NatWest to close 23 more branches this year – here's the full list, plus alternatives

Rob5342

WillPS said:

Rob5342 said:

MEM62 said:

I too have had a NatWest account for well over twenty years.  I probably haven't been into a branch in over 10.  That said, there are times when branch / counter services are important but for that I use my Halifax account.    

I started banking online with Lloyds in 1999 and I haven't been into a branch in the 24 years since. Even before that I'd rarely go to a branch as I'd do it mainly by phone or post. I'm with Monzo now who don't have branches at all, I've kept my Halifax account open as a spare but I've never used it in the 2 years since I opened my Monzo account.

Guessing you've never paid in cash?

No I haven't, I've only ever had relatively small amounts of cash (a few hundred pounds or so), so I've just used it to pay for my shopping or Petrol instead of paying it in.

pridehappy

I’m sure this is just an anomaly- although in my area all the banks have been investing a lot into their store fronts and even doing structural refurbishments and changes to their city centre buildings. We had just a few out of town banks which closed years ago, mainly Barclay’s and HSBC. My local building society has around 6 branches throughout the city, a Lloyds (nobody uses and in a very old building requiring refurbishment, one of the most likely ones to go) a very busy albeit small Halifax, a very busy modern Victorian HSBC, small although modern Nationwide, recently renovated NatWest and Virgin Money. We did have 3 Royal Bank of Scotland branches although they were all very small and closed around 10 years ago.

Is this unusual for small towns these days?

TheBanker

pridehappy said:

I’m sure this is just an anomaly- although in my area all the banks have been investing a lot into their store fronts and even doing structural refurbishments and changes to their city centre buildings. We had just a few out of town banks which closed years ago, mainly Barclay’s and HSBC. My local building society has around 6 branches throughout the city, a Lloyds (nobody uses and in a very old building requiring refurbishment, one of the most likely ones to go) a very busy albeit small Halifax, a very busy modern Victorian HSBC, small although modern Nationwide, recently renovated NatWest and Virgin Money. We did have 3 Royal Bank of Scotland branches although they were all very small and closed around 10 years ago.

Is this unusual for small towns these days?

Yes it is - did some of this investment happen before the pandemic, because since then the number of people visiting branches has dropped even further. 

I live in a city and we have a new Natwest branch, but it's a smaller branch that's replaced a large old branch. All the other Natwest and RBS branches in the outlying areas have closed, apart from one which is on the list in the first post.

I started my career working in a bank branch, which closed about eight years ago and is now a bar. Back when I started, the branches had more autonomy and there were quite a few things you could only do in branch. I would guess that less than half of our customers used internet banking, mobile banking didn't exist and some of our customers were suspicious of using the ATM to withdraw cash or get a mini-statement. Plenty of customers still paid for things with cheques, and they could use them in shops because there were still cheque guarantee cards. In fact some customers still had cards which were only cheque guarantee cards, with no debit card or ATM functionality.

My branch was in an area with quite a few shops, most of which banked with us. We felt a real part of the community - we knew all the shop staff and they knew us. I loved working in a branch and serving customers, so I find it sad when I see what's happened to most bank branches. But times change, customers want to access their banking in other ways now, so this was inevitable. For most of what we used to do, it's down to the Post Office to pick up where we left off. Hopefully this will at least make local Post Offices more viable and they will survive long into the future. 

 

Rob5342

There is lmuch less of a need for post offices now too. Benefits are all paid into bank accounts instead of needing to be collected and stamps can be bought from anywhere. The only real need for them now is to send parcels, but even then you can do it online and arrange collection, or use one of the courier companies offering the same thing. With Amazon etc its easier to get things sent directly to people instead of sending it yourself. Most post offices now are just a post office counter in.a newsagent.

Things always change and what's modern for one generation will be old fashioned for the next. There will be a time when there is a new way of banking and people will be saying the elderly will find it difficult to cope without a backing app.

WillPS

Rob5342 said:

There is lmuch less of a need for post offices now too. Benefits are all paid into bank accounts instead of needing to be collected and stamps can be bought from anywhere. The only real need for them now is to send parcels, but even then you can do it online and arrange collection, or use one of the courier companies offering the same thing. With Amazon etc its easier to get things sent directly to people instead of sending it yourself. Most post offices now are just a post office counter in.a newsagent.

Things always change and what's modern for one generation will be old fashioned for the next. There will be a time when there is a new way of banking and people will be saying the elderly will find it difficult to cope without a backing app.

Until Royal Mail make parcel collection permanently free there'll still be a need there for me as far as I'm concerned. Access to cash (or moreover the ability to rid oneself of it!) is also important.