Here’s some good news from the banking industry: the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) Â is to force banks and building societies to make their charging on current accounts clearer, as well as making switching between themselves easier.
Banks will have to provide customers with an annual summary of the charges on their current accounts, so that we can assess whether we’re getting good value for money from our accounts, and also compare different banks’ accounts, although this is still likely to be difficult as despite clearer charges, they all will still have different features.
In July 2008, the OFT found that personal current accounts were “not working well” for consumers. Many people were unaware of their account’s interest rate or what they paid in charges. The OFT estimated that the banks earned the equivalent of £152 for each of the 54 million active accounts in the UK in 2006.
Sadly, the OFT is yet to force a final decision on unauthorised overdraft charges, and we’re going to have to wait until 2011 until the clearer charges are brought into effect, but this move will certainly help consumers with their banking.
photo credit: BlatantNews.com