"Banks are increasingly taking advantage of the situation we are experiencing with the pandemic. And now, it seems that, in addition to demanding new conditions, they do not want to attend in the offices in person," stresses Agacose.
Specifically, this is Abanca's advertising campaign calling on its customers to 'avoid going to the banks' offices'. A campaign that, for being somewhat problematic, has forced the entity to withdraw it.
The barrage of criticism they have received responds to the messages on the billboards in which you could see phrases such as:
'Do you still come to the office for everything? If you can see the grandchildren from your tablet, you can withdraw money from the ATM'.
'Do you still come to the office for everything? If you can check news on your mobile, you can check if your pension has been paid at the ATM'.
"Undoubtedly, this strategy shows the clear objective that banks have been pursuing for some time: to leave the customer aside and treat them as just another number, but to build customer loyalty by imposing their financial products on them at all costs. Because, in the same way that they call you to take out an insurance policy with them because that way 'you save on commissions', they do not want to deal with your queries and complaints in the branches. And this may not be their objective, but it is true that this is what they are demonstrating," the association continues.
A few months ago, even in the middle of the pandemic, banks decided to raise bank account fees in an attempt to link other products to their customers. Because if collecting a salary, direct debiting a bill or having a loan with them was already abusive, now they have begun to impose the condition of taking out insurance with the entity, otherwise they charge unbearable commissions. This situation has been reinforced by the passivity of the authorities, a fact that, as CIAC has recently denounced, are totally illegal practices, recalls in the article:
"But this advertising campaign went beyond that. Now the message was aimed at the elderly. Precisely, this group of people who already had problems doing their banking transactions, were now also being given to understand that they had to manage everything through ATMs, which is not only a great obstacle, but also a great source of contagion at a time when they are the most vulnerable".
Unlike banks, Agacose points out, "insurance brokers are at the disposal of their clients to inform them, advise them and attend to all their doubts in their offices, always respecting health safety measures to prevent contagion".
"Unfortunately, although it is a campaign message, it is not far from reality. Because, in addition to the fact that the banks feed off your money and allow them to make other types of transactions, for some time now they have been putting more and more obstacles in the way of making transactions accompanied by a professional. A practice that violates, once again, the rights of consumers to have a professional to attend and solve the problems they may have, as shown in Article 21 of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007, General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users and other complementary laws".
News Source: Adn del Seguro 24/02/2021