The end of free banking with endless bank charges?
Is the notion of free banking about to become a thing of the past then? I certainly hope not because I personally think that the major banks make enough money out of us with interest charges, overdraft fees, loans and credit cards etc.
Unless you’ve been on another planet you may have heard already that First Direct are about to scrap free banking for its customers. From February 2007 a monthly fee of £10 will now be charged, although it is possible that this charge may be avoided under certain conditions.
If your account is on average in credit by £1,500 each month or you pay in £1,500 or more each month then the fee will be waived. Other ways to avoid the £10 charge would be to open up a savings account, take out a mortgage, loan or credit card etc. with First Direct. In other words keep all your eggs in one basket and use exclusively their services otherwise you pay the charge. Does anyone else here believe that the banks are getting just a little bit too greedy?
First of all service charges are forever being increased anyway, fair enough because they’re unlikely to go down are they? Next we were slammed with a fee every time we use a cash machine operated by a different bank (obviously not all of them do this) - how convenient is that? Now their latest trick is to impose a monthly charge on those who can least afford it.
The people that will be hit the hardest are those who are on a low income whilst those who earn more and can afford to have a couple of grand knocking around in their bank account escape the charge. It’s simply another case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
Is First Direct only the first and are the rest of the major banks likely to follow suite and scrap free banking for their customers? If that is the case then keeping money under a mattress is likely to be the only form of free banking there is!
Comments from visitors
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I had similar experience - maybe First Direct are sifting their customers. Not sorry to leave them
Lloyds seem good, I have no complaints
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Karen Wilder - 17-Jul-09 00:02
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They first of all charge for a current account which will hit the poorest of people then they take the call centre jobs away from the UK, so will have an impact on unemployment. At a time of such an economic crisis, First Direct feel that they can act and behave in whatever manner they like and retain customers.
The best advice I can give anyone is to move away from this bank and fast. They are not all they are cracked out to be and only when you start having problems do you realise what type of bank they are.
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Angry soon to be ex-customer - 4-Nov-08 20:19
Evidently you don't know what a bank is and where banking comes from.
The history of banks is rather controversial and dirty. They make a lot of money using your money that's why they should not charge you. Banks are not human, they are very suppressive and unreasonable, and they are the scum of earth together with journalists, psychiatrist and politicians. If banks did not exist with their credit cards this world would be a much better place to live in, I really don't understand you people - what world are you living in? Yes, I know what world. Banks are responsible to have bankrupted governments, the reason for tax rise, poverty, depressions, recessions, blackmail - shall we wake up one of these days?
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SuperBambinoCattivo - 12-Jun-08 22:26
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Most of us have small amounts in the bank at any one time, write numerous cheques, pay numerous D/Ds and S/Os and still expect free banking!
I'm more than happy to still get it free but what planet are the banks on if they still want to provide this and why should people moan when the banks wake up and start charging a small amount for the cost of providing the account and services anyway!
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What a rip off!
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Angry young man - 12-Jul-07 18:34
We can collapse this Bank simply by closing our accounts and moving to a fairer Bank.
We the people DO HAVE THE POWER, if only we would exercise it instead of just talking about it. All the data you ever need about Banks in in the book "Human Ecology" by Thomas Robertson. Hard to obtain for obvious reasons. I think Blooomfield books in sudbury suffolk still sell it mail oder.
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To be fair to First Direct, I know several people that use them as a secondary bank account and they are only trying to keep down their overheads. I can see both sides. But my loyalty lies with the customer I'm afraid and yes - I voted with my feet and shut down my account!
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Free Banking forever - 20-Nov-06 23:50
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