Ulster Bank closing in the RoI

[trailer]

It's nothing new but still a real shame. Where are elderly people in rural communities meant to go? I know the banks claim it's because of lower footfall but this is because banks have been forcing their customers to use online banking for almost a decade.

Genuinely why do elderly or indeed any personal customers go into a bank on a regular basis? Like weekly or fortnightly.

[thewobbler]

It's nothing new but still a real shame. Where are elderly people in rural communities meant to go? I know the banks claim it's because of lower footfall but this is because banks have been forcing their customers to use online banking for almost a decade.

Genuinely why do elderly or indeed any personal customers go into a bank on a regular basis? Like weekly or fortnightly.

I've often wondered the same.

The people these closures would most affect are small traders in largely cash businesses - pubs, chippies, restaurants, bookies, corner shops - who need to make regular deposits for both insurance and paying creditors, and have a retailer need for change.

[trailer]

It's nothing new but still a real shame. Where are elderly people in rural communities meant to go? I know the banks claim it's because of lower footfall but this is because banks have been forcing their customers to use online banking for almost a decade.

Genuinely why do elderly or indeed any personal customers go into a bank on a regular basis? Like weekly or fortnightly.

I've often wondered the same.

The people these closures would most affect are small traders in largely cash businesses - pubs, chippies, restaurants, bookies, corner shops - who need to make regular deposits for both insurance and paying creditors, and have a retailer need for change.

And even those businesses will see a drop in the amount of cash they handle with the pandemic. I tap nearly everything nowadays. But it will effect them for sure. But personal customers? Why do they need to go in a branch? With the PO now you can do most transactions there anyway.

[screenexile]

I worked in branch for a few years in my younger days and it really is a generational thing. Elderly/older people think of money as tangible and that a bank is storing their money for them.

We used to have an elderly lady who thought we literally held all her money in the branch and one of the girls used to shake a money box at her saying "It's all still here". They had a strange relationship with passbooks as well and a belief that if they lost the passbook they lost their money.

They find it hard to trust that it all exists digitally and that their debit card is where all the money is at they have a comfort in thinking that the bank is storing it all for them.

Of course I'm generalising a lot here but that was my experience anyways.

[imtommygunn]

My parents are like that. This pandemic has done one thing I never thought I would see - make my da use a card.

[thewobbler]

I worked in branch for a few years in my younger days and it really is a generational thing. Elderly/older people think of money as tangible and that a bank is storing their money for them.

We used to have an elderly lady who thought we literally held all her money in the branch and one of the girls used to shake a money box at her saying "It's all still here". They had a strange relationship with passbooks as well and a belief that if they lost the passbook they lost their money.

They find it hard to trust that it all exists digitally and that their debit card is where all the money is at they have a comfort in thinking that the bank is storing it all for them.

Of course I'm generalising a lot here but that was my experience anyways.

This isn't a suitable reason to maintain a loss making service though.

In my experience even the most technically illiterate and unwilling of older people can successfully book flights from anywhere to anywhere, and not fall for the legion of add-on traps the airlines employ. None of same people yearn for a day where they'd spend an hour querying in a travel agency to then find out that the only available flights are twice as expensive as they thought they'd be.

Same will apply to online banking. Unless you run a cash business it's a truly remarkable improvement on traditional banking.

[armaghniac]

Online banking has its limitations!
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/citibank-just-got-a-500-million-lesson-in-the-importance-of-ui-design/

[screenexile]

Online banking has its limitations!
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/citibank-just-got-a-500-million-lesson-in-the-importance-of-ui-design/

I remember one of the lads tills was £700 short on a particular day... we searched for an hour after work and most of the next day before we had to write it off as a counting error.

3 months later when the fella had left this elderly woman landed with her passbook which had noted a £700 withdrawal 3 months previous which hadn't been entered into the system. Your man had given her the cash/filled out her passbook but forgot to enter it on the computer!!

It surprised me how much human error there is in banking and was my first real eye opener that the institutions you expect to be infallible are anything but!

[thebigfella]

Online banking has its limitations!
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/citibank-just-got-a-500-million-lesson-in-the-importance-of-ui-design/

Hardly the same thing - this is institutional banking and I would assume not online. There was 3 levels of authorisation on this transaction and all levels missed the mistake as it appears none of them understood what they authorised.

[Kidder81]

I would say the Post Office is more important for elderly people & their banking than a bank

[five points]

This isn't a suitable reason to maintain a loss making service though.

In my experience even the most technically illiterate and unwilling of older people can successfully book flights from anywhere to anywhere, and not fall for the legion of add-on traps the airlines employ. None of same people yearn for a day where they'd spend an hour querying in a travel agency to then find out that the only available flights are twice as expensive as they thought they'd be.

Same will apply to online banking. Unless you run a cash business it's a truly remarkable improvement on traditional banking.

Very true. Whatever about internet banking, most people have been using the internet for one thing or another for the guts of 20 years now. Everyone old enough has been using ATMs and credit cards since at least the 1990s. They all seem to get by OK, and they will get by fine without bank branches too.

[giveherlong]

Have an account with Ulster Bank ROI which is going to close and I need to switch to another bank
Anyone familiar with EBS?
Was thinking of switching to their Money Manager account which doesn't have a monthly or quarterly maintenance fee and no minimum deposit amount

[gerrykeegan]

Just moved to them. I was with KBC and their app was great. It works fine but has no app. You login via a website. You have an authentication app on your phone. No hassle whatsoever so far. I manually changed all direct debits.