General Discussion
NatWest in Teignmouth is to close in the next few months. I don’t know how NatWest can justify this decision as every time I go into the bank the queue is horrendous, showing clearly it is a well used branch.
Well as i have often commented i dont remember the last time i paid a visit to my bank it's certainly not within the last five years and it wont be long before our last bank in Dawlish is closed as more folk bank online. The other thing i notice is it's very rare i use cash these days in fact i have yet to have a new ten pound note in my hand my debit card is all i need and thats another reason Banks are closing there doors. I wonder how long before cash machines are no longer required? my kids only want cash for Christmas do i go and get it from the Bank not at all they want it transferred into there accounts so they dont have to visit a Bank to make a deposit another reason Banks are leaving the high street. But hey thats the modern world love it or hate it thats the way it is, remember the days when you would write a letter to a friend to arrange a phone call to a BT call box so you could have a chat, my how the world has changed in the last 50 years.
I agree, that is exactly what the banks want, everyone banking online. It’s the same with the surgery, they want you to order your repeat prescriptions online and in order to push us into doing so we can no longer drop them off at Boots. If you don’t do it online you HAVE to take it to the surgery! But.........what about those people not online, who maybe can’t afford to pay for internet access? They are pushed to the margins of society and ignored, that is the modern world we live in!
The other side of the coin, i noticed yesterday two of those in the happy hut on the latest iphone's more than i can afford. I wonder if they bank online.
In Teignmouth, 86 per cent of customers are banking in other ways. Transactions in the branch have reduced by 35 per cent since 2012, 84 customers visit the branch weekly and 55 per cent of customers are banking digitally on a regular basis.
Well all can say is that most of those 84 customers seem to be in the bank every time I go! And just because two people in the happy hut have mobile phones this means everyone in the entire country is on the internet! What a sheltered and privileged life leatash leads.
When I was in Barclay's the other day, the queue was nearly out of the door. A couple of the clients were doing fairly complex procedures such as transfer of ISA's and I wonder how easy it is to do this kind of thing online, given that it is very easy to make a mistake and type wrong numbers or wrong information. I have been caught out a couple of times by not inputting correct information online and I like to think I am fairly internet savvy.
A story in the media this week about a couple who sent the deposit for their house purchase to the wrong account (well he did!) because he got one number wrong! At the time of the report the bank still has not traced where the money went but £9000 of it had been spent! On line banking is fine for some things but not for everything.
Online banking is fine for everything ok folk make mistakes thats there fault not the banks check, check, and check again when i transfer money to other accounts my bank sorry building society asks me a number of times if the details are correct. And may i remind folk that bank cashiers also make mistakes.
@leatash, because you really think everyone is on the internet and have no idea how many people in this country live in poverty and cannot afford the luxury of the internet! you need to get out of dawlish and see a bit of the rest of the country!
Have just read on Telegraph online that a flaw has been discovered in banking apps that leaves millions vulnerable to having their online accounts hacked.
If only there was somewhere that people without internet access at home could go to. And perhaps pick up a book or two at the same time...
Cassandra, the potential flaw may have (past tense) left users vulnerable in very specific circumstances. The relevant apps have since been updated. There are no known reports of this having caused anyone’s accounts to have been hacked.
Yes libraries that are open every day all day long.............NOT! And there’s not so many of those left now. And nobody ever gets their account hacked!!!! Try telling that to the poor s***s that lose thousands through hacking!
Margeret Swift I see more of the country than you do and thats a fact this year alone i have been to Orkney spent six weeks in Scotland four weeks in the Lakes four weeks in Pembrokeshire and South Wales, ten days in the North East there's poverty there, a further two weeks on the Mull of Galloway, and have just returned from Cornwall. In 2018 i already have eight weeks booked in different parts of the country starting in the Lakes for new year so my advice dont judge folk you know nothing about.
Who said that no-one gets hacked? A few peoples bank accounts - those who use weak passwords or who give their details over the phone or in reply to phishing emails - may have fallen prey to thieves. Please do share examples of actual bank hacking though. Somebodies exclamation mark key seems to have been hacked however...
Oh and libraries dont need to be open all day every day. Why do you think they do?
@leatash, you prove my point, you lead a very privileged life! and for the record, my job entailed me working across the whole of this country for 18 years living everywhere i went for at least a week at a time, and i still do some work which involves travelling all over the country, so it is not a fact that you see more of the country than i do. and because i was working i didn’t see the nice touristy bits i saw life. so..........don’t judge folk you know nothing about!! (exclamation marks for mrs cs benefit!).
In 1998 only 9% of the UK population had internet access the figures for 2017 90% of the UK population have internet access. But only 75% of the population own a car.
