons Rocket going into public service.
Unfortunately, the last bank had left Rainhill earlier this year, leaving the 12000-strong local community without convenient access to cash.
The new ATM in Rainhill is one of about 700 Free To Use ATMs operated by Bank Machine around the UK. All of our Team are proud of the fact that, in the harsh commercial World where the word "ruthless" seems to have become a complimentary adjective, we have been able to continue to have a compassionate and caring approach to running our services.
Rainhill is a good example of where both history and compassion have been ignored. Some finance honcho, sitting in a Head Office many miles away decided a bank branch should close and that a community could be left to wither without access to cash. Are we all counting the cost of allowing too many accountants to pull the strings in big-business? That's the financial strings of course, not our heart strings!
Speaking of history and finance, a great British company, Cadbury, is now being pursued in an unwelcome fashion by Kraft, another great company some would say, but one that would apparently need to borrow the odd £5 Billion to fund the deal.
DO WE NEVER LEARN?
Gordon Brown should defy all convention and simply pick up the phone to the new US President and agree that the most suitable word to apply to this deal is "NO". This might annoy "free marketeers" but we have all become victims of the free market in packaged mortgage products and we know that free starts with the same letter as a word that is uniquely appropriate to describe the proposed Cadbury takeover - FOLLY.
Ron Delnevo
September 2009
Farming Tragedy
I was listening to BBC Radio 4 Farming Today this morning and heard a very sad story.
John Rowland, a dairy farmer in the South West, is selling his herd, ending more than a century of milk production under the management of his family.
John runs a large herd and is very efficient. He employs several people and has tremendous support from his wife and children.
For thirty years, the Rowland family worked for almost nothing, taking the optimistic approach that "next year" would be better. But "next year" never arrived.
Each month, John has been writing cheques out to the 40 suppliers who meet the needs of his farm. What was left in his bank account equated to pay of less than £2 an hour as the "reward" for all Johns hard work.
I have no easy answers. I just hope that the next time you pick up a carton of ridiculously cheap milk at your local shop, you do the same thing I did this morning. Shed a tear.
Ron Delnevo
August 2009
Too Much News
In the good old days, before we had 200 TV Channels and, specifically, dedicated (to what?) News Channels, the BBC TV and Radio News were the services people all over the World relied on.
And rely they could, because the news was as factual as could be achieved and presented in as sober a manner as possible.
Nowadays, we have 24 Hour News Stations employing photogenic and charismatic actors and actresses as news readers. There obviously are not enough soap powder adverts to fully occupy such members of Equity.
My suggestion?
Firstly, go back to selecting newsreaders for their brains, not their looks and acting talents.
Secondly, limit each news bulletin to the length of time it takes to convey the "real" news available. In other words, no fixed duration news programmes - once the news runs out, occupy the spare time with music, restful visuals - or even Soap Powder adverts!
Ron Delnevo
July 2009
Cheques - no guarantees they are forever?
It has been announced by the Payments Council that the Cheque Guarantee scheme will be withdrawn in 2011.
This news hardly caused a ripple in the media. Curious, since nearly 20 Million members of the public (that's you and me, by the way!) used guaranteed cheques in 2008.
The media's lack of interest is even more curious placed in the context that the most popular newspaper in the UK - The Sun - only has just over 3 Million customers. Imagine the surprise - and fuss - if The Sun announced it was going to cease trading.
Of course, the "experts", who are always telling us what to think and do, claim that there are electronic and plastic alternatives to cheques. Yes, and there is also an electronic version of the Sun (and every other newspqaper) available on the internet. Yet millions of us still prefer the printed version of newspapers, just as we still like to use personal cheques, with our names nicely printed on them.
In the next few years, banks will try to withdraw cheques entirely. If you value choice, personal freedom and the right to be YOU, undictated to by experts, tell your bank NOW that you still want to use cheques..
The best way to let your bank know is by using cheques as often as you can. Also, complain if the cheque paying in system doesn't work at your branch ATM.
Use them or lose them, as the saying goes!!
Ron Delnevo
June 2009
A Fiddle? We Need A New Tune.
Is anyone else getting a little(?!) tired of the MPs expenses story?
Whilst there may be a little amusement value to some in the discomfiture of the "Great and the Good", the fact is that all the monies overclaimed over the years would not pay for two miles of well constructed motorway.
Whilst MPs are spending their time defending claims that were in 99% of cases within the rules (however silly some of those rules may have been!), the vital business of getting the UK economy working again is now at about item 10 on the National Agenda.
