Are The Banks Trying To Confuse You?
It seems that last weeks announcement of a reduction in overdraft charges by Barclays Bank may not be quite as straight forward as it seems. While the reduction in overdraft charges is going ahead, and has been well received by customers, it seems that Barclays may actually be using these changes to slip in a number of new accounts – all of which carry charges.
While Barclays are the first in the market to make such a move, they seem to have made the most of the headlines but as normal the devil seems to be in the detail. Consumer groups are concerned that as more banks announce details of their own future charging structures the market will become awash with new and confusing issues.
The bottom line is that there is no way that the banks are going to give up the billions of pounds of income they received from historic overdraft charges. Slowly but surely, so called ‘free banking’ will become a thing of the past and banking in the UK will change forever. Let’s not forget that the majority of UK banks have shareholders who would not be best pleased to see company profits fall overnight and the value of their shares follow.
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