End of free banking??

[Bonzo77]

I would rather pay a fee for the service and have more transparency about the way the banks operate.

 

It was never free anyway. Banks cream money off every activity they do. And at the end of the day they ended up costing us hundreds of billions of quid.

 

A basic bank account, i.e. salary paid in, bills paid, spending money spent, is free.

 

It isn't until you start borrowing that you incur charges.

[I1L2T3]

A basic bank account, i.e. salary paid in, bills paid, spending money spent, is free.

 

It isn't until you start borrowing that you incur charges.

 

It may be no cost to the individual. The issue is what the banks have to do to provide a free account. If they fail you pay in other ways, like through increased taxes to pay for bailouts, through debased currency because of QE etc... That is happening now. And it'll cost every person thousands in the long run.

[WeX]

No banking is free, in fact they make money off depositors all the time by offering minute interest rates (if at all) whilst using OUR money to speculate via their investment arms.

 

The banks need people to deposit money with them, they need our custom yet they pretend they're doing us some massive favour.

 

Very true. Its no coincidence that the EU is forcing banks to be more open about their bank accounts and freeing up EU wide offerings by banks to anyone in the EU, they kick up a fuss.

 

Retail banking is about volume, not quality, and so if any bank starts to charge, others will not and they will take away their customers. We are where we are with free banking because of market forces, not through the kindness of the banking sectors heart.

[Jeffrey Shaw]

Processing cheque payments in and out is far more expensive than BACS/SO/DD/card payments.

So maybe banks might charge issuers of cheques (e.g. free for first ten written per year, then £1 each thereafter)?

[I1L2T3]

Very true. Its no coincidence that the EU is forcing banks to be more open about their bank accounts and freeing up EU wide offerings by banks to anyone in the EU, they kick up a fuss.

 

Retail banking is about volume, not quality, and so if any bank starts to charge, others will not and they will take away their customers. We are where we are with free banking because of market forces, not through the kindness of the banking sectors heart.

 

Noticed that Handelsbanken (a Swedish bank) has opened a branch in town. Quite tempted. They charge fees for their accounts but place responsibility with branch managers rather than dictating everything from HQ. A bit like what our banks used to be like. Apparently it's one of the safest banks around. Only thing that bothers me is you are covered by the Swedish deposit guarantee scheme not the UK one, and up to 100,000 euro rather than £85,000.