Treasury plans fee free bank account
15/12/2014
The Treasury has announced plans to launch a new fee-free bank account on the high street.
Nine lenders in the country will offer these bank accounts to millions of customers who have been locked out of the banking system due to bad credit. The participating lenders are Barclays, the Co-operative Bank, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, National Australia Bank, Nationwide, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander UK and TSB. These accounts are expected to be launched by the end of 2015.
The basic bank accounts will not offer overdrafts or cheque books. The fees that current consumers receive on their current accounts if a direct debt or standing order payment is missed will be scrapped.
The British Bankers Association (BBA), said that the new account would be aimed at people who might not be able to open a standard current account and customers in financial difficulty.
BBA chief executive Anthony Browne said:
"These basic accounts will make it easier for more people to manage their money. They will have many features that will help people to budget, pay bills and save up"
The new fee-free accounts will offer services to customers, including all standard over-the-counter services in bank and post office branches and access to the entire national ATM network. This will offer consumers the same services as the banks other personal current accounts.
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