Savers fight back as high street banks announce another 432 branch closures

As I’ve written before, the big banks are giving loyal customers a rotten deal on two fronts.

First, they pay inferior savings rates. It’s rare to see Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds or NatWest trouble the best buy tables, which are dominated by little-known challenger banks. 

Second, the big banks are closing branches left, right and centre, robbing older and vulnerable savers of much-needed bank counter service, and emptying high streets.

The rate of closures is bewildering and it never seems to stop. Barclays has just announced it will close another 10 branches between August and September.

Between September and next February, Lloyds Banking Group will shutter 21 Lloyds Bank outlets, 15 Halifax branches and 17 Bank of Scotland outlets.

You can see whether your local branch is likely to be closed here.

Last year 425 branches closed in total with another 432 closures already announced so far this year, new analysis from Investec Bank shows.

In more than a quarter of cases, there are no branches of other banks or building societies nearby in a blow for customers who still want the personal touch.

Investec’s research shows that disgruntled savers aren’t taking this lying down.

More than 8.4million have now closed their branch-based deposit accounts after their local bank or building society abandoned their local high street.

They are switching to digital, postal or telephone-based accounts instead.

These are mostly offered from smaller challenger banks who dominate today’s savings rate best buy tables, which means savers’ money is working much harder than before.

For those happy to tie their money away for up for longer, Tandem Bank pays a fixed rate of 5.35 percent for five years, via the Raisin UK savings platform.

United Trust Bank is close behind with a five-year fixed rate bond paying 5.15 percent a year, while Hampshire Trust Bank pays five percent.

Over a four-year term, OakNorth Bank pays 5.07 percent a year, Hampshire Trust offers 5.05 percent and RCI Bank UK pays five percent.

It’s also possible to get more than five percent over a term of just 12 months.

The National Bank of Egypt pays 5.25 percent via Raisin, while Shawbrook Bank pays 5.16 percent and Charter Savings Bank pays 5.1 percent.

It’s great that savers are fighting back against the big banks but many can’t do that because they are reluctant to go down the digital route.

Anna Bowes at rate-tracking service Savings Champion, said that branch closures are a nightmare for older and more vulnerable savers. “Many are still wary of saving large sums in online or app-based accounts, and badly miss having their local branch.”

Yet the banks don’t seem to care about them.