Farewell to Free Banking, and Absurd NSF Fees?
Posted on April 29th, 2008 by Tom Groenfeldt
It’s a well-known marketing ploy in banking – offer free checking and then hit customers with outrageous fees when they bounce a check – £40 or so in the UK for what American bankers called non-sufficient funds (NSF). Now the High Court has ruled the fees come under laws on fairness of contracts, governed by the Office of Fair Trading which has already suggested the fees are unfair. Banks had contended they could set the fees arbitrarily. At stake? Up to £2 billion. Banks may appeal, or they may pay up and replace free checking with a host of fees for services.
Just one more reason not to trust bankers, in case anyone was looking for another.
Filed under: Technology
You would love French banks. They charge you for everything under the sun (no free cards here) AND have outrageous fees when you bounce a cheque.
Yep – although in the UK banks would let you withdraw funds and then charge you without letting you know you were heading into an unauthorised overdraft.
They could have stopped the transaction at point of withdrawal/sale – they do on my account now – but didn’t, instead allowing it to go through and then charging for the unauthorised withdrawal.
Which makes you wonder in what way it was not authorised…