Yorkshire businessman who has to bank a check in London

Barclays Bank continues to attack its branches and is certainly making life difficult for many of its customers.

It has already announced plans to close 62 branches this year, the first of which will close next month. That’s more than the 1,140 stores that have closed since the beginning of 2015, according to consumer group Which?. According to Which?, no other bank has been so ruthlessly removed from our cities.

Businessman Mike Ridgway is one of the customers affected by Barclays’ decision to slash its branch network. Mike, a packaging industry consultant who lives in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, complains that Barclays is making his banking life a pain.

Mike, a Barclays customer for 55 years, had been using online banking for some time but was scammed 18 months ago. He eventually got his money back from his bank, but he avoided online banking and mobile his banking and utilized his banking in branches and over the phone.

Barclays closed its branch in Ilkley two years ago, but it was not the only bank to abandon the town in self-defense. HSBC closed its branches in June last year, shortly after NatWest pulled out, and Halifax closed its stores just two months ago. Santander is the only one left with a footprint in the town today.

“It’s crazy,” Mike says. Ilkley is a wealthy town with high property values ​​and is the perfect base for people working from further afield such as Bradford, Leeds and Manchester. But banks have pretty much given up on us. ”

Mike’s biggest frustration is that Barclays doesn’t stop at Ilkley. Branches were washed away in nearby Guiseley (April 2023) and Settle (February 2022). Compounding his banking misery, the Skipton branch will be permanently closed this week, while the Keighley branch will be in a state of turmoil in August. “Barclays customers who prefer in-person banking are literally being stripped of their bank accounts,” he says.

Mike says that to visit your “local” Barclays branch you have to catch a train to Bradford or Leeds. If the train is on time (50:50), it will take 35 minutes. Or, in extreme cases, you might bank a check you receive at a Barclays branch while you’re in London for work. “I was in London five days ago and went to the London branch on Berkeley Street in Mayfair to deposit a check,” he says. How crazy is that? ”

Banking expert Derek French believes Barclays has been tasked with closing more branches outside the big cities than any other bank. This comes at a time when new rules are introduced from the city’s regulator (Financial Conduct Authority) that could potentially limit banks’ right to touch down on their last branch. This is because they do not want to be in the position of a bank. “It’s interesting to see that some of the recent closures announced by Barclays have targeted branches in larger cities, where banks will be the first or second banks to leave,” Derek said.

This includes towns such as Andover in Hampshire. Barking, Essex. Bracknell and Maidenhead, Royal Berkshire. Gravesend, Kent. Hartlepool, County Durham. Lancaster in Lancashire has a population of over 50,000 people. I fear bank branch closures will be a recurring theme this year.

The last words go into the microphone. “Ilkley is becoming a banking desert,” he says. “The only thing that comforts me is the beauty of the Yorkshire Dales on my doorstep. Banks can’t destroy that, can they?”

On balance, I would like to congratulate both Nationwide Building Society and HSBC on some welcome branch-friendly initiatives. Nationwide, which prefers to keep its branches afloat rather than close, has agreed to donate up to £10,000 to local causes in Windsor, Royal Berkshire. This town is where the company (scandalously) is the only surviving bank or building society.

For every new current and savings account opened by a resident between now and March 26, they will be allocated £200 in a community fund, and local residents will decide how the money is spent. Good luck, National District.

Meanwhile, HSBC has just opened a new ‘flagship’ branch based at Huddersfield’s Kingsgate Shopping Center. This follows the opening of a similar state-of-the-art branch in Sheffield.

Unlike Barclays, HSBC has said it will not announce any new branch closures this year. The situation at the bank branch is not at all dire.

Will Jeremy Hunt make us happy?

I receive a large number of emails from companies every day. I get rid of most things and keep only what I need for work and my own financial education (I’m always in learning mode).

Sometimes I get emails that are so left-field that I can’t help but laugh. For example, the email I received last week from online casino comparison site CasinoTop3.

The company has conducted research that it claims shows a clear link between money and happiness, and between life expectancy and happiness. In other words, the more money you have and the longer you can expect to live, the happier you will be. According to CasinoTop3, Finland currently has the highest happiness score (7.8 out of 10). Its residents also rank within the top third of the 60 countries analyzed in terms of average salary and life expectancy.

Finland is followed by Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. As for the UK, it came in 17th place, with India in last place.

If I’m reading the runes correctly, Wednesday’s budget may not include the tax cuts that many people desperately need. If so, my guess is that Britain’s happiness score could very well fall further down in the world rankings as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt continues to take away more of our income and savings with a myriad of stealth taxes. It will be there. And also if Labor wins the next election and imposes even more taxes on the middle class.

The United Nations has designated the 20th of this month as the “International Day of Happiness.” Ah, humbug.

I appreciate it very much

Finally, I would like to thank all the readers who have contacted me in recent days to express their condolences on the loss of my mother (Helen of Troy) at the ripe old age of 88.

The Prestridge family celebrated her life three days ago in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham. Most of the time we laughed, but intermittently we parted in tears.

The next few weeks are going to be hilarious as we try to get the probate granted. I’m already having trouble sleeping because of the inevitable battle. Probate is a nightmare, but I can’t imagine that changing for Jeff Prestridge.