Santander closing down more than 100 branches

Thrugelmir

armith said:

Katiehound said:

Looks like my local branch is staying open (I don't bank there)
My understanding is that because it is such a tiny branch ( it is teeny weeny) you can not get social distancing so it has been closed for much of the time... and the closest branch otherwise is 15 miles away.
Luckily we have a full collection of the others in town ... (at the moment!)

 it would be good if Santander allowed cheques to be payed in via the app if they are closing branches.

Post Offices accept (cheque) deposits for all the major banks. All the Santander branches being closed are within a reasonable distance of one. Otherwise send it by post. 

Billy_B_North

20SmthngSver said:

More people to lose their jobs. As usual, it's the low income workers who are suffering while the big earners at head office pocket the profits. How we expect to be able to have people in employment, paying tax for public services with so many things going online and losings skills and knowhow I don't know. Especially at a time like this, it's not like the banks don't make enough money. These poor people losing their jobs. Like the 900 at TSB from 140 branch closures, typically small village/town branches, where people have greater decency on them.

You’ll know from this site how many people never pay a penny in fees, open accounts just to switch out of them to get a reward, and demand compensation if any mistake is made. These customers are just a drain on the bank, and inevitably banks will respond by cutting costs.
It’s no use making full use of free banking, extracting every penny of value that you can, and then complaining when the expensive branches are closed down.

huw01

I do wonder how any people who still visit branches solely to withdraw cash over the counter, or to pay cash in. When I've been in (which really isn't often) it does seem to be mainly older customers with simple cash withdrawals or deposit transactions that seem to be in branch. Also those who want to transfer an amount from one account to another, there is no point keeping it in a separate deposit account anymore. I guess you can't blame them that as the post office now offer these services to all banks now, why would they duplicate the service ?
My late father always used to do the same with Barclays until they closed the branch , after it was closed he used the post office in the village to do exactly the same thing. It actually saved him having to drive and park in town.

IvanOpinion

20SmthngSver said:

More people to lose their jobs. As usual, it's the low income workers who are suffering while the big earners at head office pocket the profits. How we expect to be able to have people in employment, paying tax for public services with so many things going online and losings skills and knowhow I don't know. Especially at a time like this, it's not like the banks don't make enough money. These poor people losing their jobs. Like the 900 at TSB from 140 branch closures, typically small village/town branches, where people have greater decency on them.

You feeling better after that little rant? Get it off ones chest, did one?  Virtue signalling over?  

If you read the articles it says "Around 5,000 staff based at closing or consolidating sites will be offered new working arrangements ... combining working from home with access to local collaboration spaces as it pushes through flexible working.".  In other articles it said they expected to do this through voluntary redundancy. 

Welcome to the 21st century were more things are done online requiring new, more modern/useful skills meaning more people than ever are now in employment paying tax for public services.  Some of them might even come from your make believe grouping with "greater decency on them" [sic].  

od244051

The banks have themselves to blame. Before the pandemic, they were open for 6-7 hours during the week and some opened half a day on Saturday.

Now, they are open 4 hours for 3-4 days. Hence why the queues outside. Plus my bank only allows just ONE person in at a time, Yet, room for 3 more customers with social distancing. 

This is putting people off going to the bank.

I wonder how many of these branches of Santander and other banks are closing because of reduced hours, limit to customers inside and queuing?

The area where I live has lost two banks in 3 years plus another -HSBC, in early summer.

Bank branches are mainly used by the older side of society who don’t have internet access or don’t trust online banking. 

I feel sorry for the elderly who don’t drive having to go to the bank in the next town which is not always accessible by public transport. Plus this is not the best time to change banks if you don’t have the internet or don’t know how to.

The Santander near me is staying open. Though 3 or 4 are closing in a 6 miles radius. Means longer queues for the branch near me!

eskbanker

od244051 said:

The banks have themselves to blame. Before the pandemic, they were open for 6-7 hours during the week and some opened half a day on Saturday.

Now, they are open 4 hours for 3-4 days. Hence why the queues outside. Plus my bank only allows just ONE person in at a time, Yet, room for 3 more customers with social distancing. 

This is putting people off going to the bank.

Are you under the impression that banks would prefer to keep these branches open?  They'd be concerned if they were losing significant numbers of customers but people not going to branches while retaining their accounts, servicing them online or via post offices, are hardly going to cause the banks sleepless nights!

od244051 said:

I wonder how many of these branches of Santander and other banks are closing because of reduced hours, limit to customers inside and queuing?

None, according to Santander (see page one)....

daveyjp

od244051 said:

Bank branches are mainly used by the older side of society who don’t have internet access or don’t trust online banking. 

This is an increasingly smaller number of people as the web has been with us for over 30 years.  Hence the closures.

[Deleted User]

eskbanker said:

Deleted_User said:

eskbanker said:

Deleted_User said:

I really think we are at the stage where banks are just using COVID as an excuse.

Your prerogative not to believe them but they do clearly say in your quote:

The trend has been accelerated by the pandemic, although branch transactions fell by a third over the two years before the virus crisis and declined by a further 50% in 2020

Branch closures were obviously in full swing across the industry long before Covid came along: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/09/revealed-a-third-of-bank-branches-closed-in-less-than-five-years/

Yes but I think they are speeding it up too fast, using the excuse of covid.

The individual branch assessments published on their website clarify that they've used the steady state data rather than the Covid-affected stats:

We’ve used data between July 2019 and December 2019 to represent normal branch usage, as data from 2020 was significantly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic

In the absence of any reason to believe they're fabricating their figures, the analysis for closing my local branch seems self-explanatory (I think I set foot in it once in about seven years, although accept that posters on an online finance forum aren't representative of the population as a whole):

89% of customers transacting at this branch already use a variety of ways to complete their banking.

34% of this branch's customers also use an additional Santander branch.

71% of customers have transacted using our Online, Mobile or Telephone Banking services.

37 customers have transacted six times or more and only use this branch.

Did they release how many people actually visit each branch? not %, the actual numbers of people. 

[Deleted User]

daveyjp said:

od244051 said:

Bank branches are mainly used by the older side of society who don’t have internet access or don’t trust online banking. 

This is an increasingly smaller number of people as the web has been with us for over 30 years.  Hence the closures.

I think that is a bit unfair, according to Google the first internet enabled bank was in the US in 1995. Up until around 2007/2008 internet banking was still a new thing. I remember my father being sacred of it and thought if he paid for anything online or logged in to his bank something would be stolen. It took a while for people to trust it. 2012/2013 it started to become the norm. For most people up to to about 60 they can manage it fine, above that the problems begin.  I just hope people on here remember their words when they are old and past it, and the world moves beyond them as well. Of course you must keep up with the times! but at a certain age it is not easy. 

od244051

daveyjp said:

od244051 said:

Bank branches are mainly used by the older side of society who don’t have internet access or don’t trust online banking. 

This is an increasingly smaller number of people as the web has been with us for over 30 years.  Hence the closures.

I worked for a bank in 2003/4 at a branch and at a call centre for another bank 5 years later. Online banking wasn't around then, at my latter employer, was only for business or corporate accounts. 

I certainly remember online banking was not available at Halifax during the mid 00s as my ex got paid 4 weekly and had to go to the bank each payday to transfer money from his personal account to joint account. He wasn't able to set a standing order either.