Bank branches closing - whose fault is it?

jonesMUFCforever

A_Nice_Englishman wrote: »

Wouldn't it be great if customers knew which would be the last bank left in their town so they could move their accounts there to save the inconvenience of travelling and hopefully make it busy enough to be viable long term?

This is where most people get the wrong end of the stick!
Using your branch to deposit and withdraw cash and cheques is a massive expense for a bank with branch, staff rates, heating etc etc costs.
To make a branch profitable you need to buy stuff from them - loans overdrafts cards mortgages life cover home insurance etc etc - that will make them money.

However if you a long term reader of these boards you can get better deals 90% of the time elsewhere.

deadendwaterfall

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Length of remaining lease will be a major factor. NatWest have relocated where I am to a far more central town position. In the process uprading the branch to the 20th century. Change is a long slow process. There'll be an undisclosed strategy in place. Which will drip feed to the media.

In Hull city centre, there was a building built specifically for use as a bank, the Hull Savings Bank, which got taken over by TSB, then became a branch of Lloyds TSB, then Lloyds, then closed after relocation to a smaller unit that was originally a clothing shop, and is much nearer to one of Hull's major through roads.

So although in much smaller premises, they are getting much more footfall as it's nearer to major shops than on George Street further up from Jameson Street, as on George Street, it was a bit out of the way from the shops.

That former bank is now in the process of getting converted into flats.

A_Nice_Englishman

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

This is where most people get the wrong end of the stick!
Using your branch to deposit and withdraw cash and cheques is a massive expense for a bank with branch, staff rates, heating etc etc costs.
To make a branch profitable you need to buy stuff from them - loans overdrafts cards mortgages life cover home insurance etc etc - that will make them money.

However if you a long term reader of these boards you can get better deals 90% of the time elsewhere.

I'm not sure I follow your argument? Even if there aren't enough customers in Smallville buying stuff to support five banks there may well be enough to support one. But they would all need to switch to that bank and use their local branch, not travel to Largeville .

Or how about the banks sharing premises with staff from different banks alongside each other sharing the overheads? Or maybe different banks using the premises on different days?

aj23_2

We are to blame. When I say we, I mean those who do all their banking online and do everything electronically, who see it as an absolute chore to go into a branch. If you don't use their branches, they will close. Simple. Then the very same people will say 'oh isn't it bad that X amount of people (in the thousands) have lost their job' despite them being the ones who directly caused it. Those people will find it hard to find another job because they won't be available anymore.

All branches still offer the same services. The point about being able to do things on ATM's is moot, you can still use the counter for all transactions. If anything, branches offer even more now than they did before. Look at what you can do in Virgin Money stores and Metro Bank branches. They all have telephones for telephone banking, Wi-Fi for phones and laptops, some even have iPads and computers in them for you to use. My local refurbed Nationwide has a tea and coffee lounge, children's play area and even a dog's water station.

Same with the high street. Don't want them to fail and go, then stop buying your food online and delivered and stop buying everything else on Amazon. Go out, walk, get fresh air, interact with others instead of sitting at home on your phone or laptop being a mute.

No one seems to have time for anything anymore. We've become very arrogant, selfish and bothered by perceived inconvenience as a society.

aj23_2

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

This is where most people get the wrong end of the stick!
Using your branch to deposit and withdraw cash and cheques is a massive expense for a bank with branch, staff rates, heating etc etc costs.
To make a branch profitable you need to buy stuff from them - loans overdrafts cards mortgages life cover home insurance etc etc - that will make them money.

However if you a long term reader of these boards you can get better deals 90% of the time elsewhere.

You mean like any other businesses rates, expenses wage bills and methods of generating profit. Ha. That is called business. Banks are businesses. As with any business, no customers = no business. Banks are rolling in it, don't be fooled.

takman

aj23 wrote: »

We are to blame. When I say we, I mean those who do all their banking online and do everything electronically, who see it as an absolute chore to go into a branch. If you don't use their branches, they will close. Simple. Then the very same people will say 'oh isn't it bad that X amount of people (in the thousands) have lost their job' despite them being the ones who directly caused it. Those people will find it hard to find another job because they won't be available anymore.

All branches still offer the same services. The point about being able to do things on ATM's is moot, you can still use the counter for all transactions. If anything, branches offer even more now than they did before. Look at what you can do in Virgin Money stores and Metro Bank branches. They all have telephones for telephone banking, Wi-Fi for phones and laptops, some even have iPads and computers in them for you to use. My local refurbed Nationwide has a tea and coffee lounge, children's play area and even a dog's water station.

The reality is that bank branches are unnecessary now there are so many other ways to manage your bank accounts. Everything can be done online and on the phone so why would anyway want to waste time going to a branch?. The only thing you can't do is pay in cash but as society becomes more and and more cashless there is little need to pay in cash now unless your a business.

You can't expect people to waste time going to a branch when they have no need too.

aj23 wrote: »

Same with the high street. Don't want them to fail and go, then stop buying your food online and delivered and stop buying everything else on Amazon. Go out, walk, get fresh air, interact with others instead of sitting at home on your phone or laptop being a mute.

No one seems to have time for anything anymore. We've become very arrogant, selfish and bothered by perceived inconvenience as a society.

