Barclays Closing High Street Banks

Over62

I wish us elderly folk would stop being portrayed as technophobes.   OK, my husband's idea of new technology is a ball point pen but most of us are perfectly capable of using internet banking.  There is little need to visit a branch these days, except when being asked to attend to prove your identity.  In this case, I would do as the previous poster did, vote with my feet and go elsewhere 

TheBanker

Over62 said:

I wish us elderly folk would stop being portrayed as technophobes.   OK, my husband's idea of new technology is a ball point pen but most of us are perfectly capable of using internet banking.  There is little need to visit a branch these days, except when being asked to attend to prove your identity.  In this case, I would do as the previous poster did, vote with my feet and go elsewhere 

I quite agree. If you're referring to the fact I mentioned my mum's dislike of technology, well I know she's in the minority of older people these days (perhaps she would have been in the majority 10 - 20 years ago). And anyway, my sister is a technaphobe too. She can do Facebook etc but anything more complex than that gets her in a bit of a tizz. She doesn't use a bank branch either - most of her banking is automated through standing orders etc, and she uses telephone banking when she needs to do something like change a standing order.

On the ID point, I agree. Banks that don't have branches manage to deal with the ID problem, although often that's by uploading ID/taking a selfie which is not necessarily practical for technophobes (of any age) or those who simply don't have the right type of device. I think the 'bricks and morter' banks do need to address this. Perhaps they could come to an arrangement with the Post Office to provide this service for them, in addition to cash and cheque transactions. 

Rob5342

If she can use Facebook and telephone banking I don't see why she couldn't use internet banking. Logging in to internet banking would be similar to logging in to phone banking, and changing a standing order in internet banking is no more difficult than leaving a comment on someone's post. Being able to read is the only skill required.

WillPS

Ability to do something and willingness to do something are two different things, often unhelpfully conflated by people who then decry banks moving process online as 'ageist' (not 'ableist').

blue.peter

TimeLord1 said:

Hello, I was in my local Barclays today, only to learn they're closing doors and selling off the building and another a few miles away so, if I need to see them after May 2024 I have a 12 mile trip to the one only open on limited days. I'm thinking it's not in my interest to remain with them also today they refused my Driving licence because it was paper and not photo ID surely this isn't correct. Are they in debt it sure feels like it.
Anyone else having similar troubles. 

This has been going on for years. I used to bank with Barclays. Then they closed the branch where I had my account,  in the village where I worked, with the result that I was unable to get to any branch during working hours. That was in 1990.

My response then was that if I couldn't get to a branch, I'd use a bank that was actually set up to deal with customers at a distance. I switched to First Direct, and did everything by phone.

These days, it's less of an issue. In 1990, Internet banking simply didn't exist. Nowadays, I do almost everything online. It's very rare for me to need to pay any cheques in to my account. I use very little cash (pretty much every business I use except my barber accepts cards). I'm fortunate enough that I now live in a town with a decent number of cash machines, so I can use one of them when necessary.

TheBanker

Rob5342 said:

If she can use Facebook and telephone banking I don't see why she couldn't use internet banking. Logging in to internet banking would be similar to logging in to phone banking, and changing a standing order in internet banking is no more difficult than leaving a comment on someone's post. Being able to read is the only skill required.

Technically, yes. But like I said she gets in a bit of a tizz so chooses to bank with a bank that let her do all of this stuff over the phone by speaking to a human. She doesn't expect the bank to make a branch available for her, and she knows and understands that her choice means she's limiting the banks she can choose, and might be missing out on better rates. But it works for her, it works for the bank so instead of complaining she just gets on with her life. 

Miles86

Nasqueron said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Section62 said:
If you go down that rabbit hole then are the people using free (and online only) current account banking whilst in credit expecting to be subsidised by current account customers who are in overdraft, or subsidised by the ones paying over the odds for their credit card/loan/mortgage debts?

Picking out one service (e.g. branch banking) from all those provided by banks and arguing that the customers using it should pay for it is a bit of a bogus argument if you don't also think all services should be charged for.

I wouldn't "talk about the elderly". But would say that banks need to get their act together when they still require people to go to a branch for a particular service (as we hear about regularly on this forum) but then shut down all but one branch in a whole county.

No, those with free in credit accounts are providing the funds that are then the basis for giving a loan to someone else. If a bank has no savers and no current accounts it has to borrow (more of) the money to lend to others.

Its basic cost benefit analysis... I make money from savers using free accounts because I use that to provide credit cards at 22% interest or loans at 9.9% interest. 

What value is the having a bank branch delivering? The building, if owned, doesn't count as that value would still exist if it were leased to a coffee shop and that would generate other income. You can argue that it used to be a form of advertising but how many people walk the high street these days? So you have a handful of customers that still want/need to use a branch -v- the millions it costs to staff and run the branch. 


Most the posters on here don't actually say why they need to go into the branch nor why going to a post office wouldn't be suitable. The few that do tend to stick to it being their "right" rather than giving any real need. 

While I agree with your point on the branches, the days of banks using saver's deposits as the basis for loans are long gone, mortgages and loans are done on the national / international money markets. An average UK mortgage of £189503 (to Sept. 2023) would need 11 people with £17,365 (2024 UK average savings) to fund it. There were ~300,000 mortgages taken out April-July 2023 meaning you'd need 3.3m people with the average savings in the bank just to cover those new loans, let alone the next 3 months, the 3 after that etc. Banks use the fractional reserve banking e.g. loans backed by just 10% of the loan amount in reserves - funded by the interbank lending. 

Remember that plenty of those 300,000 mortgages will be, one way or another, repaying other pre-existing mortgages.

It's not true to say that banks *don't* fund mortgages from deposits. Plenty do, but yes some choose other routes too; a mix of deposits and other sources of finance (including borrowing on financial markets yes) fund lending. Fractional reserve banking is what allows that, for instance for every £90 of loans granted you may decide you need £100 of deposits. The 'fraction' is the immediately available £10 which you maybe have with the bank of England, the loans you've granted are still your assets but they're less liquid, think of a Fixed Term deposit. 

It is of course also true that an alternative to raising more funds on the financial markets is to securitise loans, which in the UK generally means selling the loan in the background but continuing to deal with the customer as before. This removes it from your balance sheet. (In the US securitisation usually results in the customers dealing with the company who buys the loans and ceasing to deal with the bank).

Hoenir

Section62 said:

Curiously the building societies - who generally pay better rates of interest than the banks on savings - don't appear to be closing branches at anything like the speed of banks, and last time I checked weren't charging for counter transactions.

How does that work?

List the building societies that are no longer. You maybe surprised how many branches have disappeared over the past 30 years. Yet no one mentions it. 

subjecttocontract

I think Barclays closing branch accounts is a good thing for me. I dislike the bank and their absence on my high street will ensure I won't be tempted to use them.

WillPS

subjecttocontract said:

I think Barclays closing branch accounts is a good thing for me. I dislike the bank and their absence on my high street will ensure I won't be tempted to use them.

How many accounts have you opened because a branch just happened to be on your high street, despite not liking the bank? Seems a peculiar situation.