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Making sure that discussion will not heat without checking the content: > PayPal is to introduce a £9 “inactivity” fee for anyone whose account has been dorman
by trzeci 6y ago
Making sure that discussion will not heat without checking the content:
> PayPal is to introduce a £9 “inactivity” fee for anyone whose account has been dormant for at least a year, but still has some money left in it.
So it applies to money that's left on account. Once the balance is 0, there is not extra cost.
It's not that I'm happy in particular, as I have account there also, and I had to transfer remaining money. I believe there is more cases like mine, that has PayPay to pay on some portals that accepts only that payment method, and we're not willing to share credit card information.
- vmception 6y agoNice, a bailin. But sure, most banks have fees like that, and typically don't for a few years just to attract the broke people that were looking for an account with no fees. Then they turn them on.
- colejohnson66 6y agoThere’s also “low balance” fees. You have less than $300 (or whatever) in your account? That’s $5/month.
- Symbiote 6y agoIn Britain (and the article is in a British paper), most banks don't charge fees for normal, consumer bank accounts. They make the money in other ways, which is a different discussion, but it does mean people aren't used to paying for a bank account.
- chrisseaton 6y ago> But sure, most banks have fees like that A bank account with fees? I've never seen that. They make money by loaning out your money, so they don't need to charge a fee.
- vmception 6y agoAll the biggest banks in the US have monthly maintenance fees for most of their account types, typically waived by having a certain minimum balance. So, congratulations you are privileged by being wealthy or living in a developed nation, check it.
- gravitas 6y agoIt used to be that all basic (low end) US checking accounts had fees and the concept of no-fees being the norm has happened during my adult lifetime. Low end accounts (no money in them, basic tier) may not cover the yearly expenses for the bank to keep up with the legal paperwork on that account, but a high end account ($$$) has always had no-fees because of exactly what you describe. (digital life has I'm sure reduced said costs) I work in an unrelated industry where the economics are the same - low spend accounts require more hand-holding (support time = money, etc.) and can be "upside down" (no profit, lossy), whereas large enterprise accounts generate money by their sheer hands-off approach done at scale.
- justinclift 6y ago> yearly expenses for the bank to keep up with the legal paperwork on that account Wouldn't the yearly expenses to keep up any individual account be such a small fraction of a single cent, that we might as well call it zero? Account information is literally just a few strings of bytes, and transaction info is similar. Even with a lot of transactions it'd likely be less than (say) 10kB per year?
- clintonb 6y agoNote: I'm on the board of a credit union. There is no "legal paperwork" for accounts. The only real costs for managing accounts comes from mailing monthly statements. The last time we discussed these statements at a meeting, it was reported they cost about $1.00 (on average) to send.
- chrisseaton 6y agoDo you literally still mail paper statements? Why?
- clintonb 6y agoYes, paper statements must be offered due to federal law. Not everyone has a computer. Like many institutions, we make e-statements an opt-out option for new accounts; however, we still have older accounts that continue to receive paper statements.
- missedthecue 6y agoWelcome to a low interest rate world. Things are even worse at Japanese banks.
- Ekaros 6y agoI used to get bonuses for these monthly fees, from loans, cc use and balance. Now even they are going away. Then again it does make sense when I look at the actual interest payment on my checking account.