Postbank has “continuously reduced” its branches, according to its own statements, and the savings banks are “adapting their network of locations”. In plain English this means: Bank branches are being closed and the machine network is being thinned out.
Many younger people don’t care whether their online bank is in Munich, Berlin or the Netherlands; In view of the thinned branch network, seniors are often faced with greater challenges. Some then find suboptimal solutions to get hold of cash. For example, they give neighbors or acquaintances their EC card including PIN, as reported by Eva Pabst from the specialist office for caring relatives in the Munich district.
A spokesman for Postbank points out that, together with Deutsche Post, it is ensured that postal services continue to be provided to the population at the affected locations. Customers would be informed in good time about planned closings by notices, leaflets and personal letters. Because: “Postbank will continue to review its branch network with a view to profitability, customer use and optimization options, and adjust where necessary.”
In addition to their own ATMs, Postbank customers can also use the ATMs of the Cash Group partners Deutsche Bank, Hypo-Vereinsbank and Commerzbank free of charge. After all: According to spokesmen for Deutsche Bank and Hypo-Vereinsbank, neither of the two banks is currently planning to close branches in the district. Commerzbank is different: the branches in Oberschleißheim and Unterhaching will be closed by the end of 2022. The Kreissparkasse Munich, Starnberg, Ebersberg gave up several smaller branches in the Munich district in April. Instead, there are self-service machines where money can be withdrawn and transfers are possible.
Workforce underutilized
Volksbank-Raiffeisenbank München Land does not want to close a branch. However, it is planned to reduce the personal service offerings. In branches with several consultants, the workforce is often no longer busy, it is said. The reasons are the same as with the other banks: More and more people only use online banking. At Postbank, it is noticeable that customer behavior is changing significantly as a result of digitization, and that its own online offering is being used more “across all age groups,” it says.
When Werner Scheibel offers computer courses in the senior citizens’ club in Haar, he usually doesn’t even touch the subject of the Internet and thus online banking. “Most of them are happy when I show them how to find their photos on the hard drive.” It’s about the rudimentary things on the PC. To write a text with MS-Word, that is already something for advanced students with the participants. Deutsche Bank explicitly refers to telephone banking. This is often easier for seniors in particular.
All banks now offer the option of the “cashback procedure”. Customers who pay for their supermarket shopping with an EC card can also withdraw cash free of charge; usually a maximum of 200 euros at a time, from a purchase value of five or ten euros. Cash Group customers can also withdraw money at Shell petrol stations – even without refueling. Over 40 percent of Germans use the opportunity to withdraw money while filling up or shopping, according to a Postbank spokesman; Ascending trend. In 2019 it was still 27 percent.
For Eva Pabst, bank branches that are closing are only one aspect of a larger structural problem. For many older people who do not have a car, who are no longer allowed or able to drive, it is very difficult to be mobile. Many of them would not only find it difficult to get to the bank, but also not to the doctor, pharmacy or to the recital. In rural areas in particular, there are often no longer the same family structures as in the past, and senior citizens tend to get lonely.
At the same time, shops and banks will disappear. And for some people it is easier to understand than cash group, cashback and online banking to give their neighbors the card.