I don't want a free bank account !

wil471

No, really...
But what I do want is a business bank account with reasonable charges especially bearing in mind that this particular business has low activity.
Having been on the wrong side of zero a few years ago I know that it was the fees that I was paying then that were partly funding "free" bank accounts and I don't want to be part of that...
But, ethics aside, I really have no issue with paying what something is worth but £10 per month for sending a one-page statement is beyond belief; the other figure that comes to mind is £3 for a Faster Payments transaction - simply ludicrous. So what I really want is an account with an annual fee of something like £3 (which is reasonable - for doing nothing); online transaction charges of, at most, a few pence (after all I'm doing all the work); I don't mind cheques and cash costing more because they do involve manual handling and that does cost money.
If one looks at the volume of online transactions and takes the cost of the computer hardware and software to create those systems (and I'll accept it's not trivial) it ought to be possible to work out the actual cost per transaction - I know there are lots of other factors but rough figures could be obtained. And I strongly suspect the the actual costs will be far below their charges - so either the banks are simply being royally ripped off by their suppliers or they are writing the costs off over a few months; or, of course, they are simply profiteering with regard to the customer charges they are levying.

Mistral001

I totally agree. Free-banking has meant that the people who go over their overdraft limit, receive bounced cheques, fall victim to aggressive marketing of credit loans and credit help pay for the rest of us to enjoy free banking. Not really a healthy or fair situation, but it is one that seems to exist here and all it does is make sure that the comfortable off or wealthy get free banking and the people who are struggling pay for it.

paddyrg

I don't mind a modest fee for my business banking TBH. Printed statement monthly is nice. Computers/datacentres/banking systems are not free so cost money, I don't mind contributing towards that. They provide and maintain cheque books, debit cards etc for the account for me, SMS alerts and weekly account SMS ministatements. I get to use the cashpoints worldwide. All my electronic banking is free, paper/manual stuff costs notional fees.

All in all, I give LloydsTSB about a fiver a month, any more would be too much, it feels fair.

Brassedoff

I pay Barclays £14 per month. It gives me a set of goodies tat I am happy about, including cheque book, Visa Debit, MasterCard Credit, on line, telephone and the new quick phone bank which cuts an easy 5 mins off just doing the ID check.