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I've never seen a country with more horrible banks than the UK. They get their profit from poor people. They make it easy to accidentally overdraw and then char

I've never seen a country with more horrible banks than the UK. They get their profit from poor people. They make it easy to accidentally overdraw and then charge you a massive fee. Don't pay the fee in time and you get another one because the fee kept you in overdraft. They also won't give accounts to just anybody. You need a letter from your employer so you can't open an account if you're unemployed. Even with that, you have to wait a couple of weeks for an appointment to talk to somebody before they open your account. My T&C even made it a requirement for my account to receive a regular minimum deposit each month. The phone staff are rude and unhelpful and the branches are usually closed when people need them the most (mornings and evenings) so the few useful times they do open (Sat morning), they're overcrowded and people end up missing out. This is a failure of the market though. People want free, so the banks have to provide free. But they also have to make money, so they only option is dirty tricks. A lot like games that pressure you into buying powerups

DanBC 11y ago
> They also won't give accounts to just anybody. You need a letter from your employer so you can't open an account if you're unemployed. Even with that, you have to wait a couple of weeks for an appointment to talk to somebody before they open your account. My T&C even made it a requirement for my account to receive a regular minimum deposit each month. Unemployed people can get what's called a "basic bank account". They need this for their benefit to be paid into. They need to prove their identity, but that can be done with driving licences or passports or utility bills or tenancy agreements. The requirements for your particular account - which is not a basic account - are not generalisable across all accounts. I agree that UK banks are aggressive at charging fees, often to people who can't afford them. And that the opening times suck. And that the telephone staff can be rude and unhelpful.
EliRivers 11y ago
They also won't give accounts to just anybody. You need a letter from your employer so you can't open an account if you're unemployed. Utter rot. In fear of being legally compelled to, many UK banks offer a very basic bank account that they typically don't advertise or offer. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/basic-bank-accounts http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/basic-bank-accounts
- jarek 11y ago
  Where "very basic" means if you have any sort of ID and an address that won't change for five days, you can get an account and a debit card, be able to send and receive transfers from anyone in the UK with no fee, and use most bank machines in the UK with no fee
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
justincormack 11y ago
Your T&Cs are due to your choice of account I suspect, you could choose one without. There are now banks with opening at evenings and weekends (Metro Bank, now in many places, although they only have 32 branches so far). The banks that actually provide customer service do cater for the better off though (eg Handelsbanken).
gutnor 11y ago
> They make it easy to accidentally overdraw and then charge you a massive fee. Don't pay the fee in time and you get another one because the fee kept you in overdraft. France used to be famous for that. When I was a kid (before internet to check you account), there were TV programmes about people having to pay tens of thousands of French Francs because they forgot about an account and the account charge put them a few francs in negative balance and it snowballed quickly over a few years. Not quite sure how it is today in France. > You need a letter from your employer so you can't open an account if you're unemployed. Even with that, you have to wait a couple of weeks for an appointment to talk to somebody before they open your account. I had to go through that to open an account in Luxembourg. Never could open an account in Spain for that reason but you don't really need one if you have an EUR account somewhere else in the EU. Spain has a wonderful collection of massive charges on everything you would think is free like getting money out of the cash machine, transferring money electronically or even receiving money electronically. At least in the UK, you can get a free account. Used to be not so easy in Belgium (Postoffice offered a limited free banking, so that was the excuse for all the other banks for charging) and they also had their own set of shenanigans. I have noticed things getting better with internet banking. However, some things have gotten much worse. Loan and Mortgage are no longer underwritten by the bank itself, so it does not matter if you know your banker and have been banking 20 years with the same bank - you will need to go through the exact same process as a guy from the street - worse, instead of just using your credit score as other bank would, they will use those 20 years history to give you a worse rate if they can.
- Oletros 11y ago
  > Spain has a wonderful collection of massive charges on everything you would think is free like getting money out of the cash machine, transferring money electronically or even receiving money electronically. It depends on the bank, but the the three I use doesn't charge for anything you pointed

DanBC 11y ago

> They also won't give accounts to just anybody. You need a letter from your employer so you can't open an account if you're unemployed. Even with that, you have to wait a couple of weeks for an appointment to talk to somebody before they open your account. My T&C even made it a requirement for my account to receive a regular minimum deposit each month. Unemployed people can get what's called a "basic bank account". They need this for their benefit to be paid into. They need to prove their identity, but that can be done with driving licences or passports or utility bills or tenancy agreements. The requirements for your particular account - which is not a basic account - are not generalisable across all accounts. I agree that UK banks are aggressive at charging fees, often to people who can't afford them. And that the opening times suck. And that the telephone staff can be rude and unhelpful.

EliRivers 11y ago

They also won't give accounts to just anybody. You need a letter from your employer so you can't open an account if you're unemployed. Utter rot. In fear of being legally compelled to, many UK banks offer a very basic bank account that they typically don't advertise or offer. http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/basic-bank-accounts http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/basic-bank-accounts

jarek 11y ago
Where "very basic" means if you have any sort of ID and an address that won't change for five days, you can get an account and a debit card, be able to send and receive transfers from anyone in the UK with no fee, and use most bank machines in the UK with no fee

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

justincormack 11y ago

Your T&Cs are due to your choice of account I suspect, you could choose one without. There are now banks with opening at evenings and weekends (Metro Bank, now in many places, although they only have 32 branches so far). The banks that actually provide customer service do cater for the better off though (eg Handelsbanken).

gutnor 11y ago

> They make it easy to accidentally overdraw and then charge you a massive fee. Don't pay the fee in time and you get another one because the fee kept you in overdraft. France used to be famous for that. When I was a kid (before internet to check you account), there were TV programmes about people having to pay tens of thousands of French Francs because they forgot about an account and the account charge put them a few francs in negative balance and it snowballed quickly over a few years. Not quite sure how it is today in France. > You need a letter from your employer so you can't open an account if you're unemployed. Even with that, you have to wait a couple of weeks for an appointment to talk to somebody before they open your account. I had to go through that to open an account in Luxembourg. Never could open an account in Spain for that reason but you don't really need one if you have an EUR account somewhere else in the EU. Spain has a wonderful collection of massive charges on everything you would think is free like getting money out of the cash machine, transferring money electronically or even receiving money electronically. At least in the UK, you can get a free account. Used to be not so easy in Belgium (Postoffice offered a limited free banking, so that was the excuse for all the other banks for charging) and they also had their own set of shenanigans. I have noticed things getting better with internet banking. However, some things have gotten much worse. Loan and Mortgage are no longer underwritten by the bank itself, so it does not matter if you know your banker and have been banking 20 years with the same bank - you will need to go through the exact same process as a guy from the street - worse, instead of just using your credit score as other bank would, they will use those 20 years history to give you a worse rate if they can.

Oletros 11y ago
> Spain has a wonderful collection of massive charges on everything you would think is free like getting money out of the cash machine, transferring money electronically or even receiving money electronically. It depends on the bank, but the the three I use doesn't charge for anything you pointed