ANZ has announced it will be closing in Glen Innes.
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In a letter sent out to residents this week, the bank said the decision was due to a significant drop in customers.
“More of our customers with accounts at ANZ Glen Innes branch are choosing the convenience of banking online or on their mobile device,” it reads.
It said customers would have their BSB changed from Glen Innes to Inverell, with the additional option of banking in person at Armidale – 100km away.
But Glen Innes branch customer Peter Smith said he would be closing all of his accounts with the company.
“I’m going to close all of my accounts and not deal with them anymore,” he said.
“If they don’t want to provide services here I don’t want to be with them.”
But Mr Smith said it wasn’t the distance factor that had encouraged him to leave.
“It’s the principle of the matter, I don’t want to deal with a bank that’s not in Glen Innes,” he said.
“It does create some complications because I’ve got to go and find all the people who pay money directly into my account and things like that.”
Mr Smith said he understood a lot of banking was now done online.
“I do a lot of online banking too, I don’t go into the branch here as much as I used to,” he said.
“However, because I’m a farmer, people send me cheques and I’ve got to go and bank them and I’m not prepared to go over to Inverell and do it.
“I want to do it somewhere in my local town.”
I want to do it somewhere in my local town.
- Peter Smith
The news comes just months after ANZ announced that a cut on thousands of jobs put the company $3.4 billion in the green at the end of March.
The Glen Innes branch will close its doors at 2pm on Wednesday, September 6.