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Banking Hubs.
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I agree that a friendly and knowledgeable customer service presence is vital and not just for practical banking help, but in view of social isolation. I suspect that’s a motivation for the sector as a whole, not just the commercial side. The Newbury’s newsletter also highlighted how although digital skill levels, access and safety are issues, additionally social isolation is a growing problem. Interactions in branch may be the only conversations people have all day.That said, based on my observations when I use inside ATMs, I suspect the number of customers who are less confident with self-service banking is diminishing, both through the passage of time and through percolation as older family members adopt digital skills. (For disabled people, the digital universe is a lifeline in many cases.) I quite regularly see quite elderly people confidently using ATMs and my late Dad until he died was very happily using ATMs into his 90s. I do recognise that’s not always the norm - I’ve heard a great deal anecdotally about friends’ elderly parents - and I do hope that, however these banking hubs are hosted, they provide a successful commercial and social service and step into the breach caused by the loss of branch banking.0
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TheWoodler said:I agree that a friendly and knowledgeable customer service presence is vital and not just for practical banking help, but in view of social isolation. I suspect that’s a motivation for the sector as a whole, not just the commercial side.0
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eskbanker said:TheWoodler said:I agree that a friendly and knowledgeable customer service presence is vital and not just for practical banking help, but in view of social isolation. I suspect that’s a motivation for the sector as a whole, not just the commercial side.
Social Isolation is a bigger issue - it's not just banks but the fact a lot of supermarkets and convenience stores now have very few staffed checkouts and most of the staffed deli counters, meat counters etc are gone. It's the same in other sectors, e.g. the railways replacing ticket offices with machines, doctors appointments becoming telephone/online consultations... It's an important issue but I'm not sure it's one for business to address.0 -
So far as I understand it, all the non-Post Office options (including OneBanx) require you to sign up with them first in order to do anything, then set up open banking connections to your bank accounts, then finally refresh access every 90 days. Not quite the same in terms of proposition, and a significant barrier to the subset of branch customers with no internet/digital experience; how does one set up an open banking connection when they have no online banking?
It's also unclear to me who pays for it. Presumably Newcastle BS and/or OneBanx are paying at the moment, but are they really going to be happy servicing third party banks for nothing longer term? If not, are the banks going to be willing to pick up the cost given they already have comprehensive arrangements in place with the Post Office?
Feels like a bit of a dead end to me.1 -
WillPS said:So far as I understand it, all the non-Post Office options (including OneBanx) require you to sign up with them first in order to do anything, then set up open banking connections to your bank accounts, then finally refresh access every 90 days. Not quite the same in terms of proposition, and a significant barrier to the subset of branch customers with no internet/digital experience; how does one set up an open banking connection when they have no online banking?
It's also unclear to me who pays for it. Presumably Newcastle BS and/or OneBanx are paying at the moment, but are they really going to be happy servicing third party banks for nothing longer term? If not, are the banks going to be willing to pick up the cost given they already have comprehensive arrangements in place with the Post Office?
Feels like a bit of a dead end to me.
There's also a trial Cash Access UK are running with a shared deposit machine. It uses your debit card so can be used without registering by customers of most banks (I think it uses the same functionallity as the Post Office counters, so will work for customers whose customers can use the PO). That might have legs, especially if they can get the machines in places like supermarkets.
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TheBanker said:GTR_King said:Can banking hubs do things like
mortgage applications
Print Statements
Handle cash
just wondering
They can probably print statements but it will depend on your bank
There is a Post Office counter in the hub to deal with cash transactions
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username said:TheBanker said:GTR_King said:Can banking hubs do things like
mortgage applications
Print Statements
Handle cash
just wondering
They can probably print statements but it will depend on your bank
There is a Post Office counter in the hub to deal with cash transactions1
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