It says they don’t get enough custom
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Banking giant Barclays is shutting another 27 branches, it has announced, because they don't get used enough. It means it will have closed 103 by the end of the year.
Bank closures have become common, with around 330 branches across different brands closing this year alone overall. Now, Which? reports that Barclays is adding another 27 sites to that list – 63 had already been announced earlier this year.
Barclays has been approached for comment by the Mirror. Banks say they are closing branches because a lack of use means it costs too much to keep many open.
They say the move towards online banking means many people are not setting foot in branches. It has left some areas with no physical branch. The full list of Barclays branches due to shut this year is:
Lloyds Banking Group is closing 28 branches – 20 Lloyds Bank and eight Halifax – between August and November this year. HSBC is closing 69 bank branches due to a shift to online banking, in a move affecting around 400 staff.
TSB is to close 70 bank branches in the UK this year, while NatWest will shut 32 outlets, including 11 Royal Bank of Scotland sites. Brits can access some banking services at Post Offices due to a tie-up between banks and the mail delivery institution.
Banks pay the Post Office to do this to offset the impact of them closing branches. However, this range of services can limited compared to a bank branch. You cannot open a bank account at a Post Office, for example, or sort out issues with your account.
What you can do at a Post Office also depends which bank you are with. If you are a Bank of Scotland, HSBC or Lloyds customer you can use all Post Office banking services – withdrawing and depositing cash, checking your balance and depositing a cheque.
But if you bank with Nationwide, all you can do is withdraw cash and check your balance.