Good in Newcastle - great news. And beyond? To the villages? I certainly know that in the South and the Midlands, buses are no very limited (never mind trains and Beeching in the 50s) - and none run in the evenings even where there are some.

Honestly AbFab ''He explained that his elderly customers came in with their bills and withdrew the cash to cover them, then proceeded to cross the road to the Post Office to pay the bills with cash.'' don't be so bloody patronising (rare, for you, thank goodness).

So vote with your feet. If you are not happy with the service you are getting for the price you are paying, change banks. HvF has already said he uses an online bank that doesn‘t charge fees. Why not ask him what it is, if you don‘t know already and look to move to them. Alternatively, if you want to keep with the traditional way of doing things, but pay a fee, would your cantonal bank not offer what you want?

Yes, there are other options. However, that is not the point I am making.

Forgot the exact number but 80 or 90 CHF per year, decent website in English, not so expensive SWIFT transfers, good support online/phone, overall it works.

I was just recounting what I was told. Perhaps I should keep my mouth shut...

No, of course not- but you can't just bundle up all older folks into this kind of scenario. We certainly do not do that, thanks.

I think UBS branch closures in Switzerland have been on the cards for a while now. They're also getting rid of a lot of their offices globally. The building at Aeschenplatz, by the Hammering Man sculpture in Basel is going up for sale as it's now too big and would cost too much to do a refurb on. The staff are moving to smaller premises in the spring.

It was in the press that Basel City Government are asking for any new owner to give assurance that the Hammering Man will stay there.

with lots of people switching to pure online banks in order to save on fees and the old people who collect pensions in cash and pay bills at the post dying out, this is an expected development.

Many banks have been doing it.

For socializing in the village, the local bar/restaurant is the place really. But it depends on the people, many people just don't socialize locally anymore and some places become commuter villages.

You're assuming I'm younger than you, aren't you??

Abfab was talking about old people 25 years ago when you were barely middle aged. People your dads age pretty much. So by definition not patronising you.

I presumed you were positively martonian given your comments about having to prove you are still alive year on year

Agree on that, at least for some generation: recent article from a famous Spanish writer on this topic: https://translate.google.com/transla...z-reverte.html

It's really wrong to blame the banks. This is driven by customers who don't go into branches - which is the large majority of us.

Ultimately banks which retain physical branches will become uneconomic and lose customers to cheaper internet only outfits.

The only way of serving the internots would be to charge a large monthly fee to finance the branches and the inevitable loss of internet savvy customers. This is still be unattractive to banks as it would be a declining business as their customers die off.

Switzerland is kind of behind the curve in that there's loads of branches everywhere and loads of people use their very expensive cantonal bank. That will change as it has elsewhere. Id expect declining localism and more branches shutting. Realistically mergers of cantonal banks (whilst retaining local branding) will probably be necessary.

Yeah, they totally believe it is me.


Certain banks already charged a fee for years if you went into a branch and asked them to handle a payment

I assume the Post bank will continue to offer basic banking services through post offices, since they need a physical presence anyway.

In the UK this extended to offering a service for other banks through post offices, although afaik it was a complete mess so probably not a useful model.

For bigger stuff like getting a mortgage, where maybe you want to talk to someone in person, it's not such a big deal to go to a city with a branch since it's not an everyday event.

Not around here.

Tom

In our village, it's hanging out outside the local store, beer in hand.

Tom

He said it was about 25 years ago, I’m sure things have changed a bit since then but I do know a couple of older Swiss people (80 plus) who still do it.

It was the same in the UK 25/30 years ago too.
We knew to avoid going to the post office on pension days as the old folk would all be collecting their pensions and paying their bills and the queues would be out of the door.

The bus service here is not fantastic whereas in my home village in the UK it is. I don’t think we can generalise about whole countries in that way, as with a lot of things it depends on where you are and what the local priorities are.

Aren't there many more community centres and village halls in the U.K which give support to older people and others who want to socialise?

That applies to any generalisation though, that's the point.

I lived in several locations in England and Scotland, and the bus service outside of major towns was consistently awful.

Whereas in Switzerland it is an integrated part of the transport and generally links all decent sized villages to rail hubs on a regular timetable.

ps. out of curiosity I checked the bus route for where I grew up, and to our local train station 7 miles away it has significantly improved - there's now two services per day, and it only takes two buses and 1hr20min (!) when I grew up it was a bit quicker, but there were only buses on two days a week.