Newark Advertiser poll asks if people prefer to bank online or in branch following announcement of Barclays bank branch closure in Newark

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• Penguin wrote:

  30/05/2023 09:54

  As with 'free' current accounts, bank branches are basically loss leaders to sell us financial products. I will not miss being asked if I would like "a financial review" or if I am looking to re-mortgage soon any time I go in to use the cash machine because there's a queue at the one outside.
  
  Having got a letter from Barclays, I understand that there will be somewhere that I could speak to someone in person, but they won't be offering counter services any more.

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  +3
• Adopted Newarker wrote:

  29/05/2023 22:20

  Work from home, Doctors on Zoom. Utilities automated, queries answered online. Food and purchases delivered, soon by robot or drone.
  
  Text, don't speak.
  
  No neighbourly chat anymore while washing our cars on a Sunday morning, nor when clipping our hedge, which has been replaced with a fence.
  
  Kids hardly play out now, watched by their mothers chatting to one another, instead they're rushed from one activity to the next.
  
  Bank closures is the latest face to face service lost. We are fast becoming an insular society, where apart from getting a haircut, there's almost no need to speak to anyone outside the home. Terrible for those living alone, or with fragile mental or physical health.

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  +14
• Wheelywheelygood wrote:

  27/05/2023 11:09

  When I go in to pay a cheque in the ATM just won't accept them and nothing is done to correct this . They often have to manually process them after 5+ times of trying the machines. Machines taking over the world they can't even take a cheque

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  2 Replies

  +23
• Tony Hobson wrote:

  27/05/2023 07:28

  It's strange how with less reliance on face to face contact with customers in banking, with closing of branches and in the power companies, the reliance on 'smart' meters or customers sending in their own meterings, the bank charges and power company standing charge always seem to be going up... Paying More but getting less = Shrinkflation, no less.

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  +34
• SteveWesleysghost wrote:

  26/05/2023 21:10

  Electronic communication, electronic money and soon electronic transport, control the masses raise the price of electricity or turn it off. Or may be my tin foil hat's too tight.

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  1 Reply

  +20
• MrFresh wrote:

  26/05/2023 15:29

  I can believe many people prefer to bank face-to-face, but I can't believe 88% of people do their banking face-to-face - it's not possible.
  
  But this isn't about being able to do banking in a real branch. This is about having easy access to real people who can answer questions and solve problems.
  
  Barclays' telephone system is appalling. Without a physical presence it will become a nightmare to solve even the simplest problems.

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  +50
• Overtaxed of Newark wrote:

  26/05/2023 14:25

  This is very easily solved by lenders pooling their resources and opening branches where anyone with a current account can deposit money and pay bills. The payments are almost all electronic anyway, similar arrangements already exist for lenders with their cash machines. Though obvious this pragmatic solution has escaped our political class because they are clueless in both IT and Banking terms, and the branch network still is seen as a marketing tool by lenders. So retail banks wil lead them a merry dance claiming the above to be impossible when it isn't.

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  -8