Disappearing Banks

Yes! Tizliz,and recently Link which supplies most of the cash machines in the UK announced it was scaling them back! Many places now only have those hideous fee charging machines which make the user pay £1.50 for taking cash out! Many people on low incomes will struggle if cash machines go this way!

I think the fact the banks are stating people aren't using them is absolute poppycock ?.
There will always be people who can't /won't/don't want to use online banking & why should they? Online banking does not cover all the services a bank provides! Money grabbing gits.......

The problem with no banks here is the inability to get cash. This is a tourist area and b&b only take cash. I can’t see tourist queuing in the P.O. (in the Spar) to get cash.

I was passing the nearest bank yesterday so used cash machine - it was empty.

We can also pay in cheque s at the post office but the queues are awful. Our wee bank was always busy.

I live in Fife, the RBS closed one small branch after another till there are now only 4 in the whole county. They seem to be permanently queued out the door. They have not put on any extra tellers to deal with the extra clientele. I have had no option but to start online banking, my husband has not done so. Yesterday the bank made an error, so he contacted them online. They wouldn't deal with his query as he doesn't do online banking - so he had to drive to the nearest large town and wait bloody ages to be served. They said they closed the branches due to falling trade but we knew some of the staff and they said they were just as busy as ever! The RBS bosses have creamed off profits leaving the ordinary staff and customers to suffer. It's a disgrace!

I am guilty of online banking. If I receive a cheque for some reason or another I can pay it into my village post office . I can also withdraw money over the counter at the same time as I have a horror of ATM's.Folk have their accounts cleaned out due to disclosing their personal information.It is advisable to change your passwords every now and then.

Our nearest Clydesdale closed down many years back and we all got used to going to the next village where the bank became very busy indeed. That has now closed down too and we have to go to a town 30 miles away which is much more difficult all round. The most recent village closure was fought tooth and nail by all involved. I've never known a bank so continuously busy and it made no sense. The distant town branch promised all sorts of new things, like being open on a Saturday, but that lasted just a few weeks. Then they suddenly started sending private mail to the wrong address and when I finally managed to get down to the branch, they made me discuss it with a teller while a large queue built up behind me. None of the three staff within the town bank would come to the information window. Despite many phone calls and complaints it took months for them to admit and sort their mistake and there has still been no apology. The banks are trying to force us to go to internet/telephone banking by making it so difficult to use the branches. For some of us, internet banking is a scary and difficult option (if simply trying to get a wrong address sorted is anything to go by). Their other tactic is to issue a number which is supposed to be for the branch you are with, but which just rings out unanswered and with no option to leave a message. I shall be changing banks after more than 40 years, but there is no guarantee that the new bank will stay open either.

I sometimes have to pay cash in to my account or for one of my daughters.
I admit to not using the branch very often now, but I do use phone banking (not internet).
I would be surprised if we can go completely cashless, as lots of transactions for tiny amounts are not worth using a card for, and in any event many of the retailers charge for card transactions if the customer spends below £5

How many people who complain about branch closures actually conduct any profitable business through their bank? There seems to be a misconception that visiting a branch and paying in the odd cheque, or having a chat with a cashier keeps a bank ticking over financially. I expect lots of us on Gransnet have our funds tied up in premium bonds, investment bonds and National Savings with maybe our pensions paid to us via a bank. Banks, like any other retail outlet, need to cover their costs to remain open.

My hairdressers doesn’t accept cards so they have to pay cash and cheque takings into a bank. They were forced to change their bank after many years with them when the local branch closed recently. Lots of other businesses must be in the same boat.
Not sure how they would cope if the last bank in town closed down.

I think the answer to your question "don't they care about their customers any more" mrsmopp is:

No they don't

It really is all down to supply and demand. Banks can't keep unprofitable branches open or their shareholders would be angry and we should all remember that it is very likely we are the shareholders. Anyone who has a pension is probably a share holder in some such organisation. It isn't all wealthy people who own shares.

Really tough if you need to use a branch and there isn't one near you. We don't so it is fine for us to use online banking.

Marge most of the people who have been hacked haven't got proper additional security on there online banking , too easy passwords and no avg security or the like. You can get free versions of avg and avast security which are paid for by advertising.

I am not saying it doesn't happen to people who have good security however it's extremely much harder if you haven't got good security. Also alot of people aren't savvy with scams and keep up to date.

I have lost count of the amount of people I know whose security is appalling and had to sort out there laptops etc for them.

2 of our sons work in software developement and software engineering. Our 3rd son has his own business site. I have been bought up by mine with virtual.

The internet and online banking is as safe as you make it. Infact safer in some ways as you aren't going to a cash machine and withdrawing cash where someone can watch you, mug you and so on. Pitfalls to everything.

Regarding the question on high street banking. Our local branch recently closed. We have to go into the main branch if we need to deal with a person.

I can understand the frustration however branches just aren't used anymore like they were. I probably need to go in the bank once a year. The last time was to pick up a new security key as I had lost my old one.

