Bank closure


At a time when Kintore is the fastest growing town in Aberdeenshire it is ironic that we are to lose our only bank, thanks to Clydesdale Bank's decision to close 18 banks in Aberdeenshire.

First it was our petrol station, now it is our bank. Although Kintore was growing faster than any other community in Aberdeenshire, the petrol company no longer saw it as viable to support this community - so the pumps have become yet another row of new houses.

Nobody seems to have told the Scottish Executive though. Their road signs on the A96 still encourage people to head into Kintore for petrol!

Now we are being told that we no longer justify a bank. The Australian owners of the Clydesdale Bank have decreed that the branch in Kintore will close, along with 17 others in Aberdeenshire, by the end of this year.

That means Kintore residents and businesses will have to make the journey into Inverurie to do their banking, unless they opt to use the Post Office and join the queue for old-age pensions and postage stamps! If you want to get cash, you will no longer be able to use the Clydesdale Bank machine. Instead you will have to shell out a £1.50 surcharge per transaction to take cash out of the machine at the Somerfield store!

I suppose it was inevitable that this should happen, in an era when bank customers seem to be so little appreciated by some of our major banks. Just look at telephone customer service. How many banks now put you through to India, where - with the best will in the world - the man or woman in Delhi or Mumbai knows little about the geography or the needs of customers in Aberdeenshire?

I was told recently of customers who went for a meeting at the Bank of Scotland in Inverurie, only to discover they were not expected. It later transpired the remote call centre had made the appointment for the branch in Inveraray.

Moral: when choosing a bank to do business with, demand to have a commitment that you will be able to call your own branch when you need customer service. Banking is too important to be decided in Sydney or transacted from a call centre thousands of miles away.

Posted: Sun - August 21, 2005 at 10:35 PM          

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