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Why UK Banks Don't Tweet

Posted by timothy on from the gentlemen-don't-read-one-another's-tweets dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Banks in Great Britain are running scared of using social media services like Facebook and Twitter — owing to case law that dates from 1924." That case law "means financial services companies can't publicly identify an individual who has an account with them," so responding to customer inquiries in other than the traditional ways (like post and in-person) could get banks in trouble.

24 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Banks in the USA by prakslash · · Score: 3, Interesting


    In case you are wondering what kind of 'twittering' banks engage in, here is a sample from some banks in the USA.

    1. Re:Banks in the USA by fivevoltforest · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I can't believe that this is what the world has come to. "What time does the bank close?" "I don't know, you should tweet them to find out!" (http://www.banktwitter.com/banks/Bank-of-America)

    2. Re:Banks in the USA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Idiocracy was not supposed to be a manual.
      If they want instant messaging it should be done on their website and nowhere else.

    3. Re:Banks in the USA by StoatBringer · · Score: 3, Informative

      "Text banking custs, if u lose ur mobile device or chng ur mobile # update ur profile"

      Well, time to change bank to one that can spell "you".

      --
      Cress, cress, lovely lovely cress
  2. Sigh by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here I was hoping the reason would be "Because it's fucking retarded, and the executives of UK banks have brains." Oh well.

    --
    "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    1. Re:Sigh by Seumas · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Agreed. How about just answering the phone when I call in for help?

      I have had great experiences with support persons at my bank. They answer the phone reasonably swiftly and are very polite when we talk and they always seem to do as much as they can to truly help me instead of just get me off the phone. Put more effort into that and less into playing with the latest darling technology of the hipsteratti.

  3. Good Rule by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Funny

    Actually now that I know of the existence of that rule I kind of like it. There's really no need for a bank to tweet anyway:

    "All this money in my vault is getting itchy now".

    Great bank. Thanks for sharing.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  4. Yay Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why do I click on my bookmark for Slashdot anymore? What is it up to now, 50% stupid? I know the origination is the article...but come on guys, lets cover intelligent ones vs. nonsense.

  5. thankfully not! by ushere · · Score: 4, Insightful

    i really don't need my bank, and especially its staff wasting time 'socialising' - that time could be better spent either improving their service or paying additional bonuses to their ceo's....

  6. Re:AC by lxs · · Score: 2

    No need to. We can look them up in your Facebook profile.

  7. Re:Wait, by davester666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    thus ensuring the mass publication of your personal information isn't intercepted by anybody between the bank and Twitter?

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  8. Maybe to avoid a public lynching? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they have any sense the UK bankers are not tweeting so we are not reminded about their thieving asses. If the UK public remember the bankers exist and remember how they bankrupted the public purse for private gain, the UK populace just might start acting like the Libyan populace and rebelling. Who here wouldn't cheer the lynching of the bankers?

    The UK has a lot of anger, a lot of lamp-posts and plenty of rope. I wouldnt be at all suprised if the security types at the big banks advice is: Keep a low profile if you want to keep spending that stolen bonus on anything other than bodyguards.

    1. Re:Maybe to avoid a public lynching? by Joe+Jay+Bee · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You do realise that when the banks are sold again by UKFI, the Treasury (and by extension the "public purse") stands to make a huge profit by the simple act of buying the shares low and selling them high, right?

      You also do realise that most banks are private institutions who have received no government support (and so can spend their "stolen" bonus money however they damn well like it), don't you? And that at the end of the day their money has been legitimately earned through perfectly legal business activities? You think they charge too much - fine, but they have every right to do so.

      The "bankers" didn't "bankrupt the public purse". That's a facile (and depressingly common) point of view, and one that happens to be almost entirely incorrect.

      --
      I write bullshit
    2. Re:Maybe to avoid a public lynching? by jimicus · · Score: 3, Informative

      You also do realise that most banks are private institutions who have received no government support (and so can spend their "stolen" bonus money however they damn well like it), don't you?

      Lloyds TSB was pushed into taking on HBOS, which was insolvent, and as a result had to go cap in hand to the government. Lloyds own Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Cheltenham and Gloucester and Birmingham Midshires.

      Royal Bank of Scotland - who also own Natwest and Ulster Bank - also took a huge bailout.

      They may not be an outright majority of banks - they may not even have more than 50% of the UK retail banking market - but to talk it down like "most banks... have received no government support" is to vastly understate the size of the bailout.

