The Ramsgate branch of Barclays bank will shut for good on April 19th.
An explanation leaflet published by Barclays today (January 12) says the decision has been made because people are banking in different ways – such as online.
The leaflet says: “When deciding whether to close this branch, we looked carefully at how it’s been used and how customers are banking in other ways.
“93% of people who use our branch have also banked using the app, online and by phone in 2022.
“Less than 10 customers use this branch regularly as the only way to do their banking and 14% of this branch’s customers have used nearby branches in the last 12 months.”
The closure will mean the nearest Barclays banks for face to face banking will be in Canterbury and Ashford.
The branch at Asda in Broadstairs was shut in 2019 and the Margate branch closed in 2020.
Barclays say: “The decision to close a branch is never easy and we appreciate it might not be welcome news, but we’ll make sure you still have access to our banking services.
“We’ll be available to help and talk to you about managing your money at many locations across the UK. As well as branches, we have many Barclays Local sites where you can come and talk to us. You can see where to find us at barclays.co.uk/branchfinder.
“You can still use the Barclays app1 and Online Banking to manage your money securely, anytime. If you have a personal or business account, you can visit any Post Office to withdraw and pay in cash, pay in cheques and check your balance2. You can also get cash withdrawals and check your balance using LINK cash machines.”
The audacity of these bank bosses is stunning. They’re trying to blame the closure on the customers. Yet they’ve been bullying customers for several years into going online. They even erected a large notice in this branch telling customers not to bother the cashiers.
In the 1980s it was fashionable to boycott Barclays because of their links to apartheid. These days it’s the other way round; Barclays seems to be boycotting all its customers.
For once, I agree. It’s almost impossible to deal with a cashier in Barclays even when a branch is open.
The AI robots will make it all redundant in the next decade or so anyway. Why employ humans who get sick, want holidays, want comfort breaks, want paying a wage, want time off for personal reasons, go off ill/injured, pull sickies etc-when you can have an army of metal warriors that will work 24/7 for nothing, are far quicker, never make errors & never complain? Should add another 5 million or so per annum to each of the bosses wages & bonuses.
Never make errors?
Yet every time I have ever visited the Ramsgate Barclays there has been long queues. I suppose it doesn’t help that for years the stafff have been asking people to use the hole in the walll rather than the cashiers, they have effectively talked themselves out of jobs.
Dear Ian , you are 100% correct. I feel sorry for their staff ; as many are bound to be discarded. Their share price reflects their performance as it has fallen from high to heading for zero . Post Office’s can only take limited cash per year so businesses will be forced to change to another bank or drive to Canterbury .
Another tiny step towards the masses being microchipped. Not that I ever liked Barclays.
“The masses being microchipped”? What are you talking about? What sort of conspiracy theory is that?
Not that big a step from everyone having to carry aound an electronic device at all times (not that I would ever get a smartphone).
I thought the idea went that the Covid Jabs have microchips in-so surely 75-80% of the world already have them implanted?
No, that’s just a paranoid idea some people unfortunately have.
Of course customers are using different ways to bank, when you remove the way to bank there is no choice. This branch only permits business customer to use the counter, when that is open, so the only choice is a machine. Just another sign that customer service means nothing anymore.
This is daft, it’s so busy, if banks wish to close branches, they should perhaps get together and lease or buy an area in a large post office as so many of them are so sparse and have machines and staff to aid each different bank, or do the same in an independent building. This way they are all represented and splitting costs.
No cash desks open and only cash machines . From being an excellent bank it has gone from hero to zero during the last few years . Thanet has a rapidly expanding population and to not have a bank in Thanet is appalling and must be the worst decision ever .
The leaflet says: “When deciding whether to close this branch, we looked carefully at how obscenely rich are bosses & shareholders are & how cutting off supply to our customers & putting people out of work, will give us an extra holiday to the Swiss Alps every year.
The closure will mean the nearest Barclays banks for face to face banking will be in Canterbury and Ashford, so the ‘Plebeians’ we could care less about can sod off there or lump it.
Barclays say: “The decision to close a branch is always easy and we appreciate it might not be welcome news for the public-but tough titties, as like every other financial institution we are far more interested in laundering Cartel money, misselling products, doing deals with corrupt Gulf states etc. But we’ll make sure you still have access to our banking services-as long as you can travel 20-40 miles, until we close those branches down as well in the next few years. Toodle pips peasants & be sure when the next crash happens due to our corruption & greed, you will be bailing us & all the other banks & building societies out once again.
“Couldn’t care less about”, surely. Unless you’re an American, of course.
I was channeling Mr Zappa & his disdain for Cupcakes compared to Muffins.
The shareholders are certainly not getting a good deal either as Barclays share price is a fraction of what it was 20 years ago. By leaving Ramsgate & Thanet it is certain to lose 1,000 s of customers ; at a time when many banks are offering bonuses for people changing their bank accounts . This once loyal customer will most certainly be dumping Barclays , and as they have no open cash tills open anyway I suspect even that will need to be done online .
The rhyming slang “Barclay’s banker” is highly appropriate!
