Old is Gold :-O

'Back to the future' savings passbook trumps the internet

Yorkshire Building Society decision to bring back the passbook has won over its customers.

By Rosie Murray-West | Telegraph – 13 hours ago

•  
•  
• 2
• Email
• Print

• 

Image: PA

Yorkshire Building Society's 'back to the future' passbook account has become it's most popular savings offering since its launch twelve months ago, despite offering no internet access and requiring people to bank in their local branches.

Almost three times as many people are opening these accounts, which pay 2.25pc, than any other Yorkshire Account, the mutual said, proving that the old-fashioned passbook is still popular in today's world.

[Related link: The top-paying instant-access savings acounts]

Research by Yorkshire Building Society found more than three in five customers preferred the traditional branch network as their main method of managing their savings, most frequently citing customer service and convenience as the reasons for this choice.
More than half the Yorkshire's customers preferred to use a passbook to keep track of transactions on their account and almost 70pc of those surveyed favoured a branch-based account with a competitive variable rate.
"This time last year there was some scepticism in the media about whether in the age of internet banking savers really wanted a simple, traditional passbook account," said Yorkshire's Savings Product Manager Mike Helliwell.
"The fact that Triple Access Saver has been our most popular savings account since its launch speaks for itself customers appreciate the straightforward terms, ease of use and an attractive, competitive rate without any introductory bonus for a limited period."
Most banks have been phasing out passbook accounts, which require details of transactions to be entered into a book that is then produced at the bank as proof of deposits and withdrawals.
Three years ago Abbey, now part of Santander, banned customers from withdrawing small amounts from bank counters with their passbooks, because they said it created extra queues. Santander reversed Abbey's plans to phase out the passbooks altogether.
The passbook has a long and noble history. They appeared in the 18th century, putting financial information into the customers' hands for the first time. Before that, all banking transactions were recorded only by the bank itself, so that customers had no history of their own deposits and withdrawals.
Previously, customers' transactions were only kept in huge leather-bound ledgers at the bank, where they would occasionally be allowed to see what was recorded under their name and would be required to sign it. The passbook, which was around the size of a passport, ensured that customers had control over their own information, and was called a "passbook" because it regularly passed between the bank and the account holder for updating.
Yorkshire Building Society's Triple Access Account, which allows three withdrawals a year without penalty, can be opened and operated at branches of Yorkshire, Chelsea or Barnsley building societies, and the Yorkshire's agencies. The minimum opening balance is £100.

‘Green’ is good but too much of anything is bad! So, in this worsening white collar crime age, it is time to go back to ‘black & white’ systems. It turns out that our common sense is BECOMING common again J

Bibliography

Reference Cited

‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’ SAVINGS BOOK TRUMPS THE INTERNET (2012) [Online] Yahoo! Available from:

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/back-future-savings-passbook-trumps-105014798.html

[Accessed: 12 JUN 2012]