Barclays has announced that it is to close its Willesden Green branch on May 3rd The closure announcement follows those for the town centre's National Westminster and Lloyds banks and leaves the area with no bank at all.
Barclays closed its Cricklewood branch some time ago.
This will reinforce the case for a LINK banking hub in Willesden Green that was made by loca ward councillors. LINK
What do the local businessess think of all the banks closing there? Will they insist on only card payments from their customers?? If so this with alienate those unable to pay by card and will further erode the sense of an equal community.
ReplyDeleteGails only allows card
DeleteThe Barclays Bank branch in Kingsbury Road closed last November, a couple of years after our HSBC branch closed (its now Chai and Chapati!).
ReplyDeleteLuckily, we still have a Lloyds and a Natwest, at least for the moment.
We’re generally moving towards a cashless society but I agree that some provisions should be made for those (dare I say the minority?) who require physical cash/the f2f support
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that businesses have to pay extra for their banks to process card payments and it can take up to 7 days for the money to reach their accounts.
ReplyDeleteThis leads to us customers being charged more for goods as the bank card processing fees are passed on and it means that the smaller businesses struggle with cash flow issues.
As usual the only ones really benefitting are the banks.
No Business, even Banks cannot survive without customers, even if its only a few thousand, and justify staying open with the cost of Overheads i.e premises, staff, electricity, business rates being so high. FACT. Population of Willesden in 2021 was 19,000, even if 50% banked with Barclays, they claim only 9% of customers actually use the bank, results in 720 customers! do the math.
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