UK consumers against monthly banking fees
The results of a recent survey carried out in the UK has revealed that customers in the UK would prefer to pay charges and penalties on going overdrawn with their current account rather than having a set monthly fee applied to their accounts. There has been a great deal of controversy over bank charges, which are applied for exceeding the overdraft limit, and also for returned cheques and direct debits, and many consumers have been claiming back these fees going back up to six years after regulators labelled them unfair and unlawful last year.
However, despite the controversy over these charges the majority of customers do not want to see the introduction of monthly account fees that would result in reduced or eliminated charges. Some banks have already started offering their customers the chance to pay a monthly fee in exchange for a vastly reduced charge for exceeding overdraft limits. However, experts have warned that taking up this type of offer could mean the customer waives his or her right to reclaim any charges that are applied from thereon.
Many banks appear to be thinking about introducing this sort of system, but according to the result of the survey this would not go down well with customers, as it would put an end to free banking for all customers, and would particularly disgruntle those that do not regularly get hit by banks charges, as they will be paying a monthly fee on their accounts even though they were never or rarely being charged for exceeding their account limits.
One industry professional stated: "We could well see the system prevalent in Western Europe, North America and Australia, where there are a certain number of free transactions and then you pay for any additional ones. We have already seen some providers abandon the concept of free banking by steadily introducing a bevy of charges on their less profitable customers."
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