It is time to move on - and to realise that there are no "better" politicians lurking amongst the British Public (that's you and me, by the way!). Just more average human beings likely to make the same mistakes as the current lot.
Ron Delnevo
May 2009
Looking to blame someone? Just look in the mirror!
We live in a Society where each of us has a tendency to want to blame someone else.
Neighbours, fellow commuters, bankers, social workers, politicians are all convenient scapegoats in various circumstances. Taken together, they are usually asked to carry 100% of the burden of guilt none of us as individuals want to share.
A President of the USA once had a sign on his desk proclaiming "The Buck Stops Here". Today, it always seems to stop elsewhere.
Each of us, in our own little way, is an expert in passing the buck. That's the way we avoid seeing ourselves as less than the perfect human beings most of our mothers imagine they gave birth to.
Anyway, we owe it to our fellow human beings to regularly carry out a reality check, a self-audit, if you like. In most cases, that process would lead us to admit we are at least as much sinners than sinned against.
Next time you find yourself blaming someone else, pause to consider whether you might like to share responsibility. If the answer is "yes", you have taken the first step towards making the World a better place for all of us, even if it is a little less comfortable for you personally.
Ron Delnevo
April 2009
Size Matters - and Small Works Best!
W. L. Gore are a company that manufactures thousands of different products but are most famous for Gore-Tex, that wonderful lining product that keeps feet dry in the wettest of wet conditions..
Gore are hugely successful. A century after they were founded, every year sees them recognised as one of the top 100 innovation companies in the World - and one of the top 100 companies for which to work.
How have they achieved such massive success?
BY STAYING SMALL
Gore will not have an office or factory employing more than 175 people. They believe anything larger leads to a breakdown in team spirit and cohesion: in other words, fails!
They also give their teams total autonomy: no meddling from a distant Head Office!
The rewards? The enduring success of a company that is universally respected.
You would think that many would copy the Gore approach because, quite simply, it works. Yet, they are almost unique. Most multinationals rush around creating massive (and massively expensive) structures. You will find these organisations very easily: in the queues forming to get Government support in every country in the Western World!
Ron Delnevo
March 2009
Drive Your Country To Better Times!
The worst impacted sector in the UK economy currently (apart from housing) is the car industry. Many thousands of jobs depend on our car manufacturing base, so it is time to act!
Car sales are down around 50% at the moment - yet most people who would normally have been buying/leasing a new car are better off than ever, because of falling retail prices and mortgage repayments.
Any savings we have at the moment are earning diddly-squat in terms of interest - so why bother saving?
GET OUT THERE AND BUY OR LEASE A NEW CAR - THE DEALS ARE FANTASTIC!!!
And the biggest deal of all?
YOU WILL BE HELPING TO KEEP THOUSANDS OF HARD WORKING PEOPLE IN THEIR JOBS!
Ron Delnevo
February 2009
We Are Still Working - AND Spending!
One of the most revealing statistics to appear in the last week was that ONLY 86000 more people in the UK became unemployed in the last three months of 2008.
I use the word ONLY quite deliberately.
From the media coverage it could easily be imagined that nobody has a job any more, that all of the British Public's (that's you and me, by the way!) money has suddenly been confiscated and that all British Banks are on the verge of closure.
There is something akin to hysteria being generated by the media currently. They need a few pills or, better still, to take up Yoga.
Relaxation, not panic, should be the dish of the day on the News Menu!
No one is pretending that times are easy - and it is no fun if you are one of those just made redundant. However, caution is now beginning to slow down the economy - we need more spending: and by individuals, not just Government.
So the message for February is simple - if you have been saving for a rainy day, be assured the deluge has arrived - so now is the time to SPEND!
Put another way: IF YOU HAVE GOT IT, FLAUNT IT!
Ron Delnevo
P.S. Start by buying a new car: you know you really CAN afford it, whatever the media say!
January 2009
It CAN be a good New Year!
There is much gloom abounding, often propagated by the Media.
As ever, the real solution is a whole lot simpler that the pundits ( or "experts") pretend.
First step: money must be made available for loans again. The Government, working with and through the Bank of England, must force this to happen, whatever it takes, whoevers toes they have to crush. It is a prerequisite for economic recovery.
Second step: the British Public who are still working - that's the vast majority of us, by the way - must show the confidence (the Dunkirk Spirit, if you like) to shout out a resounding "shut up!" to the peddlers of gloom. Every time a TV news item or newspaper article appears forecasting a "depression", please phone or write to complain. Bombard these serial destroyers of confidence with your message "get a life AND stop trying to ruin mine!".
Things get bad if we let them - they also get better if we make a positive effort to improve them.
