Moortown Halifax closure reaction

Moortown locals react to Halifax's latest bank branch closure announcement.

Transcript

00:00 I think it'd be a miss really. I mean obviously I do a lot of the banking

00:05 online now and I've done for the last five years but as I say previously that

00:09 I'd always gone in branches I know a lot of people that still like to go in

00:12 branches and have that face-to-face type of help and whatever. There's still a lot

00:18 of people who don't use online banking so it's pushing them to obviously go into

00:24 town now or further afield and there's always someone that wants that

00:27 personal touch I think really. Some people don't have cars, some people don't

00:32 have the access to money to get on buses to travel to town. They need that. Some

00:36 people prefer talking to people rather than going online. I prefer going to the

00:40 bank. I don't like using cash machines. There's been incidents with cash machines

00:44 where it's taken your card or something's gone wrong it's just gone down on you. I

00:48 prefer going to the bank. I don't like using on banking because you hear about

00:53 fraud, you hear about people hacking your account and everything. A lot of people

00:57 around here are elderly. They like talking to people. I've lived in the sort of

01:03 Mooretown or Woodley area for quite a long time and this area is very popular

01:08 obviously because with the shops and everything so it is a very light street

01:12 very you know a lot of restaurants around here and everything. I used to

01:15 bank but I don't bank as much now. Well I don't bank hardly anything because I use

01:21 online banking so for me and I don't use Halifax but for me it's not a major deal

01:26 but I know a lot of people like that face-to-face interaction so it will be

01:30 sad to see it obviously close for the people who do like it. There used to be

01:34 Barclays as well as Halifax and neither of them are there now so it's harder for

01:38 like people to go in and do it and I have to be online. I think all the people

01:43 who don't want in on tech should be completely considered. I'm one of them

01:48 that's not into tech. I'm 54 and I've never wanted to deal with tech once you've

01:55 got the app on the phone. Even me and I never thought I'd see the day I'm doing

01:59 it from home I'm doing it from the work van I can do it from anywhere I want to

02:03 know although prior to that I am a man that wanted to deal physically with

02:08 people and talk over the counter and deal with cash but it's really really

02:12 changed you know recently. Hearing about another bank going down is you know just

02:18 bad news I think I think it just brings the high street down you know things are

02:21 closing a lot and I've seen a lot of banks closing down other places as well

02:26 so the bank that I use is NatWest actually so I live kind of nearby

02:30 Chapel Arts and that's still open but I do mostly bank online I think I use my

02:34 you know the app a lot and that's quite good to be honest but family members the

02:40 you know my parents my wife's parents they've been affected by bank closures

02:45 because they often go in person they prefer to use you know cash a bit more

02:48 like old-school. Not everybody is computer literate so I think they

02:53 ideally need a bank here not just for young people but especially for the

02:59 elderly that's their source of just getting out and talking to people.