The announcement to shut five further Lloyds bank branches and Halifax building society offices in the North East... ...has caused outrage from customers, local businesses and MPs warning of a ‘banking desert’ and harm to rural communities. - ThreadSky

mikegalsworthy.bsky.social • 22 days ago

The announcement to shut five further Lloyds bank branches and Halifax building society offices in the North East...

...has caused outrage from customers, local businesses and MPs warning of a ‘banking desert’ and harm to rural communities.

Comments

artfred70.bsky.social•22 days ago

Looks like someone, or something is trying to coercively replace Real Time £Cash Banking with Electronic Global ¢Funnymoney. Isn't this one of the BIG reasons why #BrexShite was heralded as a bullwark for the precious #Sovereign£ against #Schengen€ pluralist currency?

readyplayerzero.bsky.social•22 days ago

What's the point of a bank if you can't ACTUALLY bank.

john-goath.bsky.social•22 days ago

I’ve managed to bank for over 30 years without a branch of my bank

readyplayerzero.bsky.social•22 days ago

Well done.

That doesn't really help though does it.

john-goath.bsky.social•22 days ago

Yes it does, it proves that banking doesn’t have to mean going to a bank branch.

readyplayerzero.bsky.social•22 days ago

No, it proves that "you" don't need a branch.

john-goath.bsky.social•21 days ago

I really don’t understand who ‘needs’ a branch nowadays

john-goath.bsky.social•22 days ago

What is a bank branch and why would I need one?

shoedesigner.bsky.social•21 days ago

Cashing up, obtaining large amounts of change in cash, when when my dad got ill and I got power of attorney, when he died and I was an executor the bank requested I had to go in with documentation, to sign their paperwork and bring ID, to store/collect the house deeds from their safe deposit box.

john-goath.bsky.social•21 days ago

So the latter is a once off the rest is a business? When my father died I didn’t have to go to the bank branch at all, though his bank had a branch. It was all dealt with online.

shoedesigner.bsky.social•21 days ago

Yes, Barclays require an appointment at a branch. Using their safe deposit boxes obviously requires an appointment at the branch. When my father in law died, one of his banks (Hoare) asked me to go in, I enjoyed that one as it was an experience! Tea was served in a wood panelled room.

john-goath.bsky.social•21 days ago

So not the sort of bank and branch that this thread is about?

shoedesigner.bsky.social•21 days ago

Missing the point! We plebs aren’t afforded a personal and in person service anymore.

ceejaa.bsky.social•22 days ago

"a business which made nearly £4 billion in profits after tax in 2023"

davidmccann14.bsky.social•21 days ago

When are we finally going to stop calling them “high street” banks? There are almost no high street branches left.

darkdaysusa-uk.bsky.social•21 days ago

The one group capable of affording to keep their high street places open are running away to save money and sod their customers!

rebussy.bsky.social•22 days ago

Halifax is also a bank, not a building society (unlike Nationwide).

richmountbasket.bsky.social•22 days ago

It's just economic reality that few people need bank branches these days, and if you need cash transactions you can use the Post Office. Post Offices are also closing, but I think banks should be made to invest in keeping them open in exchange for the services they provide.

whysocialmedia.bsky.social•22 days ago

It's a shame they never think of co-location to keep services going unlike the retail sector where Argos and Habitat can be found in branches of Sainsburys and Vision Express and Costa in Tesco.

kittochsidelad.bsky.social•22 days ago

They do. A number of banking hubs set up already and more to come. Likely to be the norm going forward.

whysocialmedia.bsky.social•22 days ago

Not near me. They just shut down branches.

formerspring.bsky.social•21 days ago

How long does that take?

kittochsidelad.bsky.social•21 days ago

Best looking at any plans updates on-line.

formerspring.bsky.social•21 days ago

Nothing yet. They have my street address & email.

theresoluteone.bsky.social•22 days ago

That would be over half of the total bank branches in my constituency.
That's across all banks not just Lloyds, who are incidentally closing one here too.

autumnlady.bsky.social•22 days ago

Already happened here in the Scottish Highlands. People have to travel great distances to get to a bank, either to Inverness or Aberdeen.

davecykl.bsky.social•22 days ago

Umm, Halifax hasn’t been a building society since 1997… 😉

megahamster.bsky.social•22 days ago

The post offices are closing too, si people won't have any counter service at all I some areas

serenaindescai.bsky.social•22 days ago

Og, and they ofthen do it even when the branch has a flourishing ROI. They just want to gain even more, I guess.

serenaindescai.bsky.social•22 days ago

This has been happening on Italy too. "Consolidating", it sure gelps banks save money and gain more. Awful and quite predatorial, but also: isn't it really dangerous to get the peoples' money phisically far from them? Not everyone is digital savvy, especially the elderly.

pj-galley.bsky.social•20 days ago

Lloyds closed the Macclesfield branch last week. The nearest one to me will now be either Stockport (or Manchester, 40 miles away).

highspeedzero.bsky.social•22 days ago

Oh look another Bylines article where the author doesn't know what they're talking about.

