Time to end free banking? Poll help needed

Lokolo

tgroom57 wrote: »

monthly fee for each service - like bolt-ons for phones.
So if you want to use, standing orders, thats £2 extra a month, overdraft up to £x thats another £5 a month, and so on.

^^ This.

Annual Costs:

£24 a year general account charge. This comes with a card and internet banking.
£24 for an overdraft where you will pay interest at Base Rate + 1%
£3 for cheque book
£12 a year for telephone banking and the line is 0800 number.

Something like that.

GazHatesBanks

The poll looks OK except that I expect the banks to come up with a complicated mix of fixed fee plus "transparent" charges just to make it harder for people to decide on whether to switch banks or not!

BTW I don't believe the BS that the banks are spouting that "if we had charged fees then none of the mis-selling would have occurred" - otherwise anyone who did have/has a fee based premium account would not have been mis-sold PPI by the banks and I am sure that many still were.

rmg1

Lokolo wrote: »

Retail banking and investment banking are different things. I lot of the retail banking profits come from selling retail products. The big bonuses and the part that everyone hates about bankers is the investment side.

It's all going into the same coffers and paying the same people.

And this is how they offset free accounts. If people were charged a monthly fee, you would (hope to) see a reduction in these costs.

Can you really see that happening? It would be another way for the banks to make more money.

Who cares? It's a current account, not a savings account.

Fair point.

Because they provide you with numerous services which, surprisngly, cost money. Cash machines, internet banking, POS, cheques (who still uses them!?), telephone banking, branch facilities. You really think this is offset by you having £200 in your current account?

Cash machine charge (up to) £2.50 - cost to banks (last figure I saw quoted was) 35p. If that isn't greed what is.
As for the rest, the banks know how much these things cost and can obviously afford it (unless it breaks).
I very rarely use the branch facilities or telephone banking. Does that mean I get a reduced charge on my account?

jjlandlord

Lokolo wrote: »

^^ This.

Annual Costs:

£24 a year general account charge. This comes with a card and internet banking.
£24 for an overdraft where you will pay interest at Base Rate + 1%
£3 for cheque book
£12 a year for telephone banking and the line is 0800 number.

Something like that.

So basically you want everyone to subsidize those often going into overdraft.
Because from the above all careful people would end up paying more and those who are not would end paying less instead of learning how to manage their finances.

But why not? After all we the bailout of banks and the basement level interest rates we are already paying for all those who got mortgages over their head for those who provided them.

Lokolo

jjlandlord wrote: »

So basically you want everyone to subsidize those often going into overdraft.
Because from the above all careful people would end up paying more and those who are not would end paying less instead of learning how to manage their finances.

But why not? After all we the bailout of banks and the basement level interest rates we are already paying for all those who got mortgages over their head for those who provided them.

Eh?

The people in my example would pay an extra £24 a year + interest to have an overdraft facility. How does that mean they are being subsidised by everyone else?

And FYI we didn't "bail out the banks", we "bailed out some banks". There's quite a big difference.

Andystriker

MSE_Martin wrote: »

MORE TO SEE IF THERES ANYTHING PEOPLE THINK SHOULD BE IN THE POLL BEFORE WE LAUNCH IT?

If charges have to come in, how about free banking (as it is now) if you keep a minimum credit balance in the account. Like £50 or £100

jjlandlord

Lokolo wrote: »

The people in my example would pay an extra £24 a year + interest to have an overdraft facility. How does that mean they are being subsidised by everyone else?

You're proposal would mean that they may pay less than now while everyone else would pay more.

You did not reply as to why this would be beneficial to any sensible bank customer.

BugsyBrowne

At the end of the day IMHO if you pay a monthly fee you shouldn't then get charged to use an overdraft this should be one of the benefits of monthly charges.

Lokolo

jjlandlord wrote: »

You're proposal would mean that they may pay less than now while everyone else would pay more.

You did not reply as to why this would be beneficial to any sensible bank customer.

The numbers don't have to be that, they were just examples of the sort of charging structure that could be done.

How would it be beneficial to a sensible bank customer? It might not. I know I wouldn't benefit if those sort of charges came in, I currently get everything I need and don't pay a single thing to the bank. But then again, I don't just think about me.

YorkshireBoy

I know Martin said this wasn't the thread to discuss it on, but...

Andystriker wrote: »

If charges have to come in, how about free banking (as it is now) if you keep a minimum credit balance in the account. Like £50 or £100

...which is how it used to be (in my case with Yorkshire Bank in the late 70s/early 80s).

MSE won't go along with that as an option though, because it's those who don't have £50-£100 'spare' that are incurring the bulk of the charges...witness the number of people on here who report spending only £3.99 and ending up going £1.50 overdrawn!

At the end of the day, one or more of the banks will offer a no-charge account for 'good' customers. And that's where I and others will move their accounts to.