Banks should have a presence. If someone has an issue, or not familiar with tech or a cash point plays up, they are fucked at the moment in some places.
Gonna upset a few people with this, but maybe banks should start charging for accounts.
It costs a lot of money to run branches, that has to be paid for. People just going in to take their cash out, or going in to print statements or make queries makes no money to cover the costs involved.
Banks are businesses, not charities or public services, so it’s fair that they either cut loss making services or charge for them.
Had “hubs” for years. Called Post Offices.
Online banking is great but not everyone has access to it, not everyone is confident with it, and sometimes you just want to speak to someone in person about something. We might not need multiple branches in every town anymore, however not having any is ridiculous.
I see comments about how banks should be made to have a presence.
Forcing banks to keep branches is a ridiculous idea. Does that apply to every banking group with a banking licence and FSCS protection? Are Monzo and Starling going to made to have high street branches? Triodos? And the dozens of other banks? How do you define where the branches should be? How many? Do you see how much of a minefield this actually is?
Replacing them with these hubs that can be an actual public service funded by the taxpayer makes so much more sense. If you want, make the banks pay a levy to support the funding of these hubs, which can be defined by size/amount of deposits held for current and savings account services.
if someone with a brain was working at one of these companies they would join forces with a delivery company and hoover up all the old argos units. this would allow them to have proper modern opening hours because there will always be staff there sorting parcels and stuff
Massive warehouse where people can go and pick parcels up instead of waiting in at home all day and tonnes of floorspace for banks/post office to set up shop
They say people dont use banks so thats why there closing. My uncle went into his local branch to open an account, they said you need to make an appointment and next available one is in a month’s time!
Banks are, unsurprisingly, run to make as much money as possible. And they’ve reached the stage where a good candidate for cutting costs is closing branches, and even ATMs.
I see it in my town, lots of banks that had a presence have closed up shop, and even shut down the ATM, because then they don’t have to pay someone to maintain and restock it, since it doesn’t actually generate any profit for them.
Pretty much the only one left in my town is the nearest tesco, and even that has gone down to a single machine.
The banks know they have your custom, since you need an account for everything now, and with card use basically dominant, it’s an unnecessary expense to have branches etc, even though some people struggle with online banking, and – at least in my area – taxis for one still generally don’t accept card payments…
8 comments
Banks should have a presence. If someone has an issue, or not familiar with tech or a cash point plays up, they are fucked at the moment in some places.
Gonna upset a few people with this, but maybe banks should start charging for accounts.
It costs a lot of money to run branches, that has to be paid for. People just going in to take their cash out, or going in to print statements or make queries makes no money to cover the costs involved.
Banks are businesses, not charities or public services, so it’s fair that they either cut loss making services or charge for them.
Had “hubs” for years. Called Post Offices.
Online banking is great but not everyone has access to it, not everyone is confident with it, and sometimes you just want to speak to someone in person about something. We might not need multiple branches in every town anymore, however not having any is ridiculous.
I see comments about how banks should be made to have a presence.
Forcing banks to keep branches is a ridiculous idea. Does that apply to every banking group with a banking licence and FSCS protection? Are Monzo and Starling going to made to have high street branches? Triodos? And the dozens of other banks? How do you define where the branches should be? How many? Do you see how much of a minefield this actually is?
Replacing them with these hubs that can be an actual public service funded by the taxpayer makes so much more sense. If you want, make the banks pay a levy to support the funding of these hubs, which can be defined by size/amount of deposits held for current and savings account services.
if someone with a brain was working at one of these companies they would join forces with a delivery company and hoover up all the old argos units. this would allow them to have proper modern opening hours because there will always be staff there sorting parcels and stuff
Massive warehouse where people can go and pick parcels up instead of waiting in at home all day and tonnes of floorspace for banks/post office to set up shop
They say people dont use banks so thats why there closing. My uncle went into his local branch to open an account, they said you need to make an appointment and next available one is in a month’s time!
Banks are, unsurprisingly, run to make as much money as possible. And they’ve reached the stage where a good candidate for cutting costs is closing branches, and even ATMs.
I see it in my town, lots of banks that had a presence have closed up shop, and even shut down the ATM, because then they don’t have to pay someone to maintain and restock it, since it doesn’t actually generate any profit for them.
Pretty much the only one left in my town is the nearest tesco, and even that has gone down to a single machine.
The banks know they have your custom, since you need an account for everything now, and with card use basically dominant, it’s an unnecessary expense to have branches etc, even though some people struggle with online banking, and – at least in my area – taxis for one still generally don’t accept card payments…