The Royal Bank of Scotland in Helensburgh’s Colquhoun Square.
By Bill Heaney
The Royal Bank of Scotland in Colquhoun Square in Helensburgh is earmarked for closure, it was revealed on the BBC Scotland News last evening.
A senior bank official, aka spin doctor, is quoted to have said “Our customers are using digital banking more than ever before – over 80 per cent of our active current account holders now use our digital services and over 97 per cent of retail accounts with us are now opened online. We are increasingly engaging our customers digitally”.
I don’t believe them, and neither do a lot of other people who sadly have been signed up to them as customers.
And neither do many others, who used to enjoy the services of High Street and Main Street banks.
It’s not just banks in large towns such as Helensburgh that are closing.
They are closing their counters – or have closed them already- in Dumbarton High Street; Main Street, Alexandria, and villages such as Arrochar and Kilcreggan.
The poor customers – and that’s most of us – are dismayed.
Just thinking about Fred the Shred sunning himself in the Bahamas made me un petit peu resentful when my branch in the High Street was closed and I have had to go to Clydebank to do some personal banking at the Clydesdale.My good friend Frank, God rest him, was 97 years old when he was told the Clydesdale would be closing in Helensburgh and he would have to bank in Dumbarton, which has closed and gone to Clydebank.
Lucky White Heather!
I hope he is being well looked after by the tellers in the St Peter’s Gate branch.
Social media is on fire today with local people who will have to re-arrange all their financial affairs.
Helen Brown in Helensburgh told her Facebook friends: “Well, I went to close an account on line (very old one, have other live ones) yesterday, seemed straightforward.
“Today I get an email telling me they need me to go into a branch to complete the process … Says it all.
“When they [finally] close I would have to go to Dumbarton to do something they claim is on line. I despair.
“What happens to customers who are unable to use digital services?”
Lucie Sazavska Davies replied:”We were with TSB. First, they closed the Helensburgh branch. Then one in Alexandria and now we have to travel to Clydebank. Only matter of time when that one will go as well.”
Helen Brown replied: “There is no point in changing banks as it will happen to all of them unfortunately.”
Sean Doherty said: “Bank of Scotland it is then.”
Robert Finan summed it all up: “Nothing to do with customers using online services, it’s all a money saving exercise.”
Margaret McRobie made a very good point: “If it’s not busy , why is it every time I go in, there’s a queue like an execution? We need the bank.”
Meanwhile, Dame Jackie Baillie MSP and her Labour colleagues, Hamish Maxwell, pictured right, who is the prospective candidate for Argyll and Bute in the upcoming General Election, have pledged to take up the case for keeping adequate banking services in the area.
