When did banks become so useless?

Lloyds/Halifax are closing loads more branches, announced this week. One is our local branch. The only bank left in our town. They say they have undertaken a study which shows that people don’t use the branch.

I suspect the report on the study will completely fail to mention that the reason nobody uses the branch is because they’ve made it impossible to fecking well do anything in the branch 🤬🤬🤬

Attempted to open a savings account for my elderly tech-phobic dad there last year. There is no branch in our region capable of opening accounts in person. We tried at both Halifax and Lloyds branches (same group) around the area and it is impossible.

But don’t worry, apparently we are going to get a Banking Hub. Which will have representatives from lots of different brands one day a week. All of whom will be similarly unable to do anything. 🤦‍♀️

Theres no money to be made in keeping bank branches staffed, and town centre properties have high rent. I wouldn’t be surprised if they start charging people to use branches soon. I wanted to pay some cash in at HSBC to my HSBC account and I was told to go down the road to the post office because they couldn’t do it in branch!

Sometimes there might be one bright and humane person from before times in a branch, usually hidden at the back so customers can't benefit from them. You have to keep pressing to see them.

I've seen the staff completely fail to notice that elderly people obviously have swollen, arthritic fingers and poor eyesight. How do they think they can use a screen?

My mum was doing online banking via the app until a week before she died at 86, but her eyes and fingers were mainly ok. On bad eye days, it was very hard for her to see well enough. I tried to obtain third party access to her accounts for those days but they took so long to sort it out, she died before it happened.

It's the same everywhere, apply online. This .means large sections of the population are being excluded from banking services. Once when in our bank an older chap wanted to open a joint account with his sister. He didn't have access to/didn't know how to use the Internet so he couldn't open an account. They bank staff suggested he try the Post Office.

Had a similar experience too - barely use the branches, but on the odd occasion I’ve had to do so, staff have made errors and generally been pretty useless.

We have 2 branches of HSBC in Bristol- one of biggest cities in the UK with a population of half a million. The smaller branch doesn't even have a counter where cash can be paid in or withdrawn. Everything has to be done by machine. So you cannot get a bag of coins. The other branch does have a counter but you have to go upstairs to use it.

It's unbearable. Can't do the simplest things anymore, everything has become unnecessarily harder

Yes a friend of mine works in the bank. He says that basically can not do anything anymore in Branch. He says he is told that they are to direct the customer to the website or phone. He is job-hunting as he expects to lose his job soon as they plan to close down loads of branches.

Barclays were awful with us, too. The actual bereavement line people were good, but i had to do some things in the branch (18 miles away) and the man there kept asking me why I couldn't use the app. I kept explaining that I was there because the app kept telling me I couldn't use the app.

They also completely screwed up an ISA transfer in the days my mother was dying and took months to find the large sum of money after she died and we were sorting out probate, causing unnecessary stress. The worst of it is, they seemed to make it our responsibility to find out what had happened. They're the banker, not us! We don't have access to their internal systems.

Yes same with nationwide when I opened up my kids accounts. Papped into a side room with an iPad and opened the account ourselves. To be fair it was all pretty straightforward. For someone older they wouldn't have a clue though

When they became multinationals: and when market thinking / technology took over. Blair / Brown years it started, I think.

I have serious concerns about our capacity to afford technology, economically and environmentally, at this point and I’m beginning to agree with Winston Churchill, except that my cut off would be the electric washing machine (‘It is arguable whether the human race have been gainers by the march of science beyond the steam engine.’). It would be better if we were not slaves to the globalised market though.

It’s appalling now. Was an executor for one of my parents and it was a nightmare - they didn’t even know what an executor’s account was, most said they didn’t do it. Finally one Barclays branch said they did but kept calling it an “executive account” and to get an appointment to open it I had to call Barclays even though I was literally in the bank - they got me to call from one of their own phones. Even the operator who answered the call thought it was barking.

Yeah, it's been like that for a number of years. I lost my card and I needed to deposit some cash. Went to the bank with two forms of ID and the person tried for 20 minutes to get me to use the cash deposit machine and seemingly not being able to understand that I lost my card and am waiting for replacement.