It is in our hands. As usual, we Brits shall not fail!
Ron Delnevo
On the Button 2008
Sold Short By Short Sellers
The latest financial crisis has highlighted the wonderfully profitable activities of those in the City who cause share prices to fall.
Wait a minute, I hear you say, don't you mean FORECAST share prices will fall?
NO , I DON'T!
These particular bottom-feeders are not satisfied with the relatively subtle art of forecasting. They want to cause favourable (for them) outcomes, not just forecast them.
And the power of these people to influence outcomes is immense.
Don't be fooled by their protestations, e.g. "we only controlled 3% of the HBOS shares". Their downward manipulation of share prices can cause a stampede. RIP the target company.
Interestingly, the Short Sellers do not even own the shares in which they trade. They simply borrow them from the Pension Funds which manage the Public's (that's you and me, by the way) retirement nest eggs. Having loaned the shares, the Pension Fund Managers then watch to see what the Short Sellers do (er, move the share price down, stupid!) and then rush to follow.
That explains why the HBOS share price went from over £2 to about 80p in a few minutes - Short Selling followed by a stampede of the Pension Fund Managers.
When the share price has fallen, the Short Sellers buy them back cheaply and return the now less valuable shares to the Pension Fund from which they were borrowed.
If that all sounds a little crazy, that's because the interests of many - the prospective pensioners in this case - are sold down the river to suit the ends of the small number of people who short sell for a living. They become multi-millionaires whilst everyone else, including an estimated 40000 redundant HBOS staff, move closer to the poverty line.
Let's hope the temporary ban that has now been imposed on short selling in Bank Shares is made permanent. This particular facet of the Free Market needs to be curbed whilst we still have have some semblance of a Capitalist economy left.
Ron Delnevo
Leaving Team GB?
There has been quite a bit of publicity in the last few days about companies leaving Britain because of "high" corporate taxation.
When the facts are examined, it turns out Britain still has amongst the lowest corporate taxation in Europe but the Irish have slashed their company tax.
Ireland is a lovely country, but of late the economy has apparently been a little rocky. It's understandable therefore that they have taken the route of becoming a Tax Haven ( like some of the smaller Carribean islands) to try to kick start their finances.
Britain, of course, is NOT a tiny island. We remain one of the Worlds significant economic players and, as Team GB proved at the Olympics, a major force in EVERY aspect of activity on this planet.
On a personal level, I can tell you that I have travelled very extensively but never found anywhere better to live than Britain. Most Russian Oligarchs seem to agree with me because they have moved over here in their droves!
So my message to those that jump ship is quite straightforward: GOOD RIDDANCE - and wonderful Team GB won't miss you!
Ron Delnevo
Talk Cheapens
Have you ever had the feeling that the British Public (that's you and me, by the way!) are being talked into a recession?
Whenever there is the slightest sign of a problem in the economy, some "Guru" emerges to gladden our hearts by announcing things will soon be much, much worse.
And because they say so, it generally comes to pass. No doubt all of these "experts" are products of fine Universities and their brain cells could probably fill the Grand Canyon to the brim. Still, it can't be right that such people get paid by the media purely to predict doom and gloom. When did you last see an expert wheeled out to tell us that everything is wonderful?
"Happiness Headlines" apparently don't induce people to read newpapers or switch on the television news. Odd, because we DO watch films like Mama Mia. In some ways it may be the worst movie ever made but certainly does one thing the experts can never achieve - IT LEAVES US FEELING GOOD!
Ron Delnevo
ATM Signage
Since non bank ATM operators emerged in 1998 - we were the first - the ATM services enjoyed by the British Public (that's you and me, by the way!) have improved out of all recognition.
25000 ATMs in 1998: 65000 now. That growth has meant that instead of having to make special trips to bank branches to get cash, most of us have access to an ATM very near to our homes.
Yet, instead of having praise heaped on them for helping improve UK ATM service standards, non bank ATM operators have been singled out for very unfair treatment. This has culminated in Link, an organisation effectively controlled by the big financial institutions who are far removed from the sharp end of providing a decent public service, imposing ludicrous signage which covers non bank ATM screens with pricing messages.
The public didn't of course need or ask for this over-the-top signage. They knew what they were or were not paying.
Well of course no one at Bank Machine is going to be deflected from our exciting expansion by these signage excesses. Quite the opposite. In fact, we are looking to add as many ATMs to our network this year as we did last year, with our hundreds of Free-To-Use machines proving that we can operate ANY type of ATM more successfully than any other organisation in the UK.