  9. UK Banks do Tweet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Lloyds TSB, Halifax and Bank of Scotland use Twitter as a means of customer service.

    http://twitter.com/lloydstsbonline
    http://twitter.com/Halifax_Online
    http://twitter.com/bankofscot_help

    1. Re:UK Banks do Tweet by Cederic · · Score: 3, Informative

      You do realise those are all brands of the same bank?

  10. On the SEC... by yuhong · · Score: 2

    In the US, I wished that the SEC would allow tweeting material info to meet the requirements of Reg FD.

  11. Re:Wait, by Cimexus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm pretty sure you realise this, but that's not what any company uses Twitter for. They don't reveal personal/account details. But for quick, generic queries, Twitter is an excellent way to do customer service.

    My mobile telephone company uses Twitter and I've used it for asking general questions about plans, prices, availability of new phones etc. They use it to announce new services, or outage notices (e.g. "Having some issues with our towers in location X, should be back to normal by 8am tomorrow!") and things like that. I've had some issues/questions resolved by going down this route in a matter of minutes, as opposed to sitting on their customer service phone line on hold for 30 minutes then finally getting some idiot who doesn't know the answer to your question anyway.

    Plus, you can also use it for customer or account-specific queries as well, provided you already have a ticket number lodged. So lets say you called with a problem the other day and were given a ticket number. You might want to provide them with some updated info, or see what progress has been made with the issue. So you can tweet "hey any news on yet? Ticket #12345". A ticket number is useless to anyone but the company and no personal information gets revealed. My ISP does this and you usually get a reply on Twitter in a matter of minutes.

    Can't see why this kind of thing can't work for banks either (although admittedly the scope of things going 'wrong' at a bank is less: maybe some ATM outages, or general enquiry* about interest rates and accounts etc.)

    ---
    * Why the hell is Chrome underlining enquiry as being misspelt? Argh, 'misspelt' too! FFS! You'd think for a global company which has properly localised versions of all their other products and websites, that Google could put an option for Commonwealth/International English into Chrome, rather than assuming everyone uses US English. Worse than bloody Microsoft!

  12. You couldb't fit the disclaimer in a tweet by petes_PoV · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Banks couldn't fit their required legal content (regulatory bodies, contact info, privacy statement and all the rest) in a tweet, let alone make any meaningful response. Likewise a customer with a complaint couldn't say much more than "you took my money".

    Things like this need an audit trail. They need proper recording and most of all they need credibility. Tweeting (and FB, for that matter) don't offer any of these. They're fine for children to fantasise about who they luuuuuuuuuuuv that week (or hour) but for real-world applications they are worthless.

    Even if banks did tweet I can't see any customers with an ounce of sense using the facility. Who'd put their account data in such an unsecured and unvalidated form?

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
  13. Re:Wait, by Cimexus · · Score: 2

    Outages was one example. Not the most common one but the first thing that sprung to mind that people would find useful to know. I live in Australia which is most definitely industrialised, but floods and storms etc. happen and can cause short term disruption to phone networks as I'm sure you are aware!

    Snarky little comment too: do you really think a telco in the non-industrialised world would use ~Twitter~ of all things?

  14. Not exactly true. by PixelSmack · · Score: 2

    Here is the Twitter account of Lloyds TSB (A British Bank) https://twitter.com/LloydsTSBOnline/ - it does seem to be the only one though.

    1. Re:Not exactly true. by Arancaytar · · Score: 2

      They might legally be in the clear, since no account information is exchanged. Someone with an account and someone without an account can equally ask for and get generic troubleshooting advice, so their response doesn't confirm the individual actually has an account.

      Though the "Send your (phone) number via Direct Message" (which came up in one recent public tweet) sounds concerning. Third-party communication systems shouldn't be assumed private (which is also why I wouldn't communicate with my bank via email unless they miraculously figure out how to use PGP.)

  15. Re:Wait, by mcgrew · · Score: 2

    If we don't have a law like that, we should. It would be illegal under HIPPA for a doctor to tweet like that. Look, guys, there's no reason whatever for a bank to use social networking. Email, sure, but not facebook. They're different tools for different purposes. You don't use a butter knife to tighten a screw if you have a screwdriver handy.

    --
    Free Martian Whores!
  16. Re:Wait, by LazyBoot · · Score: 2

    Why the hell is Chrome underlining enquiry as being misspelt? Argh, 'misspelt' too! FFS! You'd think for a global company which has properly localised versions of all their other products and websites, that Google could put an option for Commonwealth/International English into Chrome, rather than assuming everyone uses US English. Worse than bloody Microsoft!

    You need to look harder... I'm currently using "English (United Kingdom)" and have been for quite a while.