The Post Office: slow but safe

By RICHARD DYSON
Updated:

 

The Post Office is now the safest bank in Britain - but what a shame about the queues (and the peeling paint, grubby carpets and tatty posters advertising everything from phones to loans).

post office sign

Long wait: queues have been lengthened by up to 30 minutes

The Post Office, which distributes National Savings & Investments deals and Post Office-branded accounts operated by the Bank of Ireland, last week became the outlet for the safest savings available anywhere. This is because NS&I is 100% guaranteed by the Government and all savings with major Irish banks, including Bank of Ireland, are guaranteed by Dublin for the next two years.

This latter guarantee was announced last Wednesday and will apply to savings of any size until September 2010.

The news came hot on the heels of a less flattering report about the Post Office, which showed that the sweeping closure programme, which will see 2,500 branches axed by the end of the year, has caused record queues at remaining outlets.

Postwatch, which was merged on October 1 with other consumer bodies to become Consumer Focus, found average waits had increased from 11 minutes to almost 20 minutes.

In London, where more than 150 branches have shut recently, customers have to wait as long as half an hour.

When Financial Mail visited the principal Post Office branch in Epsom, Surrey, late last week, customers were aware of the greater appeal of the savings deals - but gripes about long queues were more important.

Art student Alex de Santis, 21, said: 'I was lucky today - usually the queues are dreadful.'

Another customer said: 'Bank branches are smart and clean and the queues are short while post offices look like badly run soup kitchens.'

The Post Office confirmed that news of the new Irish depositor guarantee had resulted in increased calls to its savings helplines, but there are no official figures about customer numbers in branches.

Banks and building societies, meanwhile, are enraged. Building Societies Association boss Adrian Coles says: 'We are especially concerned that two major institutions enjoying taxpayer backing - NS&I and the Bank of Ireland - have more retail outlets through the Post office in the UK than any other deposit taker.'

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