MANY local HSBC customers will find much to agree with in Geraldine Reardon’s letter (Maintain essential financial services, Craven Herald, December 22) I bank with Natwest, which still maintains its Skipton branch and provides mobile banking services on most Monday lunchtimes in Settle. I rarely use ATMs, “bank in the wall” services.
In Settle, the post office provides debit card customers with cash from £1 coins, £5, £10, £20 notes etc. I can also deposit money for my bank account. These post office services are open to all customers of UK banks.
I have been doing online banking since I was 80, and that is a few years ago now. My husband who was the business partner in our marriage, moved from telephone banking to online banking just before he died. Telephone banking incidentally, is still an option for those with no computer, tablet or smart phone.
Left on my own, I was thrown in at the deep end and floundered badly for some time. Determination, practice and expert advice from Natwest personal and phone services, brought me confidence and I got there in the end. When I need help with a task, as I did recently, I phone the Natwest line dedicated to serve customers over the age of 60. The phone is answered quickly by a real person, and not by a canned, automated voice.
These days, most of my bills are paid by direct debit, standing order or in the case of bills with no fixed appearance date, by bank transfer, which I can also use to transfer money to relations at home or overseas. For some time, I have been concerned for old friends who do not do online or telephone banking, who have to travel to the Skipton branch of their bank to send money to family. I do that in the comfort of my home. What they will do, when there is no bank branch in Skipton, I do not know.
Recently, because of my worsening mobility, I have set up more bank transfer facilities for local tradespeople and businesses whose service I use. Most now provide the necessary details on their invoices. I am realising that the new arrangements are benefitting these businesses, like my milkman, who now has one fewer cheque to pay in at the post office. There is of course, no local bank here to process it.
Kathleen Kinder
Settle
