End of free banking

gt94sss2

Inactive wrote: »

Well they obviously ain't in a hurry, that article is over 2 years old.;)

Yes, well certain court cases have taken a long time + nobody wants to do much before that - apart from First Direct who have a very different customer profile to most banks and provide a more 'expensive' to run service than most others.. - and even there its easy to avoid their charge..

Regards
Sunil

storminbalder

Free banking will never end.

Why?

Well, because we, the taxpayers, now own too many of them. The government and most voters would see this as a very unpopular outcome and would never allow it.

The banks got themselves into the mess they are in through greed and irresponsible gambling with other peoples money. They are not going to get away with then trying to be even more greedy.

Extant

storminbalder wrote: »

Well, because we, the taxpayers, now own too many of them. The government and most voters would see this as a very unpopular outcome and would never allow it.

Except that's already been stated that this is seen as a short term solution - and that the UK government wants out as soon as possible, hopefully at a profit.

Once that's done, what do you think they're going to do? Mandate that a business MUST provide a service for free?

Way to kill off any international business interest in the UK.

ixwood

Whilst it's true that banks offer us a service, it's also true that they're dependant on us/our money.

opinions4u

The new Halifax account (£5 a month for a credit exceeding £1,000 a month v £1 a day if you're overdrawn) looks to me like a solution that means free banking for those in credit can remain.

All they appear to have done is shift the burden of cost from those exceeding their limits to those operating within their limits.

And this is where the OFT need to be careful. Because whatever the outcome of the court ruling banks will still look to obtain the same margins on doing business. By simply moving the cost burden from one customer segment to another.

Abbafan1972

I bank with the HSBC and have just had to pay £25 fee to renew my overdraft for another 12 months, whereas my husband is with the Halifax and they don't charge an arrangement fee at all for overdrafts.

I currently have internet banking, maestro debit card, which I've always had free. Why would I want to start paying for it? I only earn part time wages and every penny counts.

N9eav

I must admit I have never paid any charges. I buy everything on a credit card with cashback and then pay it off when the bill comes. The money stays in my bank and earns £10 a month interest. Last year I had £250 cash back from Amex and £49 from Morgan Stanley.
I do pay the bank £17 a month though for an account which covers 2 cars with RAC, 2 mobile phones with insurance, Crad fraud cover and some other stuff. I am not complaining

Kavanne

My cousin who lives in Barcelona has to pay 7 € pa to have a debit card.

Bernie

We still have accounts with Cahoot (Internet), Nationwide (Travel), Intelligent Finance (Offset Mortgage), Lloyds (ISA), Natwest (ISA) and Smile (Main conventional banking).

We've opened them for various reasons and kept them on for the reasons shown in brackets. NatWest and Lloyds both insisted we open current accounts when we transferred our ISAs to them.

We would have no hestitation in moving lock, stock & barrel away from any bank that introduced charges - we only carry credit cards that pay cashback to us (Amex with a Smile Visa backup).

We minimise our visits to the PO - the level of service is just not there. I was delighted when the internet tax disc postal application service started, we were running 4 cars then and that alone saved me spending a couple of days off each year visiting my local PO. Yes! it's killing the PO network but a business plan that is predicated on inconveniencing and wasting the customer's time is doomed to fail.

PROLIANT

As I stated in my previous post I still think the PO should be kept in rural areas of the UK and have at least one PO per Town and City, electronic banking is the way forward and that is where hard working tax payers money is invested, we should always look at being more efficient people, life is too short to be queuing at the Post Office.