The Santander branch on London Road in Headington has permanently closed today.

This follows an announcement in March this year that they would be closing 111 branches across the UK, citing changing customer behaviour, with more and more people moving towards online and mobile banking due to Covid.

According to Santander, branch transactions fell by 33% over the two years before the pandemic and declined by a further 50% in 2020.

Meanwhile, mobile and online transactions have been growing by 20% each year, with almost two-thirds of overall transactions now digital.

Oxford Mail:

An employee at Santander's Headington branch said: “We’re sad this branch is closing but we understand the reasons.

“They informed us in January that it will be closed in order to cut costs during the pandemic and it didn’t make sense to keep this branch open considering there is another one within three miles of this one.

“Plus, more people are preferring to use online banking these days anyway.”

In 2019, Santander had closed 140 branches across the UK sighting similar reasons. This currently leaves them with 452 branches across the UK with 8 of them in Oxfordshire.

For Headington residents looking to use banking services, the closest branch is now the Oxford City one in Carfax (OX1 1HB).

But Post Office branches offering banking services, including deposits, free cash withdrawals and balance checks can be found nearby. The Post Office also offers face-to-face access to government services, bill payment, foreign currency, travel insurance and, of course, postal services.

These are Headington PO on 152 London Road (OX3 9ED), Woodfarm PO on 11 Atkyns Road​ (OX3 8RA) and Risinghurst PO on 46 Downside Road (OX3 8HR).

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