The end of free banking... It'll never happen!

[ReasonableRon]

Talking about free banking, has anyone else noticed that over the last year cheques have been quietly fazed out? Since we all have a debit card and cash point cards the banks now only let us have money that is our own and if they simply refuse d/d and s/o that we have no money to cover we couldn't get into debt with the banks but would be chased by the company we tried to pay instead.

I think cheques have been phased out gradually over the last 20 years - since the invention of the debit card. This is more the fault of Joe public and retailers than the banks I suspect, who will just meet whatever the demand is.

 

I can't remember the last time I used a cheque - even the milkman takes plastic

[Gez]

I can't remember the last time we had a milkman!

[indebtstudent]

And now the banks (or more accurately the card companies) are in hot water for the fees they charge. I love progress, cheques which cost me nothing are replaced with a 'convenient' card which more and more companies pass on the fees they are charged to the consumer. Or maybe I'm just in a bad mood today

[daddygeorge]

I do not work for a bank, I am an unfortunate consumer. I am 60 years old and remember well the old banking system whre you were charged so much per cheque (in advance when the cheque book was issued) and were also charged per transaction.

 

Let's face facts boys and girls, bans are there, bot to provide any kind of service, but primarily to make as much money as possible for their shareholders. Whether banking is free or fee based is largely irrelevant. They are going to make the same amount of money whichever way they run. Every time successive governments have introduced laws and/or regulations to control banks 'excesses', the banking industry jointly and severally have fought viciously to maintain their current status quo. When they have eventually had to grudgingly concede ground, they immediately recoup their original position in some other devious way, working their way through the law and the system like rats through a sewer pipe. It is no accident that money tends to be referred to as 'Filthy Lucre'.

 

There are a number of glaring eroors on this thread:

 

1. Not everyone has or can get a debit card. I can assure you that there are hundreds of thousands of the poorest and ,ost vulnerable who cannot get one.

 

2. Cheques are being phased out because it is approaching the time when Banks will be forced to clear cheques overnight. Banks claim it is a security issue but we all know that it is not. On the same subject, 'Working Days'. We all know that banks and financial institutions process transactions 24/7 every day of the year except Christmas day, so why pretend that only Monday to Friday are working days?

 

3. I have been reliably informed by a very senior banking official (a few years ago admittedly) that every £1 left in a bank account for twenty four hours makes the bank around 25 pence. That is a lot of money isn't it?

 

4. Has anyone realised that to some people like a state pensioner (or Pension Credit recipient) receiving the bare minimum legal income, even £5.00 per month bank fee would be a sore blow.

 

People. The only way that the banking industry can be made to toe the line is to hit them where it hurts. Successive governments have shied away from making any real effort to control the banks.

 

I know if I were in a position to do so I would call the Financial Mandarins together and tell them, Act in a fair and equitable manner as set forth by the regulators or see ALL you profits treated as windfalls and taxed at 70%, with immediate effect. The sound of rectums snapping shut would be deafening. The there would be a scramble to make themselves APPEAR as consumer friendly as possible. Lets face it guys the banks make obscene profits and pay very little tax.

 

Just my take on things, I am an ordinary man, the man in the street, or as a judge so succinctly one put it, 'The Man on The Clapham Omnibus'. But in common with al;most everyone else I have been subject to the 'abus' of financial institutions of one kind or another for most of my life, so forgive me if my view is somewhat jaded.

[JonCris]

no daddy It's well put & how most of us here feel about the money lenders. Also your comment about the phasing out of checks all makes perfect sense

[cashlesswonder]

i think WE (the people) should charge the banks for putting our money with them,, considering their ptential risk (northern rock..?), etc..

 

though i dont think doing a payment slip for £100, and giving just £95 will work..