Strange Goings On In The City Centre

[ebikeerwidnes]

I have to admit to being one of the people at the front of the decline

In the old day (when Moses were a lad) I had to reserve one lunchtime a week (or so) to pay bills by queueing up in city centre bank branches and hand over a cheque for each bill

it was a right pain

Then I found out about a new back called First Direct and they did everything by phone
EVERYTHING
which I found interesting - especially as teh computer system I worked on ran a call centre

I have been using them ever since
in the early days they always answered the phone within a few ring - if it went over about 10 rings you got a proper apology


it meant a major hassle in my life just went


That was really the start of the slide to what we have now

 

[bitsandbobs]

Where I live, it's difficult to find an ATM, let alone a bank. ATMs were getting routinely blownup and were considered too much of a danger in the end .

 

[mistyoptic]

I don’t have a bank branch

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I don’t have a bank branch

I have 2 current account - for historic reasons

one of them is Santander which I keep open partly because they still have a branch on the High Street

If they close it down I might well look at moving to just the one account

 

[Mo1959]

All the original banks have closed here, but saving grace is we now have a banking hub where we can do general transactions plus a rep from different banks is available on a set day.

 

[FrankCrank]

Very rare for me to visit a branch, been doing internet banking for at least 25 years now.

Can see why people feel a loss at branch closures though, bit like the village post office, and not everyone is tech savvy.

 

[presta]

Today's Which magazine: 64% of all banks and 33% of all ATMs have closed in the last 10 years.

Very rare for me to visit a branch, been doing internet banking for at least 25 years now.

I didn't start internet banking until covid lockdown.

25 years ago I'd only just decided to trust ATMs, after the phantom withdrawal debacle of the 1980s.