You may think that Britain's banks are thieves!

wavydavy68

... but if you ever have to live in Australia, make sure you never open a bank account here!

They ALL charge $5.00 a month, JUST to let you keep YOUR money in their bank. It's not as if you can earn any interest on it while it's sitting there. They won't give you any interest either.

I've just moved to Australia and was sickened to the pit of my stomach by this highway robbery.

AussieLass

They don't all charge $5 a month. You have to look around. My bank charges zilch but you do have to have a minimal balance of $1000. Also check out how many *free* withdrawals you are allowed per month. The same applies with interest. Each bank & account has different criteria. Usually once your balance is over the $500 mark you get interest. Don't just stick to the four major banks, or you will be ripped off. But yeah it does stink. That's why they make such a huge profit. :mad:

Mark7799

Just curious, what do they charge for the complained about services in the UK, bounced cheques/DDs, etc.

As regards the charges for "just to keep your money in their bank" well you are using facilities they offer. A landlord charges you rent 'just to live in their house', a Bank is no different.

gizmoleeds

Mark7799 wrote:

As regards the charges for "just to keep your money in their bank" well you are using facilities they offer. A landlord charges you rent 'just to live in their house', a Bank is no different.

But the banks lend out the money you keep with them to others. British banks manage to make billions of pounds of profit despite not charging for their accounts or services - because they want to attract customers so that they have more money to lend out to others...

Mark7799

They charge in other ways though.

What I'm trying to say is that we either get 'free of transaction charges if in credit' banking and those who can't do that subsidise all of us or we all pay charges of some sort.

Let's face it, the Banks aren't charities and they're not going to give up their profitable income streams without having something to replace it.

richardmk

St George are are very good :-) :xmastree:

AussieLass

Mark7799 wrote:

Just curious, what do they charge for the complained about services in the UK, bounced cheques/DDs, etc.

As regards the charges for "just to keep your money in their bank" well you are using facilities they offer. A landlord charges you rent 'just to live in their house', a Bank is no different.

A charge of $40 for a bounced cheque. If you bank a cheque into your account which is dishonoured a charge of $10 applies. :mad: That one is unfair. To set up a personal overdraft on your account cost's $495.00. The fee for going over in your account from DD is $30. There are heaps more but I've just written down the basic ones you asked. HTH

gizmoleeds

Is there any way to keep a British account open for "real" banking?

AussieLass

I'm not too sure, I think you would lose out due to the exchange rate. You could still keep an account open in the uk though for visits or if you move back. It's a lot easier to open up an account here than it is in UK. You just need 100 points which consists of Birth Cert = 60 points, License =40, Passport etc. I can't remember what value the criteria are but it's really easy to open one.

gizmoleeds

AussieLass wrote:

I'm not too sure, I think you would lose out due to the exchange rate. You could still keep an account open in the uk though for visits or if you move back. It's a lot easier to open up an account here than it is in UK. You just need 100 points which consists of Birth Cert = 60 points, License =40, Passport etc. I can't remember what value the criteria are but it's really easy to open one.

Ease of opening doesn't really outwiegh the fact you are paying your bank to take your money and invest it in order to make a profit for themselves. I really am shocked by this, as I just assumed that in any open capitalist society banks would all work the same...

AussieLass

gizmoleeds wrote:

Ease of opening doesn't really outwiegh the fact you are paying your bank to take your money and invest it in order to make a profit for themselves. I really am shocked by this, as I just assumed that in any open capitalist society banks would all work the same...

I only mentioned how *easy* it was to open an account as I thought as you were asking quesions about bank accounts you are at some time visiting Oz. Compared to opening accounts Oz is much easier than UK. With regards to the fee structure, again like everywhere you have to shop around. By the sounds of it we do have more fees, and over the last 5 -10 years we've had loads more as the banks get greedier. But at the end of the day, you still need the banks so you just have to be smarter. I never go past my *free* number of withdrawals per month, keep x amount in my account so no fees. My fees each month are $2. That is for 2 accounts. One a savings, and the other a working accounts were bills get paid out of. I can't complain about that.