Please give your feedback on personal current accounts

MakeitgoRIGHT

Banks should divide/separate off their casino activities from regular banking (ie ABC Bank Ltd, and ABC Casino Ltd). Then users of regular banking activities would be unaffected if a casino busts, and government would not need to present them with billions of pounds – our billions of pounds, taxed from us.

Bananabelly

I have bank accounts with HSBC, and with other banks in two other countries. The UK is the only place I have lived where you can have a free current account. In Australia and Canada, you are charged a monthly fee just to operate an account, then all the usual overdraft etc fees can be applied. I have always thought the UK banking system is actually pretty good, because it doesn't penalise people for having an account, but it does penalise people who do the wrong thing and go into overdraft, etc. That is fair enough.

mamazaac

Whilst the overdraft fee that Alliance & Leicester charge for agreed borrowing of 50p per day may be good value for some people who are overdrawn by a large amount, for those of us who accidentally slip for a day or two now and again, it works out much higher than those banks who charge a small amount of interest for doing so. I have another bank account where it would only cost me a few pence if I did this for a couple of days, not £1.00.

I think that we should have the option of which charging structure we want to be on.

MykieMike

I would like to know when Faster Payments will be in FULL operation by ALL the banks?

Scanno

Banks would offer better deals and bankers would enjoy less sizeable bonuses if there was a greater number of banks in the marketplace. More banks = more competition = greater likelihood of a competitive deal for consumers.

Plaitey

Banks should ensure:
1. They give customers notice of any charges on their accounts before they apply them and give a proper plain english explanation for them.
2. Provide a good service for everyone regardless of their individual situation.
3. Use the faster payment service as they should do.
4. Listen and try to help people who have financial problems including those on DMP's not just for current accounts but on all accounts including mortgages. This could include actually responding to letters from customers and DMP companies and not ripping people off with high interest charges on mortgages which makes the situation even worse.
5. Not offer generic benefits on accounts for a monthly charge (not everyone has a car or needs travel/mobile insurance). They should offer benefits that the individual customers who pay for the accounts can actually use.

Mike_Townend

The fat cat managers should be downgraded to sensible salaries and customers given proper and fair treatment.

rb10

mamazaac wrote: »

Whilst the overdraft fee that Alliance & Leicester charge for agreed borrowing of 50p per day may be good value for some people who are overdrawn by a large amount, for those of us who accidentally slip for a day or two now and again, it works out much higher than those banks who charge a small amount of interest for doing so. I have another bank account where it would only cost me a few pence if I did this for a couple of days, not £1.00.

I think that we should have the option of which charging structure we want to be on.

You do ... that is what competition is about. If you don't like the way A&L operate, there are plenty of other banks out there.

If the Government regulates banks, this cannot impinge on their commercial decisions. So if A&L choose to operate in that way and believe that they will get customers that way, they should be allowed to do it. Just as we should not enforce that no supermarket will charge more than £1.10 for 4 pints of milk.

meltheoriginal

I am Australian. Back home if I use my debit card, the money comes out of my account IMMEDIATELY. So if I don't have enough in there I know at the til, as my debit card will be rejected. Not three days later when my account suddenly goes into overdraft.

To sennd money from here to Australia takes 24-36 hours, as the Australian banks process it straight away. to send money from Asutralia to the UK can take UP TO A WEEK, as the UK banks don't process it for days.

I don't understand why it takes so long for money that I transfer, for example, from my account to my flat mate's other bank account takes so long to arrive. In Australia it takes 24 hours. Here it can take up to 3 days. Where does this money go?

My account is suspended on average once every three months, as I use my debit card in Europe. I have told my bank about a million times that I work in Europe and therefore will be using it there, but their "fraud prevention" apparently pays no heed. I personally think this is a ploy to get me to sign up for their more expensive account service which they claim means no bank fees for European withdrawlas - something I am not willing to do.

Overdraft fees here are ridiculous. And I keep telling my bank I don't want to be allowed to go into overdraft but they don't seem to care.

Bsaically, with Uk bank accounts things seem to take forever to happen. And I don't understand WHY.

natmummy

I have two main issues with banks.

1. The ridiculous charges on charges that they can impose and there's nothing that you can do other than always be in credit....difficult when you don't have an income and the unexpected happens. There's even been talk of introducing charges on the free £100 overdraft...before long they'll be charging us to open an account in the first place.

2. Card security needs addressing for all banking customers not just the one's with hundreds or thousands sat in the bank. Why do banks give an inferior service and level of security to basic bank accounts holders (ie. No debit card). The cashpoint cards allocated don't even have a chip, when is security for all bank account holders going to moved to iris or fingerprinting. My OH recently had a hard job convincing his bank that he didn't drive 60 miles to withdraw money from his account at 2am in the morning from one of the roughest parts of the country. He wouldn't even go there in daylight let alone at 2am. Despite them knowing that the card used must have been a clone because it had a chip and his doesn't because it's a basic bank account...it took weeks to sort out.