There’s an interesting article and vote on the BBC site regarding how consumers should pay for banking services.
As I mentioned in a recent post on bank charges, one of the consequences of bank charges being outlawed would be thatthe banks would try to recoup some of their money in different ways, most probably by charging either a monthly fee or a charge per transaction.
The BBC reports on a YouGov survey for MoneySupermarket.com that suggests that only 8% of people would be willing to pay a monthy fee, and only 1% would want to pay a fee per transaction. So how do the other 91% of people think it should be paid for?
Accompanying the article there is a vote, and as of writing this post, over 6,500 people have given their opinion, with 59% of them saying that banking should be paid for from penalty charges, 11% with a monthly fee, 9% a cost per transaction and 21% by some other form of payment.
It seems funny that so many people would be in favour of using penalty charges for this, when there has been such a consumer backlash against the charges. It could be that there are different type of bank users – for example, those that have never incurred any penalty charges because of their careful banking might be resentful of having to start paying for something that was once subsidised by people who did not manage their finances as well. I think I’d fall into this category.
It may also be an indication that consumers still believe there is a case for penalty charges, and the current backlash is more to do with the seemingly unlawful size of the penalty rather than the fact that people are being penalised.
What other ways could we pay for banking services? Lower interest rates?