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Originally Posted by Graham
And we have banks that:
1) pay laughable rates of "interest" (0.1%!),
2) charge usurious rates of interest unauthorised overdrafts (30% in some cases!!)
3) charge you £10 a transaction if you go over your limit and then have the gall to charge you for letters *telling* you you've gone overdrawn!
4) take three days to clear cheques (and then say there's no need for them to change the system because everyone's going to be using plastic for everything soon, but in the mean time they're loaning out our money on short term deals to financial institutions and making interest on it)
5) foist Chip and Pin cards on us "for security" but don't warn us that if our card is abused it's going to be up to *us* to prove that we *weren't* careless with our PIN, despite the fact that many input terminals are not screened or are in clear view of check-out operators or security cameras...
Remind me again *why* we should be *paying* for this...  |
I agree with all of that, this distorted charging has arisen in an attempt to make money from the basic cheque account product since Midland (blessem) moved the country onto free banking 30 years ago. Certainly technology has made cheque accounts (who writes cheques on them now) much cheaper to run, no quill pens and ledgers, but there is still a cost, someone who keeps their cards safe and does not damage them will cost the bank far less money than someone who washes them, snaps them etc and requires a new card every 3 months.
Someone who utilises unauthorised overdrafts in these days of internet banking, text banking, telephone banking and statements from ATMs is a little foolish.
And don't get me going on chip and pin either, does wonders for the protection of the bank on CNP transactions
. You and I both know that.
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Originally Posted by Graham
No, you can add up how much the bank thinks it can get away with charging.
Do you *really* think that those charges are justified? Do you really think they represent the cost to the bank of processing each of those transactions (especially the electronic ones?) Hell no!
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And now they are telling us that cheques never clear, how does that work, a cheque I banked today for £900 and is supposedly clear on Monday could well be withdrawn from my account 6 month later if the issuing bank changes its mind. How do you mitigate that risk in your business?
Costs of transactions, well they are disproportionate, the actual electronic fee charge for using the SWIFT/CHAPS network (for same day transfers) is about 2p. You need to add some labour and infrastructure costs to that, but to get to £25+ for the payment when you buy your house is outragous. I kinda agree with penal charges on cheques - why people use them now is beyond me, but they should also charge appropriately for on line electronic transactions, say 5p each.
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Originally Posted by Graham
And, of course, it will hit poorer people more. If you take out £100 pounds, it's only a 1% charge. If you take out only £10, that's a 10% charge!
The banks have been ripping us off for years. We change spouses more often than we change banks!
It's no point being "loyal" to a bank, because they don't give a toss about you or your loyalty once they've got your custom.
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And this is one of the biggest problems with the whole thing, the govt has moved the nation to collect their pensions and welfare from basic bank accounts, not post offices and the banks are now charging high %ages on such withdrawals diminishing the value of these benefits further, especially in more rural locations where free ATMs will slowly dissapear.
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Originally Posted by bob_a_builder
Three Days - If only !!
"Now it's SIX days to clear Halifax cheques. The interest they earn adds to the £60m 'scam' on customers by banks. One of Britain's biggest banking groups is extending its cheque clearance time by two days. Many customers at Halifax Bank of Scotland - HBOS - will now have to wait six working days to access their money. The change will take place on July 26 and will affect Halifax's Card Cash Account and the Bank of Scotland's Easycash Account, both basic banking accounts. IBAS chief executive slammed the move last night. 'This is prehistoric and obscene,' he said. 'They are being remarkably stupid going against what even the governor of the Bank of England is saying. It makes no sense going backwards. It is greedy and can only be for their benefit, not the customers. There can be no other reason than they need to make a bit more money.' In Sweden, Belgium, Holland and Spain cheques are cleared on the same day. In France and Germany, they take a day to clear. - Daily Mail 13/07/2004"
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Actually cheques now never clear, in a clever legal twist, a bank can revoke a cheque at any time, removing the funds from the recipients account. So only accept cheques from people you know won't ask them to be revoked.