Wednesday 16 May 2012

ATM to return to University Campus


Residents will recall that I was in correspondence with the Royal Bank of Scotland earlier this year over their detrimental decision to close their student branch at the back of the Student Union on the University of Dundee campus (Balfour Street).    

After being told by the bank in February that it would not reconsider closing the branch, I asked for at least the commitment that a cash withdrawal facility would be maintained.     The bank’s Group Customer Relations Executive Roderick Macneil assured me that “… we will be looking to maintain a presence in the area, but as yet our plans have not been finalised.”   

The RBS cash machine at the Dundee University Students’ Union is now well and truly a thing of the past – no longer working as the photo (right) shows – but the bank has not yet provided any alternative cash withdrawal facilities.   This leaves just one free-to-use cash machine at the Students’ Union – the irony being that it is provided by one of the Royal Bank’s competitors – Clydesdale Bank.

Having only one free-to-use cash machine in the large campus area with around 18 000 students is not sufficient and so I wrote to the Royal Bank asking it to honour its commitment to have a cash facility in the vicinity of the university campus.    

As reported in yesterday's Courier I am very pleased to say that the bank has responded saying that it will indeed provide a new cash withdrawal service.   It will be provided by a third party on behalf of the Royal Bank of Scotland but the good news is that it will be a free-to-use service and it will be in place very soon.