Banking

Lloyds Banking Group has announced a further round of branch closures, with 28 more outlets being shut across the UK between August and November this year. The closures are made up of 20 Lloyds Bank branches and eight Halifax outlets.

U Account holders can no longer access their accounts or use their prepaid cards to spend or withdraw cash as the digital bank closed the service from midday today (Tuesday 3 May). The app-based account is also no longer available to new users. 

Almost 200,000 current accounts were switched during the first three months of the year, up two-fifths on the same period in 2021. In total, eight million current account switches have taken place since the free Current Account Switch Service (CASS) was launched in 2013. 

Santander is to shorten its opening hours on both weekdays and weekends at hundreds of branches across the UK for those who walk-in without a pre-booked appointment. 

An estimated 10 million people would struggle to cope if the UK was to go completely cashless, according to a new report, which comes as bank branch closures escalate and calls grow for the financial regulator to safeguard access to cash.

Around 6,600 people who get tax credits, child benefit or guardian's allowance paid into a Post Office card account need to take action urgently as HMRC will stop making payments into these accounts after 5 April. If you have an alternative account already you must let HMRC know and if not you'll need to set one up.  

Time to check down the back of your sofas for any soon-to-be-discontinued paper £20 and £50 notes, as the latest figures from the Bank of England show there are £17.6 billion's worth still floating around. But be quick, as there are only a few months left before they become invalid.

Lloyds and Bank of Scotland customers will earn less interest on Club Lloyds and Vantage accounts from October.

Barclays has launched a new feature on its mobile app that will enable its customers to view their current accounts with seven other banks all in one place.

Bank customers who are tricked into transferring cash to fraudsters will have more protection from the end of May.