A weight is lifted! Relief at Barclays’ cash U-turn
BARCLAYS customers yesterday said a ‘weight had been lifted from their shoulders’ after bosses dramatically reversed their decision to ban cash withdrawals at post offices.
The bank had faced a massive protest amid a Daily Mail campaign calling for a U-turn. Four cabinet ministers, 124 MPs and 20,000 petitioning members of the public spoke out against the policy before the change on Thursday night.
Barclays said letters sent in by Mail readers had helped sway the decision.
Customers who helped lead the fightback yesterday spoke of their relief. Retired teacher Anne Wood, 86, of Mudeford, Dorset, who faced expensive taxi rides to get cash out, said: ‘I’d been really worried, trying to think of other ways to manage. The news has made my day, and it lifted a big weight from my shoulders. It is all down to the Daily Mail’s campaign.’
Sylvia Walton, 91, a Barclays customer of 75 years, of Elmswell, Suffolk, said: ‘I have two artificial hips and two artificial knees. I don’t know what I’d have done if I needed to drive five miles on an icy day in
January.’ Mark Sims, 59, had faced a 28mile trip to his nearest branch if the bank had stopped him from taking cash out at his post office in Holbeton, Devon.
He said: ‘I am delighted. Finally common sense prevails. Well done to the Daily Mail for pushing the matter this far. I doubt Barclays would have reversed the decision without it.’
The pressure on bosses had grown into a firestorm in the two weeks since the Mail launched our campaign against the ‘petty, penny-pinching’ decision designed to save £7million a year. Barclays will now continue to allow customers to deposit and withdraw cash, check balances and pay cheques in through the UK’s 11,500 post office branches.
Yesterday chief executive Jes Staley said: ‘We believed we were making the correct decision. These things are difficult. Markets are facing a move from paper to digital and we all need to recognise that, but at the same time we recognise the important role the Post Office plays.’