I heard in some countries banks are going to start charging for holding peoples money?

I am not sure about the UK, but we in the UK cannot earn money without a bank account as our wages are pain into it. So if the banks start charging us for holding our money in the UK, would this then be a direct tax on us by a private corporation?

I believe its canada that are introducing this, but not sure.

Yes, In the US, banks can charge a monthly "service fee" even if you dont do anything but keep your money in it.

Exactly the same here in Australia where the banks have been charging monthly "account service fees" for years.
If your UK banks aren't charging yet, then consider yourselves VERY fortunate indeed !

Also, we've been paying tax on any interest we earn and a fee on our debit cards for quite a few years as well.

solution:
join a credit union.

"Bank of New York Mellon Corp. on Thursday took the extraordinary step of telling
large clients it will charge them to hold cash.

The unusual move means some U.S. depositors will have to pay to keep big chunks of money in a bank, marking a stark new phase of the long-running global financial crisis." [...]

From the wallstreet journal:
online.wsj.com...

Not every banks does this but most likely others banks will follow.

Wait on wait on..... Back up a second!!!!

Do you mean theres countries where banks dont charge for graciously letting you use their services

DAMN!!!! And I thought I had it good that my bank only charged me about $30 a month in service charges

theres a word for that charge

its called...

RANSOM!

reply to post by TheMindWar


I guess they simply don't need our business..
They are too busy making squillions fleecing people of their retirement money and mortgages..
Oh and their bailout money is probably still earning a reasonable interest rate as Government bonds..

reply to post by tauristercus


yeah its just a complete rip off .......the less money you have the more the banks charge ..the system here in aus is retarted...and hey what they dont tell you..you have around a million bucks in your account you become a privelaged account holder and do not pay fees and only acrue interest...

Yep, we in Oz are charged fees for just about every aspect of bank & credit union services and have been for years. The credit unions might allow you to use their ATM 4 times a month for withdrawals but after that you get charged $1-2 every time and not to mention actually dealing with a teller (charge applies). Using another institution's ATM because the usual one is out of service can see you paying up to $3 extra fee but they do now nicely warn you that there'll be that extra fee before you hit the 'enter' button so you can decide whether to drive 10km or more to get to the next nearest 'correct' ATM (some choice).

Apply for a loan and of course there's an application fee, pay the loan off early and there's a penalty to compensate for their lost interest. Pay off your mortgage and there's an exit fee etc etc - no escaping the fees. Basicly just deposit $100 in a standard account and leave it untouched, it'll be gone in under 10 years in account-keeping fees and even quicker if you ever visit a teller to get a balance statement (service fees). Overdrawn cheque account, fee. Dishonoured cheque as a result of being overdrawn, fee. Stopping a cheque eg. because you realise there's insufficient funds to cover it, fee. Getting a cheque cleared faster the normal 6 working days, fee.

However as stated earlier, have a large account or even a large mortgage and most banks here will waive most of their fees because they're making a heap from your assets already. They would appear to hate small account holders and penalise them accordingly.

While small monthly service fees have been in place for quite some time the banks would do well not to drive away large customers over this issue. They don't really have to care about small customers (sad, but true) but banks get the majority of the money that they loan out from the customers who keep cash on deposit. That's why bank runs are possible, the banks never actually have access to all the money on deposit because they have loaned some of it out to earn interest. If all the big money were to leave the banks the banks would lose the ability to make money on loans.

This is why service fees are usually waived if you maintain an account balance in excess of five thousand dollars.

(This is for U.S. could easily be differnt elsewhere, and as indicated by a poster above Credit Unions operate a bit differently)

You guys got it good! In Namibia we get charged a percentage commission just for depositing cash in our accounts! Plus monthly service fees, withdrawal fees which are more expensive if done "over the counter as opposed to at an ATM, charges on cheques deposited, charges for every cheque written, charges to have a statement called up on screen "NOT PRINTED" by a bank staff member etc, etc, etc! I could carry on but I may just exceed the length of post allowed!

DAYLIGHT BLOODY ROBBERY!!!

S&F

reply to post by Pilgrum


In Oz your are charged for everything not just banks, it's ludicrous.
But yeah, it's fairly common place that in most western countries banks charge you for using them. It's certainly not new.

In the UK if you hold a basic current account and visa debit card there are no charges for paying in or withdrawing money, however the bank may place a limit on how much can be withdrawn from the account in any 24 hr period. If you choose to upgrade your account, say to a gold or platinum, a monthly charge will in most cases be charged. In my case £12 a month. With this I get AXA worldwide travel insurance for myself and my wife, mobile phone insurance, AA breakdown cover and my purchases are insured from when I leave the shop. This is all well and good for a standard customer, but when your a business owner in the UK, the banks do nothing more than futt buck you. The businesses pay the service charge for the customer when they use their credit or debit card. We are not allowed to charge the customer for handling their card or set a minimum payment to make it worth while accepting the card. In August this year I paid out £1200 in service charges (for that month alone) to the bank for card transactions alone.

So next year I'm going to install an ATM instead so customers have to withdraw cash and I can put it in my tills. The annual fee for hosting the ATM is a bit more than the bank charges paid in August, and the good news!! The customer doesn't pay a fee for withdrawing cash.

For as long as the businesses pick up the handling and processing fees in the the UK I believe that we may remain charge free for the foreseeable future.

As for banks charging customers for holding their money? Not acceptable!! Why? Because they are going to use your funds to their ends. Its a trade off!!

Originally posted by ShortMemory
solution:
join a credit union.

I have a credit union account. The business account charges a fee of $3.45 per month - very little action on the account. The savings and chequing charge a combined fee of $15 per month.

I've had bank accounts for years now, various credit unions and regular banks, and I've never come across a bank that waives the fees unless there is over $5000 in the account.