Quarterly charges

frosty1408

Hi. Just wondering if there are any UK banks that dont charge quarterly charges?

~Beanie~

Quarterly charges for what? I'm with NatWest and don't get charged anything, are you talking about a Business Account or something?

Mike1989

I think some current accounts have quarterly fees, an example would be an amount of transactions. But I found that out by hitting google, and then the only banks I found were irish banks. So maybe try the Halifax, HSBC, Barclays etc as none of them mention quarterly fees/charges, instead they do have accounts which are "free" and accounts that have a monthly service charge which gets you extras.

But if its a personal current account and you are getting quarterly charges, you may be best off switching to one without charges as there are plenty out there.

frosty1408

I get charged for using ATMs, direct debits etc.. every quarter. What about Abbey? Do they have these charges? If not I might try Halifax, but there isnt a branch near me..

Cheers.

ShelfStacker_3

frosty1408 wrote: »

I get charged for using ATMs, direct debits etc.. every quarter. What about Abbey? Do they have these charges? If not I might try Halifax, but there isnt a branch near me..

Cheers.

Who on earth are you banking with? the only thing I can assume is that you have a business account, which do have charges for these things.

LongTermLurker

frosty1408 wrote: »

I get charged for using ATMs, direct debits etc.. every quarter. What about Abbey? Do they have these charges? If not I might try Halifax, but there isnt a branch near me..

Cheers.

I've never heard of charges like these. Take your pick of any of the retail UK banks - Halifax, Alliance & Leicester, Nationwide certainly don't have any such charges.

There are current accounts that charge you an annual fee, some of which may be split into quarters, but the charges are for extra built-in features like travel insurance, breakdown cover, etc and not for operating the account - only time I would expect to see a charge for operating the account is if you were overdrawn maybe.

frosty1408

Well my bank is the First Trust, im in Northern Ireland. Its just a normal current account that my pay goes into. I get charged £41-£45 every quarter. The charges, though I dont have a list here at the minute, are for everything banking related, use of atm, use of debit card, use of internet banking etc ...

What really got me started was when I rang and asked for my mortgage statements, current account statements and also for a redemption figure for my mortgage, which is with First Trust. They told me id be charged £40 for the redemption figure and £10 for each statement sheet they send me out. I told my mortgage advisor this and he couldnt believe it.

I have an Alliance and Leicester and an Abbey in my town, which of these should I go for do you thing?

LongTermLurker

frosty1408 wrote: »

Well my bank is the First Trust, im in Northern Ireland. Its just a normal current account that my pay goes into. I get charged £41-£45 every quarter. The charges, though I dont have a list here at the minute, are for everything banking related, use of atm, use of debit card, use of internet banking etc ...

What really got me started was when I rang and asked for my mortgage statements, current account statements and also for a redemption figure for my mortgage, which is with First Trust. They told me id be charged £40 for the redemption figure and £10 for each statement sheet they send me out. I told my mortgage advisor this and he couldnt believe it.

I have an Alliance and Leicester and an Abbey in my town, which of these should I go for do you thing?

Have never seen charges like that in England - you'd need to check with A&L and Abbey to make sure they don't follow a "norm" for NI, but you could take a look at A&L. Both banks are owned by Santander, but with separate FSCS licences, and both have a poor reputation for customer service. However, I haven't found A&L too bad, there are just a lot of niggles with them.

http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/current-accounts/index.aspx?ct=primarynav

If you go for the Premier Current Account (not Premier Direct) you can opt to open a 12% regular saver for a year at the same time. You do need to pay in £500pm and transfer over your existing current account. I found their switching service extremely efficient.

The Premier Direct account will pay 8.5% interest on your current account balance, up to a maximum monthly balance, but you can't have the 12% RS account.

cifpower

All the big four banks in NI (Ulster Bank, Northern Bank, Bank of Ireland and First Trust) had this kind of charging structure. If you stayed in credit you did not get charged. If you went overdrawn by any amount in a quarter you would be charged an account maintenance fee and for every chequem direct debit, standing order, ATM withdrawl and debit card transaction.

A few years ago the Competition Commission judged that the NI banks had a too similar charging structure and were impeding competition. All banks except First Trust have done away with these charges on their current accounts.

Why the OP stuck with First Trust and kept paying these fees is beyond me though.

LongTermLurker

cifpower wrote: »

All banks except First Trust have done away with these charges on their current accounts.

Why the OP stuck with First Trust and kept paying these fees is beyond me though.

A bank would have to be pretty good to justify going its own way wouldn't it?

cifpower

LongTermLurker wrote: »

A bank would have to be pretty good to justify going its own way wouldn't it?

But its not though. They survive through customer inertia and children following in the footsteps of their parents.