According to Moneysupermarket, britons would face bank charges of around £300 per year if UK banks introduced pay-as-you-go fees. At present the majority of personal accounts are fee-free: we don’t get charged for cash withdrawals, cheques, or card transactions.
Moneysupermarket have analysed existing bank charges, and come up with some estimated costs for the small transactions that we currently get at no cost. Obviously, take these figures with a pinch of salt…
- 32.9p per Direct Debit
- 34.2p per standing order
- 23.9p per cash withdrawal
- 53.8p per card transaction
- 44.7p per cheque written
- £4.13 monthly banking charge
But why would banks start charging us? As you probably know, The Office of Fair Trading is currently investigating the high penalty charges for unauthorised overdrafts or bouncing cheques. In fact, these can be as high as £25-£39 for each “offence”.
What happens when banks aren’t allowed to collect such high penalties? The authors of this report think that they’ll introduce standard charges for everyone.
The end of free banking in the UK?
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