Have you ever lost your rag when standing at the supermarket self-service checkout?
You’re happily swiping your teabags, toilet roll and tomato ketchup and then, voice of doom. Unidentified item in the bagging area. No, really there isn’t. But by the time the real person arrives with their it’s-OK-she’s-not-nicking-anything-card, you’re practically throwing the ketchup at the machine.
Sometimes – often, in fact – technology which is intended to make things easier just makes things ten times harder.
Well, harder for you and me. Not for the supermarket who pays for the machine, sacks 90 per cent of checkout staff and saves a ton of money. The same thing is happening with banks.
News that HSBC is closing yet another 114 bank branches from April next year is deeply depressing. High street banks and building societies are not just a place to pay in and take out money. For the older generation in particular, they can be the backbone of their social contact, especially for those living alone. Tellers are also a sense check when it comes to financial decisions and a reassurance.
Branches are a place crucial for a whole swathe of small businesses, which rely on them for weekly cash deposits.
Banks are closing thousands of branches around the country, blaming the high cost of maintaining a physical presence on the high street. They aren’t wrong. Business rates disproportionately penalise any business with bricks and mortar premises.
The business case just isn’t there. But what helps the bottom line is hurting customers and communities. It is a sorry state of affairs.
Next year, however, the City watchdog is bringing in a new rule which will force banks and other financial firms to put the customer at the heart of every service they offer. Customers must have ‘good outcomes’.
I wonder whether this action by the Financial Conduct Authority could prove the saving of the high street bank? Just a thought.
And in other news…
1. Banks and building societies signed off radically fewer mortgage applications. The higher mortgage rates/rising bills combo means people cannot afford to borrow as much as they could six months ago.
2. Nationwide said house prices are falling.
3. Savers scrambled to deposit cash into accounts suddenly paying a reasonable (if sub-inflation) rate of interest. Compared to investing in very rocky stock markets, it feels safer. Just be thoughtful before you nab a long-term fixed rate account. The Bank of England is still hiking rates so it may pay to wait a bit.
4. My personal favourite. TCI Fund Management is a hedge fund that made a ton of money off the back of the market fiasco triggered by former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini budget. Coincidentally, the fund is run by Rishi Sunak’s former boss Sir Chris Hohn. Last week Hohn paid himself a, wait for it, £575million dividend.
Free and confidential help
StepChange Debt Charity: 0800 138 1111
PayPlan: 0800 280 2816
National Debtline: 0808 808 4000
Citizens Advice: 0800 144 8848
Debt Advice Foundation: 0800 622 61 51
Turn2Us: 0808 802 2000
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