Don't worry though, its only 28 years behind the times.

susanglh.bsky.social•21 days ago

HSBC, Nat West, Co op, Barclays and Halifax have all closed in my town in the last few years. HSBC has very few branches left in South East Wales. Appalling.

peteb98.bsky.social•22 days ago

Where is the imagination to find a quick solution that helps everyone.

Banking hubs for example

We really are becoming a nation of do nothing whingers

rock-rex.bsky.social•22 days ago

We have no banks or building societies left here (Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire) -- just Barclays once or twice a week in the Town Hall (and Barclays is about the only "High Street" (sic) bank that I haven't used, and wouldn't).

toddlenrant.bsky.social•22 days ago

Closing in SW too. Bigger profits for shareholders.

joiningupthedots.bsky.social•21 days ago

Time for a windfall tax on banker’s bonuses.

nicholasbannan.bsky.social•21 days ago

Oddly, Barclay’s remains proudly open in Aylesbury despite closing their historic architecturally significant branch in Leighton Buzzard.

afarr.bsky.social•22 days ago

Lloyds Bank has no interest in serving it’s ordinary customers. Change to an ethical account.

execrable.bsky.social•22 days ago

People aren't using them. My local branch of Nat West closed down more than 20 years ago. Before that I think I had stepped inside it twice in the 10 years before that and even then it was empty and that was before Internet banking became omnipresent. The world changes for better or worse.

formerspring.bsky.social•22 days ago

In my small town, only the Nationwide BS remains. They have no shareholders to please, only customers. Perhaps we may see them open new branches where competition is absent. Lloyds, the last to go, were offering a cash machine and a staffed desk in town for customers' access: six weeks on - zilch.

formerspring.bsky.social•21 days ago

NatWests profits made today's news.

dlbvet.bsky.social•21 days ago

So what you're saying is possibly the United States isn't the only place on this 🌍that's causing chaos for it's little people (that's us, the peons, not the wealthy oligarchs that are now running our country).
Good luck.
We're drowning in stupidity over here.

jmc123.bsky.social•22 days ago

To force us all on line?

shoedesigner.bsky.social•21 days ago

Until you HAVE to go to a branch. When dad died I opened an executor account. Had to attend in person and bring ID, death cert etc. The Barclays operator checked for appointments at the scant few branches left in Yorkshire. Finally found one who could see me that week. An 80 minute round trip.

katdharrison.bsky.social•21 days ago

I live in a market town in Wilts. Ours has already closed we now have 1 bank left, Nationwide. The town next to us has no banks at all.

mcewana1963.bsky.social•22 days ago

We have lost our Barclays, Nat West and Lloyds from our High Street, the only remaining financial institution is the Nationwide BS. We need the PO brought back (that has closed as well and been moved too far away to be practical.

profsensible.bsky.social•22 days ago

After a problem with my Lloydes App, I attended an appointment at the local branch to speak with a staffer. But the face to face customer liaison staffer was working from home 4 days a week so I had to rearrange to a date they were actually there in person. 🙄

asleepinyorkshire.bsky.social•22 days ago

Donning my most humble cap I'd proffer such will continue. Adopting a cynical tone I'd ask you to recall how rural bus services took a similar route (pun intended). A disenchanted inner voice reminds me of the inevitability of the phrase, "follow the money". Our language has been crafted over

asleepinyorkshire.bsky.social•22 days ago

centuries. It’s a powerful tool. Often a force for good. Sadly a device that is all too frequently weaponised. Employed to divide us. If I dissent in some ways I’m a hero. In other ways I’m radical. Hero’s are rewarded. Radicals are punished. We are encouraged from an early age, if not from our

asleepinyorkshire.bsky.social•22 days ago

parents, from societal values,to accept that business must make a profit. Indeed such a concept has great merit. But in the pursuit of profit, in the name of business, we trample over much that should be preserved. We are so busy in that pursuit, that driven mission, that we fail to see the impact

asleepinyorkshire.bsky.social•22 days ago

on individuals. It is in this moment, that we miss the opportunity to avail ourselves to the needs of all. Profit has a towering priority. Over time, in an ineluctable process it also becomes a weapon. We are tasked with choices by those who would weaponise our language and insist that profit

asleepinyorkshire.bsky.social•22 days ago

has no equal. That this choice is profit or poverty. Binary arguments wielded by those who will, in the name of profit, in the name of business, ignore all that which can be valued with one exception, profit. Our government collect taxes. In return they promise or pledge to provide services for our

asleepinyorkshire.bsky.social•22 days ago

benefit. The more I think about this Utopian dream, the carrot I’ve been chasing all my life, the broken promises I’ve believed, the more cynical I become. We built motorways and adopted the car to allow us to be independent. Today we sit in traffic jams for hours. Our roads are gridlocked. We built

fredfredson.bsky.social•22 days ago

Can't help linking,

Banks=capitalism
Building societies=socialism

And now the rightwing people who suddenly find their banks actually don't give a shit about them are all switching to nationwide who pledged to keep branches open.
There is a lesson there that will go totally over their heads.

tesplendente.bsky.social•22 days ago

The big banks did this in our little town forcing people to go online (insecure & less local employment), or drive or bike (20 mins) to the next slightly larger town. -- Most people switched banks and went to one of the local credit union. Even if it was one in the next town.

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