The banks have rewritten Robin Hood’s famous mantra: taking billions in overdraft charges from the poor and giving to the rich. That can’t be right, can it? What’s worse is that 10% of us never get out of our overdraft.
Financial providers are creaming £105 billion a year in charges, such as overdraft fees on current accounts and management fees on investments.
This equates to one million pounds a minute. No wonder banks can afford to shell out such massive bonuses.
What makes matters worse is that many investors won’t get the returns they hoped for, and as for savers, well, how much is your account paying in interest? Peanuts, and should you go into the red your meagre interest earnings are not only wiped out, but you’re landed with a charge that far outstrips what you’d have hoped to earn on your account in the first place.
Our unfair overdraft charges campaign
It’s estimated that one in ten of us never get out of our account’s overdraft. While more than a third of all account holders have dipped into their overdrafts at some stage over the past year. And then there are those of us who enter the murky world of unauthorised overdrafts, where the fees really sting.
Which? has a longstanding campaign on overdraft charges, but it really needs more support from account holders like you.
The best starting point for anyone who feels that the banks are treating their customers unfairly is to email your MP. Ask them to add their voice to the call for an end to unfair bank charges.
If enough people make a big enough noise, the banks will surely have to take note, won’t they?
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