Big high street bank shuts doors on a handful of branches for final time and more will follow
A BIG high street bank has shut the doors on a handful of branches for the final time – with more set to follow.
By the end of this month, Barclays will have reportedly closed a total of 36 branches since August.
The closures began on August 17, when branches in Southampton and Newark pulled down their shutters for a final time.
Four banks were also shut down on September 15, and two are set to close their doors next week.
Yesterday the Falmouth, Camrbdieg, Hemsworth and Lichfield branches all closed, while the Bournemouth and Pontefract Barclays will have both shut down by September 22.
Following these closures, Redditch, Bude, Hanover Square, London, and Charing Cross, London, will also be permanently shut on September 29.
The closures come as a number of major high street banks move more of their banking services online.
Several banks are expected to have disappeared from the high street by the end of the year, with HSBC, NatWest and Halifax among some of the major banks which will be impacted – along with Barclays.
But many, particularly the elderly, still rely on in-person services and the closures will make it more difficult for them to access essential banking services.
Luckily, there are still a number of ways in which affected customers can access basic banking services without having to travel to the next town.
If the latest spate of closures will leave you with no bank in your town, you should be able to do most basic tasks at your local Post Office.
You can use one of the Post Office’s nearly 12,000 branches to perform basic banking tasks — but not open new bank accounts or take personal loans and mortgages.
Many banks also offer a mobile banking service, which is where your bank brings a bus to your local area that has the services that are usually available at your branch.
You should call up your bank to see if it runs such a service and they will be able to tell you where and when it will be parked.
Other banks use buildings such as village halls or libraries to offer mobile banking services.
Banking hubs, which offer traditional shared services, have also been set up in several locations around the UK to help plug the gap — including Brixham, Cambuslang, Cottingham and Rochford.
It comes as it was revealed that millions of people are living in constituencies without a single bank branch as thousands are axed across the country.
More than 2.2million customers have to travel miles for face-to-face services, with many more only having access to one local branch.
Britain has now been nicknamed a “banking desert”, as 23 constituencies have had all of their bank branches closed down.
Some major UK banks have axed more than 80 per cent of their branches in the last eight years, says consumer group Which?
“It is a banking desert in many ways,” said former NatWest executive and banking campaigner Derek French.
“People now must go to a city or a large town.
“That used to be a reasonable mileage away, but now the large town might have lost its banks and people have to go 20 or 30 miles or more to their nearest branch.”