In due course, Bank Machine will work with right-minded people in the ATM industry to free our screens up for useful public service announcements and advertising, rather than plastering them with price messages of no use to man or beast.
We have over 4 million reasons for believing what we do is appreciated by the people who really matter - because that's the number of customers we will have in July.
Ron Delnevo
Chip and Pin
You may know that ATM operators in the UK have spent £millions recently upgrading ATMs so that they can read the Chips on the ATM Debit Cards issued by British Banks.
Since Chips cannot easily be copied by potential fraudsters, this investment by ATM operators has significantly decreased ATM fraud in the UK.
If all other countries follow the UKs example of introducing Chip and Pin technology, there will soon be no safe haven for card fraudsters.
Isn't it about time that Card Schemes, instead of wasting money on abortive advertising campaigns attempting to persuade us all that plastic is better than cash, put the same resourses into making Chip and Pin the norm in all countries?
Using ATMs frequently to make small cash withdrawals is by far and away the best means of safeguarding personal security. With the UK Public (that's you and me, by the way!) committed to cash as their primary purchasing tool, it's up to the Card Schemes to ensure that our favourite access points for cash - ATMs - are secure in whichever country we use them.
Ron Delnevo
Real Cash
I have just been reading a report entitled "Europe Set To Lose Its War On Cash".
Now, you may have been happily unaware of such a conflict - but there has been one.
Card Issuers hate cash. To them it is a low profit, high cost method of payment. They much prefer card transactions - especially high interest credit card transactions.
The public (that's you and me, by the way!), on the other hand, much prefer cash. The most common word used to describe cash is "real" i.e. not plastic, not false, not likely to lead you into spending more than you have/can afford.
And for once, the public are winning the war. In Europe, including the UK, 85% of all transactions are still made using "real" cash.
Of course the card issuers will keep on trying - and they can afford to because they use the high profits they make from card users to fund advertising aimed at persuading us to use cards more! A virtuous circle - NOT!
Ron Delnevo
Building Societies - A Far From Rocky Future!
Some people are dismayed that the Northern Rock is back in public ownership - but not me.
The truth is that the Northern Rock should have remained a Building Society in the first place. Its move to PLC status has turned out to be a disaster, with all the values that make Building Societies great seemingly forgotten.
There are still over fifty Building Societies in the UK, mostly doing their business quietly, efficiently, and most important of all, with the best interests of their members firmly as their top priority.
Savers are returning to the Building Societies in their thousands as they realise the value of the genuine security and peace of mind the Societies offer.
We should all welcome the resurgence of a movement that has served the British Public (that's you and me, by the way!) well for two centuries.
Ron Delnevo
On The Button 2007
Keep The Banks In Cheque?
There is a desire amongst the major High Street Banks in the UK to replace the good old cheque with an electronic alternative.
Cheques have of course been used in declining numbers for some years. However, as recently as last year, 27 million individuals in the UK issued around 1000 million personal cheques. Hardly an unused service then!
There is of course no reason why cheques have to be used until hell freezes over. If the boffins at the Banks come up with something the UK Public (that's you and me by the way!) like better AND choose to use, that will be fine.
In the meantime, if you want to still have cheques for the foreseeable future, write more and force the Banks to keep them in use. As the saying goes, USE THEM OR LOSE THEM!
Ron Delnevo
THE NATIONAL PAYMENTS PLAN - MAKE IT YOURS!
In the very near future, public consultation on the National Payments Plan will commence, with the objective of finalising the Plan during the first half of 2008.
There is a grave danger that the public will see this as an intellectual exercise, with no practical impact on their lives.
NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.
The Plan could impact almost everything we do in our daily lives e.g.
• Will we have cheques in a few years time?
• Will we still have the same coins as we have now?
• Will cash use still be as easy as it is today?
• Will there we be common standards for contactless cards and mobile phone payment technology?
Etc, etc.
If the public don't make their wishes clear, we could end up with a Plan that suits Banks and Card Issuers but which deprives the rest of us of that most valuable asset - CHOICE.
So please don't waste this opportunity to play your part in the future of our country. Check out the UK Payments Council Website - AND MAKE YOUR VIEWS CLEAR BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
Ron Delnevo
Northern Rocky?
Northern Rock customers have had their savings guaranteed by UK PLC - but it still looks like another former Building Society is about to disappear.
In the last millenium (and it seems like a 1000 years ago!) we were told it was "progress" to have the Abbey National, Halifax, Woolwich and Northern Rock - all great Building Societies - become PLCs. They would be bigger, stronger, better able to face up to the challenges ahead.