Our adult children and grandchildren have and will grow up with online banking. There is always something for each generation as they age to struggle with.

My late mom struggled with alot or new innovations before she died.

I’ve been using online banking happily for about twenty years.
But it means fewer and fewer people need a physical bank. I can’t think why they don’t combine different banks and perhaps the post office to offer a human banking service in every town.
It’s still a service that older people in particular need. I suppose as you age you end up with your children (if you are lucky enough to have children living nearby) doing your banking online for you. The Government doesn’t help by only paying pensions and benefits into bank accounts.
I seem to remember about thirty years ago that “pension day” was Thursday and all the pensioners went into our local town to collect their pensions from the post office and do their shopping.

HSBC in our small town closed down last year leaving a Barclays and an under staffed Post Office in the Co-Op. So that means that businesses who bank with HSBC now clog up the already busy Post Office. We wonder how long Barclays will stay. The lovely HSBC building is now looking decrepit and supposedly is going to be a Costa, as if we need another coffee shop, we already have lots of lovely tea rooms.

I’m happy to do my personal banking online but as treasurer for 4 organisations I need to be able to get to a bank. The one in our nearest town has closed and there are rumours that the one in the next town is also going to close. That will mean a 20mile round trip every time, at my own expense as we are all volunteers.

No bank in our small town now and just a mobile service which is not reliable, has no disabled access and clearly they do not care about people. It is just too cold to hang about in a queue so yesterday we went to the nearest town specially to go to the bank branch there only to discover that they are closed for two weeks with a sign on the door directing customers to another bank another 11 miles further on. We gave up at that point.
We do use Internet Banking but there are things for which you need to use the services of a physical bank and clearly the bank's do know this because they are trying to make it look as if they are still providing the required services with their smoke and mirrors version of difficult to use mobile facilities.

It is all part of moving to the 'cashless society' so that the powers that be, albeit purporting to be actually working for us, can monitor us all much more closely. Asset stripping so that the CEOs at the top can have vastly inflated salaries. No wonder they have totally lost touch with 'The man on the Clapham Omnibus' and no wonder there are people moving over to other systems like 'LETS,' the Local Exchange Trading System, we will be bartering again before long.
Another case of 'Use it or lose it' - if you can!

I got quite angry when 2 small post offices in local large villages were designated for closure just a couple of miles apart. Nearly 40 were due to close across UK, and and 2 were next to each other! It was made worse by the elderly age profile in this county.

I can't understand why, say, two banks can't share one premises.
They would save money and still be providing a much needed service for villages and small towns.

I am another one who is very wary of online banking.

We had 5 banks in our small market town but are now reduced to two and the Halifax. The market place itself housed two of these banks so it now only has a kebab shop left in it - the ATM's have obviously closed too. The post office has moved twice and is now in a shop. We've used online banking for years but feel for the shop owners who need to pay cash in and those who do not understand or want to do everything online. Just another example of the High Street being decimated forcing everyone to go out of town.

I am the same as grannyticktock, rarely go into my bank having used online banking for years and go to the post office to pay in cheques. I have never had any issues with online banking although I did once have money taken fron my current account but the method used was not linked to online banking - it was a foreign scam which used random account numbers. I got all my money back immediately and in fact my bank noticed the scam before I did!

However, there are many people who do not have access to the Internet or do not wish to use online banking but I guess their numbers are dwindling as younger people are generally more internet savvy.

My mum at 85 does not have the Internet and struggles to use the multitude of phone instructions to press this button or that one to speak to a human being! I have to take her to her branch but in reality, she does not need to go more than a couple of times a year.

I am constantly reading that the reason for bank closures is that customers prefer online. Prefer? That's not been my experience when discussing this with many people. Fact is, I am regularly asked by banking staff if I've ever considered online. I reply with a yes and no thanks. I have their dreaded telephone surveys after a branch visit (another waste of time and money) and, yet again, online banking is recommended. Give me strength! Fact is, banks don't want branches and certainly not human beings crossing the threshold. I do so wish we could manage without them lock stock and barrel.

I was in Nationwide last week and told that I couldn't pay money into my son's account only a cheque!
As I waited in the queue behind several very elderly people I read a notice which said 'we are closing one of our tills and will arrange computing skills courses for customers" One elderly lady couldn't even work the automatic door on her way out!

I haven't used an actual bank branch for at least 30 years. Before switching to online banking, we banked by telephone and post. Now I do almost everything online or using ATMs or the Post Office. If I need to speak to a human being I can do so in the comfort of my home, using the phone.

We had 3 banks. One is now a hairdresser, another is a Costa and the last one has now vanished. We do have a little post office, btut it's very small and cramped, and 3 people make a crowd. There are lots of older people here who do not have internet banking, nor would they wish to. They now rely on friends and family to drive them to the nearest branch.

I realise that the older generation has to make way for the younger in many ways, but we are still here! I'm OK as I am the queen of the internet in my street, but I do feel for people who have no options left.