To be upset my local bank is closing?

[CurlingChamp]

Our local bank is permanently closing in about 5 weeks. Aside from the general inconvenience that it will cause me, I feel sad at the social loss in my life.

I’ve used that bank mostly weekly, sometimes 2 or 3 times a week, for 18 years (I use it for business cash banking). There’s ladies working in that bank that have seen me through two pregnancies, and have watched my children grow up. I mean, I see them more than my own family!

The other day I was in the car with my DP and we drove past the bank. I said to him “I’m going to miss the bank when it’s gone, I’m really sad it’s closing.” He turned to look at me in amazement, laughing, and said “I wish I lived in your little brain!”.

Of course it’s not the only thing I worry or feel sad about, and of course life will go on, but am I am unreasonable to be sad about the bank closing?

Large towns and cities seem to have all the branches open, Lloyds and Nat West is still open in Bedford for example, it seems to have lots of other banks as well.

We only have one in our town now, Nationwide, and a banking hub with different banks on different days. It is a real shame.

I can’t believe people saying they aren’t busy, I take my dad to the local branch and it’s always heaving irrespective of the time of day.
I assumed they are shutting them to save money; staff, premises, council tax etc. Much cheaper for the banks to get customers to do the work for them online.

They might be busy but the type of customers at still use them a lot are not very profiitable, in fact they may be costing the bank money.

Being busy doesn’t equal being profitable though.

If all most customers are doing are withdrawing their pensions or paying in some business cash, they’re going to be losing money just by opening the doors.

I’ve honestly not needed to go to a bank in years, it makes sense there isn’t as great a need for so many branches.

Well yes, of course they are closing to save money. They're a business. It would be pretty weird for them to keep something open that wasn't cost effective.

That would be fair enough, but they also close branches that were very busy most of the time! I have to travel to the city centre now to speak to anyone face-to-face, and even then it's often to find that they are not allowed to discuss some types of accounts and it MUST be done online. Customers loathe it, banks say it's for our convenience but it's not, it's purely for their profit.

When I last went to my bank to pay in cash they were open but had just closed their counter service and told me to pay it in at the post office which I did, the post office staff were most annoyed about the bank expecting the post office to do their work for them, but if the branch closes down won't this happen more often.

It's all part of the move to force everyone to use online banking and to become cashless.

So many banks have closed in the area I live in. The last few times I have needed to go into a bank (about once a year), the experience has been so frustrating and the bank staff make you use self-service machines at every opportunity.

It's yet another reason why fewer people are going into town centres when most of the banks are closed.

It's not about 'forcing' people. It's about responding to customer demand. Most people prefer online and don't use high street banks so banks provide better and better online services and reduce the bits people use less as there is no longer a demand that is cost effective.

It's basic economics. People don't use banks much so they close. Why would they keep them open?

I'm intrigued, what are people going into a bank for? I was trying to remember the last time I went into a bank - I don't think I've been into one since I moved to my current village. I've been here over 10 years!

I live in a suburb of a major Northern city, there’s a Lloyds, a Halifax and a Nationwide, as well as a PO. In the city centre there are still lots of different banks and building societies. I don’t go into the bank often, but when DH and I wanted to put a savings account into joint names they were happy to help in person.

But surely banking is a longer term game?
They might not be making any money off me now but I might need a car loan next week, or even better for them extend my mortgage.
If I can’t go into a branch and do it all online I’m much more likely to use another company.

We have a banking hub but it doesn’t deal with cash.

I had to go to a town half an hour away to pay all my kids pennies in they had been saving!

But apart from that I haven’t been to one in years.

Why have they closed some banks that were always busy with queues? This is not about consumer demand in every instance. It's about the banks cutting costs at every opportunity and steering (forcing) people to use online banking.

I am fine with using online banking myself but there are many (for a number of reasons) that have difficulty using it.

I had to go into a bank last year to pay in a tax rebate cheque that was above the maximum I could bank via my banking app. Although I think I could have also done it via an ATM at the bank outside of bank opening hours

Are there any other banks you could switch to or is the town going to get a banking hub? Or can you use the Post Office if you have one?

I haven't really been in the bank for years. I use a cash point occasionally but usually everything is cards and internet bank. Businesses use much less cash too now you can use debit cards for small purchases with a tap. I don't really miss queuing up in the bank and the whole queue hearing your business.

Yes, it is sad. The world has changed in this regard not for the better. I live in zone 2 and when my bank closed we had to go in to central London to arrange to send the deposit over to buy a house. It ended up being a 4 hour round trip as the bank spent all that time trying to verify the perfectly normal solicitors in the town we were buying.

It was all unnecessarily stressful.

The last bank in my town is closing too. I don’t actually know where my nearest NatWest is now, but I rarely go in anyway. My mum used to go in weekly and hates that it’s all online now. I have to access it for her as she just can’t get her head around it.

Our local bank is closing too, in fact we have lost 4 banks in our small town since 2020.

the bank we use closes next month and tbh we haven’t used the actual branch for a while as just after covid they cut the hours from a full day and a Saturday morning to mom- fri 10-3.30pm. What use is that to people who work full time?

we are debating changing to the one bank that’s left in our town but what if that closes too? We would be back to the position we are in now.

I don’t get it as the ones I go in or walk past are full of people.

I too am baffled about all this in person banking - what the hell is everyone doing in there? I haven't set foot in a bank branch for years.

I do think it’s a shame, and hard for certain members of society, like the elderly, but I personally have hardly been inside my bank branch for years. And when I did, they were useless anyway and told me to go online. So I feel rather a hypocrite being sad because I didn’t use their services anyway.

Our business bank closed a few years ago, first in our town and then in the one next to us. At first we were stressed about paying in cheques and cash etc and would drive to the next town for it, but once that closed we were forced to use the post office - and it’s just fine. We’ve also found a lot more of our clients have moved to online payments too so it’s gone over the years from needing to pay in money and cheques several times a week, to maximum of once a month. I assume many businesses are similar and that’s what’s driving this.

A banking hub would be good - mostly to avoid the post office queues!

My work bank kept doing this. I’d find a good one, and then it would close, find another small town one and that would close.
I have to allow a good couple of hours to queue at the bank they want us to use which is always so busy and everyone is so pissed off. It’s horrid. One of the banks they want us to use doesn’t accept cash.

I’m with you op, it’s really sad! These people become part of your lives. Hopefully you will see them at the new branch.