And I bet that is the internet providers telling us that! But even if that is accurate, it's OK then for the 10% to be ignored, disenfranchised and live on the margins of society? What a nice person you are!
And only 86% of the population own a TV. So out of the 10% who dont have internet access 7% are elderly out of them 5% are males and 2% female so as they die of the percentage of those who have access will increase why because those taking there place will already be internet savy simples yes.
But they still live on the margins of society. And, for the record, through my work, I know of very poor young families who do not have access to the internet so cannot do online banking even if they wanted to. Don't believe everything you read, how do you KNOW the statistics you are quoting are accurate? And yes, I do think you are probably simples!
Please stop bullying Leatash, just because you disagree with him doesn’t mean thatyou have the right to be so “caustic”.
Why would ISPs lie about the statistics?
A couple of years ago, the number of adults in the UK without a bank account was 1.5 million, according to these facts:
- There are 1.5 million unbanked adults in the UK according to Financial Inclusion Annual Monitoring Report in 2015
- In the UK, 65% of ‘unbanked’ households in the lowest three income meaning they have an annual household income of just under £14,500. They are also more likely to be in receipt of benefits
- Half of the unbanked have been receiving benefits for more than five years and they are more likely to live in socially rented accommodation
Stop interferring, if you've nothing useful to add then don't bother, go get a life!!!!!!!!! (Excalmation marks just for you - and your comment could be construed as bullying so be careful!) Pot, kettle, black?
Blimey, who'd have thought that a thread about a bank closing would get so personal?
Perhaps our benevolent Webmaster needs more help with moderating? Or maybe, like most of us, he secretly enjoys watching the 'bear baiting' that occurs here, it's like Jeremy Kyle without having to watch JK preening in front of the camera!
Quite right Duckileaks. Her hypocrisy is what she herself would call “breathtaking”.
There’s bound to be a very large number of those who don’t have a bank account of any kind, who also don’t have access to the internet at home. I personally believe that these facts are very relevant to this debate that we’re all having.
There is also a large number of people who do bank and don't have internet access, try telling that to leatash though, and for that matter Mrs C. I don't belive I have been hypocrtitical, care to explain? But once again, someone does not agree with YOUR point of view so you resort to your usual approach, in this case the uncalled for comment re exclamation marks. How was that relevant and helpful? And, I do believe that leatash has a very simplistic view of life and is sadly unaware of the poverty in this country, which incidentally, was reported this week as having got a lot worse in recent years.
His view might not be the same as yours, but there really is no need to say that he’s not a nice person or that he’s simple. The hypocrisy I’m referring to is right there - you calling out others for being “caustic” etc, yet you deeming it acceptable to be abusive to other forum members.
However, hands up, I’m sorry that you took offence at my lighthearted observation about your overuse of exclamation marks.
Back to the debate about the banks, anyone?
Over use? Look up how to use an exclamation mark, none have been used inappropriately. so it is only your view that they have been overused!
"The other side of the coin, i noticed yesterday two of those in the happy hut on the latest iphone's more than i can afford. I wonder if they bank online" was the comment made by leatash. How judgemental and what a simplistic view of life.
So........... back to the debate about banks.
I don't use online banking and I prefer to pay by cash rather than by credit card.
And each time a bank or building society has closed an outlet near to where I live I have removed my funds from them. For example, remember the small Halifax B/soc outlet that used to be in Queen Street. I think it closed 2009 ish. So when it closed so then I closed my Halifax B/S account. Then there was the Britannia B/Soc branch in T'mouth (which then become a co-op bank outlet). When it closed I closed all my Britannia B/S accounts.
As far as I am concerned if they cannot provide me with the service that I want (face to face and over the counter) then I don't see why they should have my money.
Petty I know but it gives me a modicum of tit for tat satisfaction.
You’re not alone in doing that Lynne - I don’t think it’s petty at all - I totally agree with you. As a bonus to some, quite a few banks offer “golden hellos” to new current account holders who have a monthly income paid into their accounts (usually £1K).
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-to-use-an-exclamation-point-properly-how-not-to-use-it/
I think the point is that some believe it's possible to have a perfect society were everyone has the same choices in life, unfortunatly thats not how it is and will never be there will always be those at the top and those at the bottom. Things dont realy change take two places in the world that come to mind Aden i was there in the late 60s and the tribes were killing each other and us as fast as they could still going on 50 years later Ethopia i was there in the 70s folk starving and kids dying by the thousand nearly 50 years on just the same. So in the UK yes there are folk in poverty there are families that cant make ends meat i know these things but can i change it absolutely not one jot its always been the same and always will be. My father who i may add was a very left wing miner once told me if all the money in the UK was put in a big pile and equalled out so everyone had the same amount, within a year there would be new millionnaires and those back on benifits and of course he was right after all he was my dad.