Communities across the north-east lashed out at RBS plans to close branches across the region.
Banks in Ellon, Huntly, Dyce and Bridge of Don will shut in the spring, along with Banff and Turriff.
Last night, customers said they felt let down by the decision and raised concerns about the lack of “face-to-face” customer service.
With lots of small independent retailers across the region and a variety of farmers markets on every week, many still need to bank cash on a weekly or daily basis.
Gill Lawrence, who opened up a tanning shop next to the RBS on Bridge Street in Ellon just three weeks ago, said: “Ellon is trying to expand its retail business at the moment, I don’t think this will help -we should be trying to encourage more traders.”
Fears were also raised for older people, who may struggle to travel to another branch further afield or who find internet banking difficult.
Arthur Forbes, chairman of the Grampian Senior Citizens Forum, described it as terrible news and said: “It will make it harder for older people or disabled people to get access to a bank. Some don’t have access to cars, so it will hit very hard for them, not just in town but all over Aberdeenshire.
“We should be stopping them from closing. I like going in to a bank, it’s more personal and I like the face-to-face service. I don’t have internet access at all; it’s just not fair, it will be badly missed.”
Vera Paxton, chairwoman of Dyce Community Council, had similar concerns.
“It might be true that a lot more people are doing internet banking, but Dyce has an ageing population, somany people don’t know how to do their banking on the internet.
“They should do a poll to see how many people in Dyce this would affect.”
RBS has said they will be rolling out a wider mobile banking service, with a timetable to follow in “due course”.
But Councillor Wendy Agnew, who has seen the impact the recent RBS closure has had on Stonehaven, does not think mobile banking is the way forward.
The former RBS customer said: “There has been a mobile banking van in the Market Square, but it is ridiculous to expect elderly people to stand and queue up outside a mobile banking van in the middle of the town – they are not looking after their customers.
“And this, after the people bailed them out – it’s annoying.”
Phil Mills-Bishop, chairman of the town’s community council, said he has complaints of the mobile banking van regularly leaving a queue of customers on the street once its alloted time in Stonehaven is up.
He urged them to rethink further closures elsewhere in Aberdeenshire, and said: “We need something human. People are literally been left out in the cold when the mobile banking time is up.
“They really are whistling in the wind when it comes to them listening to customers.”