Almost 5,000 bank branch closures since 2015

Former_MSE_James_F

Nearly 5,000 bank branches have been closed since 2015 - or are scheduled to be shut - according to data from Which?, leaving millions of people at risk of being cut off from vital banking services.

Read the full story here:
'Almost 5,000 high street banks have shut or are set to close since 2015 - but if you need access to cash and a local branch you still have options'

Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.

[Deleted User]

Banks skew the data then claim a branch is under used for the reason to close it. E.g. you walk into a branch and you get stopped by an assistant who will practically force you to use one of the machines for your transaction. Then they will claim in their data that no one goes in to use the counter. 

IvanOpinion

Banking is going online more-and-more.  The closure of branches is a bit of a catch-22.  Fewer people use them so they get closed; so more people start using online banking, so fewer people use the branches, so more get closed.  Welcome to the 21st century, similar has happened to industries many times in the past and will happen again many times in the future.  It is to the benefit of many and an inconvenience to a continually decreasing minority.

anotheruser

Just like broom shops, soap shops all disappeared in ye olden days.
These days it's hardware shops, bakeries, butchers, banks...  they're the next for the chop.

There may be a "yes, let's save the high street" but then those same people shop online or at the huge out of town shopping centres...  time to let the high street die instead of flogging the dead horse it's become in todays world.

Because let's face it, people can't even be bothered to go out and get a McDonalds anymore - we're moving into a world of things being brought to us instead of us going out to get it.

born_again

Not sure what vital banking services that can only be done in branch are?

As above people are getting too lazy to go shopping, it's ordered online and delivered to your house. So how long before Supermarket chains start closing stores & just have a click & collect if you want something. Think how much that would increase their profits by...

MattMattMattUK

The last time I used a branch was in July 2020 when a friend gave me cash to pay me for some money I had lent him as I don't use cash, I have not used cash since mid 2019 and used less than £500 of cash in the previous two years. Apart from that the previous time i visited a branch was back in 2016 to pay in a cheque and subsequent AML check (the cheque was for £35k, so they needed to see my passport, something which they would now do on a video call).

With cash no longer being required and having the ability to do everything else online bank branches do seem redundant. 

eskbanker

The whole debate about whether or not branches are necessary has been done to death on numerous previous threads on here, but to me it's far from ideal that some banks are happy to continue to close branches while insisting that some activities can only be done there.

Examples from recent threads include an HSBC customer wanting to switch after opening an account and being forced to visit a branch to do so, and Santander's switch offer into existing accounts only being possible in branch (according to the published offer terms, although it turned out to be possible by phone), and there have been numerous reports of ID verification having to be conducted in branch too....

Thrugelmir

Is this news?  What's left to discuss? 

WillPS

Deleted_User said:

Banks skew the data then claim a branch is under used for the reason to close it. E.g. you walk into a branch and you get stopped by an assistant who will practically force you to use one of the machines for your transaction. Then they will claim in their data that no one goes in to use the counter. 

You're the same dude who perks up at any opportunity advocating for app-only banks, usually calling out "dinosaur banks" for having features you perceive to be inferior, right?

knightstyle

born_again said:

Not sure what vital banking services that can only be done in branch are?

As above people are getting too lazy to go shopping, it's ordered online and delivered to your house. So how long before Supermarket chains start closing stores & just have a click & collect if you want something. Think how much that would increase their profits by...

Well my DD regularly goes to her bank counter to get £5 notes and coins so she has the correct change when needed.  You cannot get that from a machine.
Plus if you have a damaged note the counter stall will accept it when a machine rejects it.

[Deleted User]

WillPS said:

Deleted_User said:

Banks skew the data then claim a branch is under used for the reason to close it. E.g. you walk into a branch and you get stopped by an assistant who will practically force you to use one of the machines for your transaction. Then they will claim in their data that no one goes in to use the counter. 

You're the same dude who perks up at any opportunity advocating for app-only banks, usually calling out "dinosaur banks" for having features you perceive to be inferior, right?

And your point being?

It doesn't make what I've just said any less true. A family member used to use a branch of Barclays and this is what used to happen. They closed it last summer claiming that only 10% of customers used the counter.