Barclays Bank is certainly making life difficult for many customers as it continues to take an axe to its branches.
Already this year, it has announced plans to shut 62 branches with the first of them closing next month. This is on top of the 1,140 it has closed since the beginning of 2015, according to consumer group Which? No other bank, says Which?, has been so ruthless in expunging its presence from our towns.
Businessman Mike Ridgway is among those customers impacted by Barclays’ determination to pare back its branch network to the bone. Mike, a consultant for the packaging industry, lives in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, and bemoans the fact that Barclays now makes his banking life somewhat of a chore.
Although Mike, a customer of Barclays for 55 years, embraced online banking for a while, he was scammed 18 months ago. While he eventually got his money back from the bank, he eschewed online and mobile banking in favour of branches and telephone banking.
Barclays shut its branch in Ilkley two years ago although in its defence it hasn’t been the only bank to desert the town. HSBC closed its branch in June last year, just after NatWest pulled the plug, while Halifax shut up shop just two months ago. Only Santander now has a footprint in the town.
Comfort: The banks can take away their branches – but they can’t touch a walk across Ilkley Moor
‘It’s crazy,’ says Mike. ‘Ilkley is a prosperous town with high property values and provides a perfect base for people who work in Bradford, Leeds, Manchester and further afield. Yet the banks have almost given up on us.’
What irritates Mike the most is that Barclays has not stopped at Ilkley. Branches have been swept away in nearby Guiseley (April 2023) and Settle (February 2022). To compound his banking misery, the Skipton branch shuts for good this week while the Keighley branch gets the heave-ho in August. ‘Barclays customers who like face-to-face banking are quite literally being debanked,’ he says.
Mike says that to visit a ‘local’ Barclays branch, he must now catch a train to either Bradford or Leeds – a 35-minute journey, provided the trains are running on time (50:50). Or in extremis, he will bank the occasional cheque he receives at a Barclays branch when he is down in London on business. ‘I was in London five days ago,’ he says, ‘and I went into its branch in Berkeley Street, Mayfair, to deposit a cheque. How crazy is that.’
Banking expert Derek French believes Barclays – more than any other bank – is on a mission to shut many of its branches outside of the big cities. This is because it doesn’t want to be in the position of being last bank in town when new rules come in from the City regulator (the Financial Conduct Authority), potentially restricting the right of banks to pull the plug on the last branch. ‘It’s interesting that among the latest closures announced by Barclays,’ says Derek, ‘it has targeted branches in large towns where it is the first or second bank to pull out.’
They include towns such as Andover in Hampshire; Barking, Essex; Bracknell and Maidenhead, Royal Berkshire; Gravesend, Kent; Hartlepool, County Durham; and Lancaster in Lancashire – all with populations of 50,000 plus.Bank branch closures, I fear, will be a recurring theme this year.
The last word goes to Mike. ‘Ilkley is becoming a banking desert,’ he says. ‘The only thing that comforts me is the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales on my doorstep. The banks can’t destroy that, can they?’
lIN THE interests of balance, I would like to give the thumbs-up to both Nationwide Building Society and HSBC for some welcome branch-friendly initiatives. Nationwide, which prefers to keep rather than close branches, has agreed to donate a maximum of £10,000 to local causes in Windsor, Royal Berkshire – a town where it is (scandalously) the sole surviving bank or building society.
For every new current and savings account opened by residents between now and March 26, it will earmark £200 for a community fund – with local people deciding how the money is used. Well done, Nationwide.
Meanwhile, HSBC has just opened a new ‘flagship’ branch in Huddersfield, based in the town’s Kingsgate Shopping Centre. It follows hot on the heels of a similar state-of-the-art branch opening for business in Sheffield.
Unlike Barclays, HSBC has said it won’t be announcing any new branch closures for the rest of this year. It’s not quite all doom and gloom on the bank branch front.
Will Jeremy Hunt make us happier?
Smile: Finland has the highest happiness score at 7.8 out of 10
I receive a shedload of emails from companies every day. I ditch most, only keeping those I need for my work and my own personal finance education (I’m constantly in learning mode).
Occasionally, the emails are so left-field they make me smile – such as the one I received last week from online casino comparison website CasinoTop3.
It has conducted research which it claims indicates a clear link between money and happiness – and life expectancy and happiness. In other words, the more money you have, and the longer you can expect to live, the happier you are. According to CasinoTop3, the nation which currently has the highest happiness score (7.8 out of 10) is Finland. Its residents are also ranked within the top third of the 60 countries analysed in terms of average salary and life expectancy.
Finland is followed by Denmark, Holland, and Sweden. As for the UK, it comes in 17th with India being bottom of the pile.
If I am reading the runes correctly, Wednesday’s Budget could well be devoid of the tax cuts most people are desperate for. If so, my guess is that the UK’s happiness score could well slip further down the world league table as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt continues to grab more of our income and savings in a myriad of stealth taxes. And again, if Labour triumphs at the next Election and hits the middle classes with yet more taxes.
The United Nations has deemed the 20th of this month to be the International Day of Happiness. Bah humbug.
A big thank you
Finally, a big thank you to all those readers who have contacted me in recent days to express their condolences over the loss of my mother (Helen of Troy) at the ripe old age of 88.
The Prestridge family celebrated her life three days ago in Sutton Coldfield near Birmingham. For the most part, we laughed – broken up by the intermittent shedding of tears.
I am sure I won’t be laughing in the weeks ahead as I strive to get probate granted. I’m already losing sleep over the battles that inevitably lie ahead. Probate is a nightmare, and I can’t imagine it will be any different for Jeff Prestridge.
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