Bank branch closures and the cashless society

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Paul

By choice, not because its not available, I presume you also mean they dont have phones with access.

Many elderly people don’t have the internet or are even capable of using it.

As for telephones, many OAPs only have landlines, and those that do have mobiles still have the old style Nokias and the like.

You’ll see things differently when you get old. Stuff that you master with ease now gradually becomes impossible as your mental capacity declines.

Personally, I’ve had a 20p coin in my pocket for months now as I have no need to deal in cash. But we cannot operate on an ‘I’m all right, Jack’ basis, we’ve always got to think about those who cannot cope with new technology and come up with solutions that make sense to them.

We must never cut off access to cash until we have worked that one out.

[jonbxx]

Our local Barclays Bank closed late last year but they produced a good leaflet explaining their decision and what alternatives were available. The leaflet pointed out that in 2021, they had 22 customers that only used that branch for their banking service. 93% of their branch customers used some other method of banking in addition to going into the branch. That might be internet or telephone banking or using another branch or the Post Office.

On that point, banks and the Post Office could be a little more proactive on what services the Post Office can provide. For example, Barclays customers can deposit and withdraw money and perform balance enquiries at the Post Office 1 minutes walk from the now closed bank.

It is an unpleasant cold hard fact that the population who has never been exposed to the internet and smartphone world is only getting smaller and some hard commercial decisions will,eventually need to be made but the banks could work harder in managing the transition

[Ken W]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Many elderly people don’t have the internet or are even capable of using it.

As for telephones, many OAPs only have landlines, and those that do have mobiles still have the old style Nokias and the like.

You’ll see things differently when you get old. Stuff that you master with ease now gradually becomes impossible as your mental capacity declines.

Personally, I’ve had a 20p coin in my pocket for months now as I have no need to deal in cash. But we cannot operate on an ‘I’m all right, Jack’ basis, we’ve always got to think about those who cannot cope with new technology and come up with solutions that make sense to them.

We must never cut off access to cash until we have worked that one out.

My friend is 80 and dosent have bb

[Rillington]

Originally Posted by peanut

Cash payments rise for first time in 10 years

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66796263

So people are still budgeting using cash and it does make sense. It also does make you wonder why people are so much debt these days when you don't see exactly what you're spending. It's all too easy to just click here and there, tap your card, pay later, pay in instalment etc etc.

The argument here is that for people on the tightest budgets, cash is the easiest way not to get into debt as you can physically see what money you have whereas, as you rightly say, tapping, of whatever it is called, can make it far too easy to overspend and get into debt.

---------- Post added at 18:13 ---------- Previous post was at 18:10 ----------

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

Many elderly people don’t have the internet or are even capable of using it.

As for telephones, many OAPs only have landlines, and those that do have mobiles still have the old style Nokias and the like.

You’ll see things differently when you get old. Stuff that you master with ease now gradually becomes impossible as your mental capacity declines.

Personally, I’ve had a 20p coin in my pocket for months now as I have no need to deal in cash. But we cannot operate on an ‘I’m all right, Jack’ basis, we’ve always got to think about those who cannot cope with new technology and come up with solutions that make sense to them.

We must never cut off access to cash until we have worked that one out.

That's exactly the point, and my fear is that those people will become financially excluded and also could end up being debanked as I think it is only a matter of time when a major bank decides to end the use of cash and says that unless you do online you will be debanked. This might happen sooner than we all think.