Banking news
Charging for current accounts is 'crazy'
19 February, 2007
Concerns have been raised over the possibility of banks charging customers for current accounts instead of implementing a penalty on those who go over their overdraft limit.
Online Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) community, iva.co.uk, says that the proposed plans are "crazy" and would only penalise the poorer customers.
The comments come after the Evening Standard revealed that Britain's high street banks are set to announce record profits of £37 billion for 2006.
This comes at a time when the banking industry is receiving a record number of complaints from customers.
The newspaper also found that the Financial Services Authority is set register a record 16,000 complaints this financial year.
Alison Melville, spokesperson for iva.co.uk, said that the proposed charging scheme was madness because it is asking for money from the people who don't have it.
She added: "First Direct said something I think along the lines of 'This is to get to our core customers that really use the service a lot rather than people who hardly use the account'.
"If you read between the lines essentially they were cutting off their dead wood which is the people that simply can't afford to pay."
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