Almost 5,000 bank branch closures since 2015

martinharmonica

Our local branch of Barclays is open but actively discourages customers from using the counter service. My wife does not use internet/digital banking as a matter of principle.

Her experience at the branch is that an increasingly limited number of services are available at the counter, which she believes has led to a high volume of customer dissatisfaction from the people she sees regularly at the bank. People are directed to a 'personal banker', who seems to be equally unhelpful.

I am surprised that banks feel able to direct their customers away from counter services and effectively make it harder for their customers to access their money, which helps the bank to trade!

I would like to see a bank that focuses on counter business, as I believe it would be an enormous success. A mass withdrawal of money might also have some effect.

eskbanker

martinharmonica said:

Her experience at the branch is that an increasingly limited number of services are available at the counter, which she believes has led to a high volume of customer dissatisfaction from the people she sees regularly at the bank. People are directed to a 'personal banker', who seems to be equally unhelpful.

Out of curiosity, specifically which counter services have been removed?

p00hsticks

martinharmonica said:

I would like to see a bank that focuses on counter business, as I believe it would be an enormous success.

You and your wife might like to see that, but I strongly suspect that you are in a minority. If 'enormous success' translated into 'profit generating' I'm sure the banks would be keeping such services on. The reality is that few and fewer people require counter services for less and less of the time, they are therefore no longer cost effective and the banks are responding to reflect that change in demand.

vacheron

As I have never needed to set foot in a bank in over 10 years (except when HSBC forced me to attend in order to prove my ID (which they already had) I hardly think this comes as a surprise.

Every year things will head further and further in this direction and the usability of online services will become easier and more and more convenient.  

Refusing "out of principle" is all well and good, but the ultimate direction is inevitable. Are these same people also standing in line at the DVLA with a paper form to renew their vehicle tax every year? 

strawb_shortcake

I always think it's a shame when one of my local branches closes, however given I can easily go a year or more without visiting a branch then I haven't got grounds for complaint.

I typically only use the counter service for paying in large amounts of change and will have around £500 in 20p and £1k of £2 in the next 12-18 months. 

username

martinharmonica said:

Our local branch of Barclays is open but actively discourages customers from using the counter service. My wife does not use internet/digital banking as a matter of principle.

Her experience at the branch is that an increasingly limited number of services are available at the counter, which she believes has led to a high volume of customer dissatisfaction from the people she sees regularly at the bank. People are directed to a 'personal banker', who seems to be equally unhelpful.

I am surprised that banks feel able to direct their customers away from counter services and effectively make it harder for their customers to access their money, which helps the bank to trade!

I would like to see a bank that focuses on counter business, as I believe it would be an enormous success. A mass withdrawal of money might also have some effect.

The attitude by staff in a Barclays in a central London branch I found was appalling when trying to deposit a cheque and wanting a receipt (it was for a few K, so some sort of paperwork to prove it was deposited would have provided me with reassurance, if anything went wrong or had query, not much to ask, right?!).

In "ye olde" days you would have taken it to the counter and staff would have happily given you one, whilst trying to flog a mortgage or savings review.

The branch itself was empty and had cardboard signs over the counter saying it was shut, half of the deposit machines were out of service and the one which was working didn't have working receipt.

The phone was also removed and some sign placed over it espousing online banking. In fact, the whole place looked rather shabby with this collection of signs promoting online banking, and removing the services to clients in the branch.

There were 3 members off staff standing around not doing much, and discussing the pros and cons of marriage and what they were going to do at Christmas.

I approached the staff and politely asked if they could either accept this and provide some form of receipt manually or sort the machine (refill the receipt paper maybe?), I was looked at as if I had 3 heads and an apathetic shrug of nothing we can do.

Luckily as it was central London there was another branch open that was 10 mins walk away, where the machines were working.