I stop using Barclays long ago they made one feel you were a pain by dare to asking them a question. I now only bank at Nationwide.
another nail in the coffin for ramsgate , but then no one seems bothered , its like organised decline in thanet , and i totaly agree with the earlier postings , the staff in these banks have been talking themselves out of a job for years by encouraging on line banking , which i for one do not want !
but wait there is good news on the way….75 shoe box flats with no parking have been agreed by thanet council. at least there more money for them to have for council taxes for the christmas parties
It really winds me up, when banks gradually reduce their branch opening times. Have fewer and fewer counters open inside. When you do manage to get inside they have a member of staff telling you to use the machine. Making it almost impossible to actually to be served at a counter. Then they have the cheek to say nobody uses the counter. Then to add insult they are telling us to use the Post Office to put cash in. Why would you want to do that after the way would not admit their computer system did not work for 20 years.
I am moving my accounts to Nationwide.
Maybe they can do their once loyal customers one last favour and provide details on the easiest way to change banks. To leave 120,000 population of Thanet with no Barclays branch will mean losing many business accounts and customers. Surely to have a branch at Westwood X would have been a compromise as it is now the busiest town in Thanet. But common sense seems to have deserted the Barclays board of directors 🤔
Westwood Cross isn’t a town.
Westwood X has killed off our towns ; especially Ramsgate ; and our Council has allowed this occurrence sadly. There has been an exodus of businesses , large and small , since the advent of Westwood X , due to the advantage of free parking etc there. Without a radicle plan for Ramsgate town it is doomed to be full of empty shops and Barclays closure just follows HSBC and more will follow. At least HSBC have moved to Westwood X. Barclays should do the same .
Banks are only concerned with profits it dosent matter some elderly dont have access to the internet they have to accept no more Barclays I thanet.
Why can’t the big Banks join forces share a building and share space and at least have representation in thanet it sill save ghdm money but at least lots can at least bank.
I believe that that is what is happening in a few remote communities.
It is possible to use the Post Office to deposit cheques and cash into your Barclay’s account (as long as we have a Post Office), but that’s no help if you want to set up standing orders and so on.
Post Offices tend to limit the amount of small change they’ll accept. I was in Chipping Norton recently (another bank-less town), and staff in a charity shop told me they have to PAY someone to take their coinage to a bank in another town, as the post office refuses to take it.
With the future being Digital Money (CBDC) it is of no surprise.
They can stick Digital Money where the sun doesn’t shine. Used by scammers & crashes on a regular basis. About as real as Zuckerbuerg’s demented Metaverse, which only exists in his warped mind.
Here’s a statement on the Bank of England website …
“Will a CBDC replace cash?”
“People are using cash less to pay for things but we know it’s still important for many people. We will keep issuing cash in the UK as long as people want to use it.”
So if we want to protect our human right to use cash then we need to go out of our way to demonstrate that we need it. Even if we need to go out of our way to do this, it’s for the greater good in the long run. Don’t let the bastards win!
It was reported nearly 4 million people mainly over 65’s, do not have access to the Internet. I lived in a sheltered housing scheme for 7 years, and most of the lessees had no keyboard skills at all. I have to wear a contraption on my head that illuminates, and magnifies print on a screen, and I have to wear amber coloured fitover glasses, to cut out the colour blue in the spectrum that damages the Macular. I still suffer eye strain though, so can’t remain on the Internet for long. Besides, I trust the Internet about as far as I can throw a London Transport Bus, and as for the Post Office is concerned, the least said about that the better! And no, I don’t own a mobile phone either!
Barclay’s like HSBC & others have become fairly useless in recent years by driving away customers from the counter & telling them to use a machine. Then they say they have too few people using the place. People don’t like it when you act like they are stupid. Fine then I’ll take my business to Nationwide
Vote with your cash. Move to Nationwide, that’s what I did after Santander decided Margate wasn’t worth their time. One branch in Margate one in Birchington. Excellent.
Barclays have been on a mission to deter loyal customers from using their bank for years as they leave the cashiers shut away behind blinds and have a member of staff outside to help you navigate the ATM inside the premises. This was obviously designed to be a deterrent to going there and their poor staff were instructed to inform us that everybody liked it. It surely must count as Constructive dismissal of the staff they no longer require. Acts such as this could cause a run on the bank if customers repay their lack of understanding and withdraw their savings and change banks . RBS ( Fred the Shred ) behaved like gods just 16 years ago and had to be bailed out by The Bank of England & the Treasury , whilst Barclays tapped the UAE for a bailout. It appears no lessons have been learnt at all . No thought or common sense in not having a branch in any Thanet town 😢😢😢
I understand some people will be disappointed this branch is closing but whoever attempted to smash the side window is just a vandal.
I do agree . Vandalism is unlawful and a real curse. But ; sadly ; as more and more shops and businesses give up and vacate our historic towns I feel this behaviour will increase . The creation of Westwood X with free parking has killed trade in our traditional towns. Business rates and expensive parking charges ; with eager Parking Wardens hiding in shop doorways waiting to pounce on anyone failing to buy a ticket have made Ramsgate ; Margate etc unfriendly ; unviable places to attract business people . Come on TDC , just what are your plans to stop the exodus of businesses ; shops & banks ???
For the past 2 years barclays ramsgate has told customers that the counters are only for people with business accounts and the everyday customers have to use the machines and now we are told they are closing because people aren’t using the counters!! Idiots.. I’m now with the nationwide
was with Barclays for 50 years. closed Deal branch and now transferred over to Nationwide for my banking services face to face. you have a choice move your account its that easy go in branch and ask.
at this rate there will no longer be any branches left in Kent. What an insult to Thanet people. Vote with your feet, move your account to Nationwide. I did. Not that hard or go in branch for assistance. Good luck. Stuff Barclays.