The Kintyre Forum

The Clydesdale Bank have just announced their latest round of closures.

Tarbert's Clydesdale Bank is being shut down.

Is it only a matter of time until Campbeltown loses it's Clydesdale Bank ?

The full list of 10 branches confirmed in this round are:-

Closures at Cullen, Dornoch, Dufftown, Fochabers, Invergordon, Nairn, Rothes and Tarbert in Argyll, along with sub-offices in Findochty and Tomintoul.

According to the Clydesdale Bank, they are closing premises due to lack of customers and the growth of internet and telephone banking. Maybe an idea for local folk to think about calling into Longrow's Clydesdale rather than use the internet or telephone. Use it or lose it :@)

This is the latest round. The earlier one saw 18 North East branches close down.

The North East branches to close are Aberchirder, Ballater, Cruden Bay, Echt, Fyvie, Inverbervie, Kemnay, Kintore, Laurencekirk, New Deer, Oldmeldrum, Portsoy, Rhynie, Strathdon, Strichen, Tarland, Tarves and Torphins.

Bad enough Robertsons closing without the thought of one of the town's major financial institutions making a permanent withdrawal.

Not just that, but the poor manager at the TSB in Bolgam Street was quite distressed at the "deposits" left by Scottish Water this week, so maybe they will be floating away soon too.

Come on Hoots you have got to be kidding.

As an ex customer with 25 years loyalty to the Clydesdale I couldn't care less about their demise. I left two years ago because of their intense selling every time you went near the place and I knew there was something wrong because every time I went in there was a new face trying to act as though they knew what they were doing. Training was obviously suffering.

Their charges had reached the ridiculous stage and I got fed up telling them I did not want a bloody credit card.

Twenty five years a customer and the governors just saw their customers as soft marks.

No bank is perfect but I am now with another bank and not once in the last two years have felt pressurised to buy any of their products and the staff are constant. No turnover so far

The Clydesdale bank in opinion abused my goodwill and loyalty and I would never go near them again.

I would rather lose it than use it.

jeanette

Hi Jeanette,

Sorry, but I think you misunderstood where I was coming from. I have no loyalty to the Clydesdale Bank, and in fact left it a couple of years ago for precisely the reasons you stated. That, plus I simply don't trust that bank.

What worries me are the jobs that the town can ill afford to lose. Also do we really want more buildings closing down than opening up ?

I think Alex Salmond put his finger right on the point. He said that a decade ago the Clydesdale was a good 50% of the size of the Royal Bank and a "player". Now the Royal Bank of Scotland is the fifth biggest bank in the WORLD whilst the NAB and senior management at the Clydesdale have reduced a once good bank into a fast disappearing "speck on the horizon".

If the Campbeltown Clydesdale Bank does close, might it be an idea for the local Credit Union to take it over ? After all that is how the mutual building societies started up, and methinks there would be a lot more support for a community based bank than what we have now.

It is at present up to Clydesdale HQ whether Campbeltown CB closes, but given the rolling closure plan with dozens of Clydesdale Banks having already bitten the dust - and many last-bank-in-town - it is surely only a matter of time before Longrow boasts one of the most prestigeous empty buildings in the area.

Never mind scoop, am sure thurs a wheen o property developers who'll find a good use fur yon bank hoos, perhaps a nickle an dime or a Christmas decor shop, if no, am sure the Provi ur near the biggest lenders in the toon an they'll need a bigger shop efter Chrismas.

An as fur you Salmon whoots he ever done fur oor economy - uther than the odd tip on the nags. yons a politician - yeed git mair sense fae a feesh or a fush, an better eatin too.

Wetman,

Alex Salmond isn't my politician. The local list SNP MSP, Jim Mathers has proven a disaster.

The vast majority of politicians are a parcel-o-rogues, and the new Freedom of Information Act is going to be the end of a lot of them :@)

As for people trying to re-open up closed shops. Nickle and Dime and the Christmas shops aint mine chief. But at least someone is having a go. I've a great deal more time for people who get up of their arse and have a go, than the bitter few of ne-er-do-wells who snipe from the sidelines and have made little or no effort and contributing anything other than a bit of sarcasm.

That's one of the true tradgedies of Scotland. The world has a huge amount of ex-patriate Scots, half of who simply got fed up with snipey attitudes back home and made their mark in the likes of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc.

A great truth in the phrase, Scots prefer their kings across the water :@)

The ones with get-up-and-go got-up-and-went.

Puir puir Mr Halbert must be spinnin in his boax an if he is ,he his a dam richt tae be!

I certainly hope we don't lose the Campbeltown Clydesdale as that's where I do my business banking, although the account is still held at the Tobermory branch.

I need to be able to bank cheques so telephone/internet banking is of only limited use to me.

Cheers
Gary

I'm sure if you ask nice the Directors will keep it open for you. Either that or move with the times and forget the cheques and go with Paypal

bubbly

So when some company sends me a cheque I just tear it up, eh? PayPal is okay but the sort of companies I deal with don't use it.

A steadily increasing number of my customers are paying their invoices direct into our bank account but the majority of them still prefer to send cheques.

Regards
Gary

Bubbly ,is - pay pal - nae fur yer freens ?! Ah dinae think that Gary knew Halbert! thet could be his proble.m

Bitter End

The Icecaps are melting, The good old USA is still guzzling and farting out the gases, our Oxygen is disappearing with the rainforests just so that they can plant cocoa trees to supply Easter eggs in boxes for the Wests brats. Paper free banking is alien to some who still prefer cheques. I even know folk who buy green toilet roll to match the curtains and then shove all that geen dye into the environment along with the the rest of the crap and Gary's account is still in Tob. But what the hell lets rush headlong to the bitter end.

As for Mr Halbert, in the Banks heyday rich farmers were the only customers who got a dram in the caravan at the June show when it was in June and not August.

You and I would likely have been shown the way out, withoot the dram

bubbly

ah niver goat neer the caravan --far too young an nae money either so yer right again!

Just out of curiosity, do you not have debit cards with your banks?

Practically everyone I know has gone electronic with their banking. I have a check book that is still 3/4 full from the beginning of the year. Nearly everyone accepts debit cards but there are still many that don't accept pay pal. (Debit cards are used instead of checks. They access your checking accout).

There are still some instances where debit cards are not accepted. Small businesses often can not afford the set up for electronic payments.

My kids and their generation have gone completely electronic. I wonder what will become of the small business man that cannot afford to keep up electronically until his business grows.

Generalizations can be truthfully made of any people. It is unfair, though, to lump everyone in the same pot. Its what you teach the next generation in preservation and conservation that counts. The young people I know read labels for recycled paper products and have been trained since babies to be environmentally conscious.

I know we are the world's largest consumer, and certainly do our share of polluting, but hopefully the new generations will be better caretakers of their world and come to realize they are one global community.

Oh, by the way Bubbly- Everytime I see a group of kids out 'adopting a mile' of highway to clean, picking up trash, cans, bottles and plastic sacks (your faerie britches) it makes me smile.

bubbly jock wrote:Bitter End

...The good old USA is still guzzling and farting out the gases

I don't drive a Landrover.. I drive a Rio I write a check once a month for my rent and can't remember the last time I saw someone actually writing a check. Don't worry Bubbly, soon we will be tattooing our account number on ourselves and won't have to worry about paper OR plastic...