first direct - £10/month for having a bank account..

[DR]

I've got several account with different banks - I'm not going to pay for any of them and one is a "Premier" account which my bank gave me - they charge apparently in most situations.

I have to say - if I did have to pay for a bank - I'd simply not accept £10 a month - when you look at buisness charges they are no where near that rate and is transaction based charging

[dangel]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6148776.stm

what do you guys think??

personally, i think its bound to happen.. banks made a chunk of their past profits off charges, which are now being challenged more and more (to a point where they'll probably be abandoned). they have to claw some of this money back, and charging for a standard account seems a fairly sensible way - bare in mind, this is *only* for folk who have a bank account (nothing else) with less than £1500 in, that pay in less than £1500 per month.. lets take an account with £200 in.. the interest (bank of england rates) is 5%, of which they have to pay the holder, say, 3%. that means the bank is getting £4 per year from your account.. that's really not much, for having to maintain, send you statements, organise your money, provide you plastic, put systems in to protect from fraud, etc.. its bound to happen..

i'm with hsbc and they're pushing their bank account plus (or something) really hard these days.. i recon it wont be long before some other banks follow - if they make no money off current accounts, why not single out the customers who have *only* them, and charge them?

i suspect there will always be some free accounts for pensioners etc who can't forfill the requirements.. maybe interest-free, or something, but in the business world there arent.. you want banking, you pay for it..

what are your thoughts??

The actual terms (on their website as a PDF) are:

You pay if you DON'T do one of the following:

- have an average of 1500ukp in your account at the end of each month
- pay less than 1500ukp into your account each month
- have a personal load with FD.
- have a mortgage with FD.
- have 10ukp or less in your current account or account in inactive.

I do bank with FD - I have for many years now - mainly because their service is excellent. I pay more than 1500 in a month - wife and I get paid into same account. I also have a mortgage with them. So basically i'm not going to be charged as I qualify for at least two of the above.

That said, I shall be having words with them as to how rubbish I think the whole Idea is - despite being a 'upmarket' bank I don't like this on principle. I'm sure they're doing it to weed out the less affluent customers and make a bit more profit. Nasty.

[smallstool]

You don't need to pay anything as long as your salary (which needs to be over £1,500) gets paid in each month.

[MD]

Ill be closing my account unless they will waive the fee as i have car and by the end of next week will have house insurance with them too.

[coco]

strange idea getting rid of dormant customers ? surely those are the accounts banks love. They get to use your cash and in return pay the lowest of rates on
out of date current accounts
Maybe the idea is to "steal" the money in dormant accounts by charging £10 a month until all the account is empty ?

[Spud1]

This isn't a strange idea, it's just a UK bank finally starting to catch up with the rest of the world where free banking is almost none-existant.

When I Lived in switzerland almost every account had a charge - which varied depending on the account and how much money you held with the bank (UBS in my case). There was a typical charge of 20chf (about 10 quid) per month, less if you don't want a paper statement, and an annual charge of 49chf (about 22quid) for a debit card. Credit cards cost money again but as I was only there for a year I didn't look into them.

I was lucky and managed to blag a student account (were only supposed to be for swiss students ) which gives you everything for free - but this is very rare, almost everyone pays for banking.

The difference between the systems is immense though - when you go to a bank in europe you are treated like royalty; you get your own finance manager no matter what your account, countless bonus discounts, advice on investment options, etc etc (I'll try not to be a salesman for them lol)

So if UK banks were to try and implement service like the above, then charges are no problem I do however, think that this is incredibly unlikely..this is england after all..

[pollaxe]

So if UK banks were to try and implement service like the above, then charges are no problem I do however, think that this is incredibly unlikely..this is england after all..

Ain't that the truth! Rip-off Britain!

I think the idea stinks. They make enough money as it is and charging you like this is a step too far. It's okay if you're relatively minted and pay in more than £1500 a month but a lot of people don't get paid that much (try living in Herefordshire, the highest-cost housing and lowest wages in the West!)

I hope the majority of those affected by the FD decision will switch. Once ideas like this start they tend to spread so I expect we'll see it elsewhere before too long.

B*st*rds!

[TheAnimus]

it really is a total rip off, i don't see how people can tolerate it.

If it was say Cox and Kings then mabye, but re-badged down market HSBC? (who are renowed for ignoring security experts advice!)

But lets just look at how much money they would need, take a typical graduate working in the city, £30k a year. Now regretably, because das NEW LABOUR, they will not be getting £1500 a month.

Net after tax, including graduate tax, is £1,722. But, now remeber you need a travel card, so the company nocks off your travel loan monthly repayment £111 for my zone 1 and 2. Now after looking at the fact people who've worked all their life get less than people who can't be arsed to get a job, the bloody lazy un-employed, you have a pension scheme, even thou your only 21, your scared so badly into saving for the future, now thats another £150 off. Oh look at that, not quite got the £1,500 a month.

If you still need a reason not to bank with HSBC, that might well be it.

[Soneji]

I think it is disgusting.

If my bank goes to operate some sort of levy like this I will move. And keep moving until there are none left that offer free banking.

Then I'll get some work thats cash paid.

Still can't get away from Direct debits though....

[Stringent]

Natwest keeps telling me to upgrade my current account, to all thsi stuff I don't nee and won't use for £x a month. I currently have an Interent Savings account with FD. I HOPE they won't start charging for that as well, otherwise its goodbye.

I find it silly, Halifax say they give you Xtra, but how much do you have to have before the Xtra pays the fee cost?