Many angling clubs in the UK are dependent on high street banks to keep money flowing into the club. They’ve played a key role in getting many fishing clubs to where they are today.
However, with technology evolving and the demand for convenience greater than it’s ever been, are high street banks making it harder to run an angling club?
Read on to see whether cash is still king and if the dependence on high street banks is making it more difficult to future-proof the sport.
Is it safe to hold cash at the fishing club?
Holding onto large sums of cash isn’t safe in any scenario, let alone leaving a single treasurer to organise and transport potentially hundreds of pounds to their local bank branch. Neither is holding membership money at the clubhouse or the treasurer’s home. There is the argument that online payments carry risks such as hacking and scams, but the danger of cash getting lost, misplaced or even stolen is a lot greater.
Plus, carrying cash is becoming more inconvenient. Only 14% of Brits carry cash nowadays, which could be the barrier that stops them from buying a membership or day ticket if you only offer one payment method. Relying on cash isn’t a great way to future-proof the club.
On top of that, you’re reliant on an individual to pay the cash into the club’s bank account – what happens if that dedicated person leaves the club or is ill? As soon as they’re unavailable, your reinvesting revenue back into the club is delayed.
Do high street banks slow things down?
One of the most significant downsides of using cash is the time it takes to process it.
First of all, you have to collect the correct sums of cash from each member, keep a record of who’s paid, share that data with the committee, then someone has to visit the bank to pay the cash in – and that’s a simplified version of how many angling clubs operate. At best, this process takes a couple of days, but at worst, you’re looking at weeks. Moreover, you’re limited by your bank’s opening hours. If your treasurer works a full-time job or has a family they’ll probably be pushed for time to get down to their high street branch, causing further delays.
It could also slow down the rate at which juniors join the club since you’ll likely be collecting payment from their parents/guardians. That adds a new layer to the complicated traditional way that most fishing clubs tend to run; the more that humans have to get involved in the process, the more complicated it becomes to keep the club organised.
What about the rate of branch closures?
Nearly 5,000 high street bank branches have closed or are set to close since 2015, something that could put a real spanner in the works for your club if your nearest branch closes. Your treasurers might need to travel further afield to get cash paid in if your local branch closes, which might lead to greater fuel costs or multiple trips per week; such was the case for one of our Users before they signed up to Clubmate.
“Our treasurer would then make numerous trips to the bank to pay in club funds – with in-person bank branches ever decreasing, we were continuously worried about our local bank branch closing and us having to travel even further to put money in the club account.” – David Randall, Swallowfield Fishing Club.
If your local bank branch’s future is in question, so is the longevity of your fishing club if you rely on cash payments.
So are high street bank closures making it harder for committees to run their fishing clubs? It’s highly likely. Ultimately it comes down to how dependent your angling club is on cash payments. Angling clubs with cash payments as their only option are far more likely to be impacted by high-street banks than clubs that offer online or card payments as an option. The difficulty that comes with relying on cash and banks is that it makes it difficult to ensure the club will be around for future generations to enjoy.
If you want to become less dependent on high street banks and save hours of admin time every week – all while building a legacy for your fishing club – we’ve got a solution for you. Clubmate is the ultimate angling membership management software designed to help forward-thinking fishing clubs and business-smart fisheries to remove unnecessary admin, save money and take back your spare time.
Get in touch today to see why we’re trusted by more than 200+ fishing clubs across the UK. Too busy to contact us? Register for our free on-demand demo at a time that works for you.