Just because people do all their banking and shopping online doesn't make them stay at home mutes!.

I do all my banking and most of my shopping online as that means i can do it all when i have a spare few minutes using my phone. That means when i do have free time i can spend it with my family going to interesting places and going away on weekends.

Taking my family to the local bank branch to carry out some banking transactions isn't exactly our idea of spending quality time together :rotfl:

aj23_2

takman wrote: »

The reality is that bank branches are unnecessary now there are so many other ways to manage your bank accounts. Everything can be done online and on the phone so why would anyway want to waste time going to a branch?. The only thing you can't do is pay in cash but as society becomes more and and more cashless there is little need to pay in cash now unless your a business.

You can't expect people to waste time going to a branch when they have no need too.



Just because people do all their banking and shopping online doesn't make them stay at home mutes!.

I do all my banking and most of my shopping online as that means i can do it all when i have a spare few minutes using my phone. That means when i do have free time i can spend it with my family going to interesting places and going away on weekends.

Taking my family to the local bank branch to carry out some banking transactions isn't exactly our idea of spending quality time together :rotfl:

But that's your opinion. I can't remember the last time I went to an empty branch. There are always people in there using the counter, ATM's or in appointments. If you don't go to them, how would you know? You can't comment on something as fact if you don't experience it. People in the branches clearly don't think it's a waste of their time. The amount of times I've heard people saying at the counter that they won't or don't bank online and have no desire to. I don't see why I should carry out banking transactions myself when bank clerks are paid to do it; that's their job and it enables them to be employed and pay taxes for the services we all use. Higher unemployment = less taxes and reduced services.

I still see my friends most days/evenings and weekends and go to Tesco and Santander. So I don't see the relevance of your point here. You're inferring that if you physical go somewhere to bank and shop then you have no time for anything else. There is something quite insular about spending all your time on your phone.

No one said you had to take your family to a branch to spend quality time together? Again, there isn't a point here.

takman

aj23 wrote: »

But that's your opinion. I can't remember the last time I went to an empty branch. There are always people in there using the counter, ATM's or in appointments. If you don't go to them, how would you know? You can't comment on something as fact if you don't experience it. People in the branches clearly don't think it's a waste of their time. The amount of times I've heard people saying at the counter that they won't or don't bank online and have no desire to. I don't see why I should carry out banking transactions myself when bank clerks are paid to do it; that's their job and it enables them to be employed and pay taxes for the services we all use. Higher unemployment = less taxes and reduced services.

But it's a fact that you can do everything apart from paying in cash without having to visit a branch, that's not an opinion. If that wasn't true then there wouldn't be banks like first direct, tesco etc that have no branches.

So if a bank wants to close branches because they are an unnecessary expense then i don't see a problem with that. The fact that people will loose jobs is something that has happened time and time again over the years as progress is made and new jobs are created to replace them.

I'm sure you wouldn't suggest we go back to having oil street lights instead of electric to bring back the jobs for people who light them at night or get rid of computers and bring back typewriters to bring back all the jobs of the typists that were lost etc...

aj23 wrote: »

I still see my friends most days/evenings and weekends and go to Tesco and Santander. So I don't see the relevance of your point here. You're inferring that if you physical go somewhere to bank and shop then you have no time for anything else. There is something quite insular about spending all your time on your phone.

No one said you had to take your family to a branch to spend quality time together? Again, there isn't a point here.

But carrying out banking and shopping on a phone takes hardly any time at all and certainly much less time than going into a branch or looking around shops.
I'm not saying that going to a physical branch takes up all your time but it still wastes valuable time that i would much rather spend doing things i want to.
What other activities do you suggest that people should go to a physical location for that can be done online/telephone?. Should we all go to physical insurance brokers instead of comparing online?, should we all go to a shop to top up gas and electric instead of paying by direct debit/topping up online?.

I would rather spend 5-10 minutes on my phone/computer when i have some spare time to carry out mundane tasks like banking, shopping and buying insurance etc to get it out the way. I then have the rest of my spare time to do the stuff i want to.

You must have a pretty boring life if going to a bank branch to carry out some banking is at the top of the list of things to do at that particular time.

EarthBoy

aj23 wrote: »

I can't remember the last time I went to an empty branch. There are always people in there using the counter, ATM's or in appointments. ....People in the branches clearly don't think it's a waste of their time. The amount of times I've heard people saying at the counter that they won't or don't bank online and have no desire to.

None of what you say negates what Takman said. Just because people use branches, it doesn't mean the branches are necessary, it only means that people like to use them, for whatever reason. On the rare occasions I use branches, -usually to pay cheques in, most people in front of me in the queue are carrying out transactions they could do online.

aj23 wrote: »

I don't see why I should carry out banking transactions myself when bank clerks are paid to do it;

What will you do when there are no convenient branches to use?

mgdavid

aj23 wrote: »

....... The amount of times I've heard people saying at the counter that they won't or don't bank online and have no desire to. ..........

of course you do, all the luddites are gathered together in the same place... but as the generations pass so the number of luddites reduces. Once critical mass in a given location is lost, the branch will be ripe for closure. Increased efficiency and reduced costs are good for shareholders including me.