More than a book: Kim Suleman enjoys the face-to-face contact and the extra help she receives when she enters her industry
Kim Suleman happily embraces digital technology, but there’s one area in her life where she draws the line. “I love my bank passbook and I won’t give it up,” says the freelance TV presenter and former entrepreneur.
Passbooks were an essential part of banking for decades. Customers kept these little booklets, issued by their bank or building society, to show exactly how much they had in their account.
When customers entered a bank branch to make a transaction, the bank teller would enter the final balance in their account for their records.
In recent years, most banks and building societies have been phasing out the passbook, pushing customers to use digital technology such as online banking instead.
But many still like the peace of mind that passbooks provide: a physical record of their balance and the human touch of going to a branch to have it updated.
Kim, 62, from Whitley Bay in North Tyneside, said: ‘In the past, when I have gone into my local Newcastle Building Society branch with my bank book to check my account balance, a member of staff has advised me to switch to a better one. make my money work harder.
‘If I have a question about my account, it is a lot easier to speak to someone face-to-face. This level of service is simply not possible online.”
This is the sister title to Money. The Mail on Sunday revealed last week that Virgin Money had become the latest bank to cut passbook accounts.
The owner of the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank brands will tell around 100,000 passbook holders next month that their accounts will no longer be managed at the branch and will be based on statements only.
It follows a similar move by Lloyds Banking Group, which canceled more than three million passbooks – a story that The Mail on Sunday also first reported. Customers will now have to use mobile apps or ATMs to manage their nest eggs.
Among the accounts being axed is Halifax’s Liquid Gold, which was heavily promoted in the 1980s by TV character Arthur Daley from the hit series Minder.
Lloyds’ decision raised concerns that older customers who do not use or rely on online banking and rely on a bank branch – as they always had – would struggle to access their money.
It also revived fears that fewer customers would visit branches if they ran out of passbooks, giving banks the perfect excuse to close even more.
Banks and building societies have closed 5,818 branches since 2015, according to campaign group Which?
Whitley Bay in North Tyneside has been particularly hard hit. “Four or five branches have disappeared in the last year – including HSBC, NatWest and Barclays – and Lloyds is closing its branch in November,” says Kim.
Santander also no longer accepts passbooks, while Barclays ditched them when it bought Woolwich.
Even Nationwide – Britain’s largest building society which has pledged to keep its branches open until at least 2026 – has stopped offering passbooks to new customers. It said only “a small proportion” of members used them exclusively for branch transactions, following the example of other lenders.
But new research from Newcastle Building Society suggests the cost of living crisis has given passbooks a new lease of life.
It found that the use of passbooks continues to grow with almost half a million transactions per year across its 31 branches.
More than half (59 percent) of the association’s members have an account with a passbook or card card, and three times as many passbooks were issued last year as in 2021 – a period that coincides with the greatest pressure on household incomes since the 1970s .
“Customers tell us time and time again how much they want to keep the option of using a savings account,” says Michael Conville, Chief Customer Officer at Newcastle Building Society.
‘Being able to manage their money face-to-face in an office offers extra security, convenience and security.
‘We have seen that banks in our shopping streets have closed their doors or stopped offering savings accounts. New customers will join the Society knowing we are committed to providing both digital and personal financial services,” he added.
Another way banks have tried to get customers online is by offering poor savings rates on passbook accounts – even as interest rates have soared.
Virgin Money’s passbook account offered zero interest on the lowest cash balances. It is being withdrawn “as part of the passbook removal process,” a spokeswoman confirmed.
“Customers with one of these specific products will instead be able to choose from Virgin Money’s full range of savings products, all of which pay a significantly higher interest rate than this passbook account,” she adds.
For Kim from Newcastle, the amount of interest paid on her bankbook – while important – is not the only key factor.
“It’s more than just the money,” Kim adds. ‘For some people, passbooks are a link to human contact, the chance to talk to people. It’s something personal.’
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