Sadly, rather than getting stronger and remaining independent, the first three have all been taken over by major banks - and the last is now hoping to suffer the same fate!
The Building Society movement has thankfully survived despite losing some members and most that remain are determined keep their current status, rather than becoming "snacks" for large Financial Institutions.
That's good news for their customers - and good news for UK PLC as further guarantees should not be required!
Ron Delnevo
CONTACTLESS CARDS - ARE CARD ISSUERS LOSING CONTACT WITH REALITY?
Bank Machine will during August 2007 publish research that blows apart the case for "contactless" Debit Cards.
Full details will follow shortly, but just as a taster, I can today reveal that only 15% of those interviewed during the research said they were "very likely" to use a "contactless" card for purchases under £10, that amount being the maximum amount that can be approved initially without proper security e.g. a PIN, being used.
SO, SURPRISE, SURPRISE, 85% OF US (that's you and me, by the way!) ARE QUITE HAPPY TO GO ON USING CASH - YES, THAT SAME CASH THAT THE CARD ISSUERS KEEP TELLING US WE DON'T REALLY WANT ANY MORE!
This in turn has two further implications:-
Firstly, Retailers are being asked by Card Issuers to spend money on / give up counter space to accomodate this new equipment, EQUIPMENT THAT THE MAJORITY OF THE PUBLIC (that's you and me, by the way!) HAVE CLEARLY INDICATED THEY DO NOT WANT TO USE.
Secondly, no time will be saved in queues: IN FACT THERE ARE LIKELY TO BE FURTHER DELAYS, WITH THE FEW PEOPLE WHO DO TRY TO USE THESE NEW CARDS NOT BEING SURE HOW THEY WORK - OR EVEN WHETHER A PARTICULAR STORE ACCEPTS THEM.
The Card Issuers are planning for a launch of this "contactless" (£-less?) society in October this year. Thankfully for those who prefer the warm feeling that cash brings, it looks unlikely this particular "launch" will ever get off the ground.
Never mind though: I am sure the Card Issuers and their sponsoring Banks will recover the wasted investment in the usual manner:
FROM THEIR CUSTOMERS (that's you and me, by the way!).
Ron Delnevo
SMOKED OUT - OUR LACK OF CHOICE
As the ban comes into force in England, stopping smoking in enclosed public places from 1 July, it is timely to reflect on how little free choice exists in the UK today.
As a non-smoker myself, it might be thought obvious that I would favour the ban. However, whilst it is true that I do not enjoy smoke wafting over my food in restaurants, that fate somehow seems preferable to having yet another new "rule" added as to how we can choose to conduct our lives.
Choice is a very precious thing. Without it life is bland, a polystyrene tile, rather than a colourful mosaic.
Colour is a good starting point for any discourse on choice. When Henry Ford, the pioneering car manufacturer, told his potential customers, "You can have any colour of car so long as it is black", he laid bare the desire of most suppliers to limit choice. It is costly to let people choose, to give them alternatives. Why would any supplier choose to give options?
Of course, if the public had shown Mr Ford the door marked exit, it would have been a sharp lesson to all suppliers that customers have a right to choose. Sadly, that opportunity was lost as millions of black Fords were soon moving advertising sites for Henry's concept that "one fits all".
There are limits as to how lightly a customers right to chose can be taken. Gerald Ratner found that to his cost when giving the impression that a prawn sandwich from Marks and Spencer was somehow better value than an Engagement Ring from one of his Jewellery Shops. Unluckily for him, the public chose to agree and he soon used that exit door that Henry Ford had avoided.
And so to ATMs. When Bank Machine installed the very first Independent ATM in the UK in 1998, British Banks did not believe their customers deserved a choice. So they basically told their customers, "If you want cash, come to our Branches (the ones you can find amidst the Branch Closure Programmes), because that is just about the only place you will find an ATM".
In 1998, more than 75% of ATMs were at Bank Branches. Today, that figure stands at around 30%.
It is clear that Bank Machine started the process that has led to the British Public being offered a genuine choice as to where to get cash. Not, as some would have it, the choice between paying and not paying, because Bank Machine operates many free-to-use ATMs. No, the real choice is between doing what a Bank tells you to do - "come to our branch" - and doing what YOU choose to do, what suits YOUR convenience as a supposedly valued customer.
So as you stand in the hopefully small queue to use one of the 35000 new ATMs that have been installed since 1998, in your own way you are giving Henry Ford his answer: I DO HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE!
Oh, and by the way, if the ATM is outside, you can still smoke whilst waiting.
ISN'T CHOICE WONDERFUL!!
Ron Delnevo
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