Santander opening times: North East bank branches among those reducing Saturday opening hours

Santander branches up and down the country will move from being open from 9.30am to 4pm on Saturdays to operating a half-day service, instead closing at 12.30pm.

The new half-day service is part of a wider shake-up of changes to opening hours being introduced by the bank from July 18.

Santander is cutting its branch opening hours in what it says is a response to ‘long-term trends in customer behaviour’ which includes operating from 9.30am to 3pm on weekdays, instead of until 4.30pm.

The bank said the number of customers using its branches fell by a third (33%) over the two years before the coronavirus pandemic, and a further 50% in 2020 and 12% in 2021.

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Richard Owen, head of branches at Santander, said: “These changes will enable us to maintain our existing branch network while providing significant additional capacity to help customers who want to talk to us by phone.

“We have seen a continuing reduction in branch usage over several years, both before and since the peak of the pandemic, with many customers preferring to transact digitally or contact us by phone.

“We want to make sure we have the right mix of channels to help our customers however they choose to bank with us.”

Take a look at the branches across the North East region that will now close at 12.30pm on a Saturday:

Blyth

Darlington

Durham

Gateshead Metrocentre

Hartlepool

Middlesbrough

Morpeth

Newcastle

Stockton

Sunderland

Washington