Banks- or should I say the lack of them!

[austina40sam]

I dont know if it is just me or weather anyone else on here is effected or not.

I go into my local bank the other day (im with barclays). They have a great big sign on the bank which reads "why wait in a que when you can do it all online!" Then the bank were unable to do what i asked as they had problems with there softwhere! As a result I had to go back the next day.

I go back the next day and they did what I asked and then they told me that from the 9th of August they would no longer be serving customers if they were withdrawing less then £300. These days i only tend to withdraw about £230 but im one of these people that think cash is king and I use it for everything. They said to me that I would have to either use a cash piont or use the post office. 3 days later and I have a letter saying that my local barclays bank would be closing for good on the 29th of Oct.

Maybe its just me but I think Banks are such an important thing to have in a town and i think it is very sad to see them all closing. I dont do banking online and I wouldt want too. I like to be served my a real human being! It will have to be the post office for me from now on.

[monty]

Barclays in Buckingham was the ideal bank for me, having 3 disabled parking spaces outside it's door. I can walk about 20 yards before becoming breathless. They now have a notice in the window stating the branch has been closed. Basically all the major banks have had greatly reduced profits due to their greasy and questionable trading methods. Remember the payment protection insurance misspelling as a minor example. They are now trying to increase profits by increasing charges, reducing staff, closing and selling off branch sites.

[austina40sam]

I dont know if you saw Monty but it was in the paper the other day that Barlcalys have made somthing like 4.6 billion in profits in the last 6 months! I thnk it is terrible how they have treated there customers.

[Mike Hodgson]

When I complained re lack of branches I was told "you can do it all on your phone " .Now that does annoy me ,they presume everyone has a smart phone or a computer where in truth many do not and no allowance is made for the fact.

[austina40sam]

I know just what you mean Mike. The banks say the same to me. But a phone cannot withdraw you out a large sum of money when you want it. Say I went to buy another car tomorrow, it will now be much harder to withdraw out a large sum of money and then the people behind the desk look at you like your stupid for doing it. Okay I know I could write a cheque for the given amount but for me I like to count out each note and see where my hard earnt money is going. Sadly a lot of people don't think like this now.

[exlkrs]

I rarely use a branch, but went to pay a cheque in last month (a rarity now I know), they were sniffy about that, and surprised me by saying 'Oh, just photograph it and upload the photo!!'

[Dave the rave]

"Photograph it" ......really Upload it where though

[Stoney13]

there was five banks in my village i say village but now its more like a town dam builders and greedy council, any way back to the point of this we now have one which i dont think will be there much longer, the town nearest to me is wsm which have closed two banks recently due to covid so they say " when staff was working at home" this is the new norm

[Keith Bennett]

The banking industry is approaching very thin ice when it comes to relying increasingly heavily on electronics. When the Roman empire was at its height, citizens from all over the empire were obliged to send 'tributes' to Rome (a form of taxation). But over the course of only twenty years or so, those citizens in far-off places (like the UK) began to notice that if they didn't send the loot, nobody seemed to notice. The slowing of tributes began to impact on the running of the empire and, as money in Rome started to become more scarce, so the services were forced to constrict with the inevitable consequence that the empire's decline accellerated to the point where the entire empire collapsed.

So with today's banks: Mike rightly points out that many people don't possess smart phones or "even" computers. The point may come where the utilities will find increasing degrees of bad debt as customers simply can't transer money. Once the chancers realise that, too, then they themselves will not pay. The utilites will have to resort more and more on expensive debt collection agencies, and so the downward spiral will continue.

Happy days!

[exlkrs]

Arghh! Had some cash to pay in today. Visited 3 branches of Barclays that were definitely there last month, now all signs that they ever existed are erased! Fourth attempt, at larger town, counter service now 10-2 only, otherwise use automated stuff. It was five to two, and they were well peed off I insisted on paying in at the counter!