Fee charging current accounts - Nationwide next?

Article in today's Times.

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[quote] "THE Nationwide Building Society yesterday said it would like to follow the pioneering move of First Direct and impose current account charges.

Graham Beale, Nationwide?s finance director and chief executive-elect,

said: ?In an ideal world, if you look at the costs [of running current

accounts], we?d be sharing some of that cost with those people enjoying the services.?

Mr Beale said: ?In the medium term, I wouldn?t rule it out.? It was ?inevitable? that banks would want to recoup some current-account cos ts, he said."

...

"HSBC-owned First Direct plans to impose a £10-a-month charge on curren t account customers putting less than £1,500 a month into their accounts.

Mr Beale appeared to favour a different charging structure, suggesting that it was people using their accounts the most, by volume of transactions, who should be bear the cost. However, he said that there were no immediate plans to introduce charges." [quote ends]

As one of thousands of people who moved over to Nationwide because I was

sick and tired of being ripped off by my existing bank, I view this as a

really cynical move. Hardly "Nationwide - proud to be mutual". That's of

course if it's true and not Mr Beale being quoted out of context.

Is this genuine or merely Times spin?

Reply to
BrianW
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Mr Beale said: In the medium term, I wouldnt rule it out. It was inevitable that banks would want to recoup some current-account costs, he said."

As one of thousands of people who moved over to Nationwide because I was sick and tired of being ripped off by my existing bank, I view this as a really cynical move. Hardly "Nationwide - proud to be mutual". That's of course if it's true and not Mr Beale being quoted out of context.

The quote i saw was more explanatory where they said that if the other banks followed FD example then nationwide would be forced to do the same to avoid getting all the other banks poorer customer.

Whilst i wouldnt want nationwide (or any other bank) charging fees like FD i can see nationwides point. This was thier quote in the independent: Nationwide, the UK's largest building society, conceded yesterday that it could not rule out introducing monthly charges to its current accounts, claiming it could not afford to be left with the "poorest quality customers" if other banks shut them out.

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Reply to
richard

Simon Gompertz said (on Working Lunch) that there were no plans "in the near future", and that it was in effect a warning shot fired across the bows of regulators attempting to squeeze other bank charges. I'll buy that one - for now.

Reply to
BrianW

So will I, but I'm totally p***ed off that this has come about through the whinging of irresponsible account and CC holders! 8-(

Reply to
Gordon H

And the banks illegal penalties. They are only allowed to charge reasonable charges and they just took advantage of that. If they had revealed what thier actual costs were they might have still been allowed to continue but they sinply refused to give thier costs.

Reply to
linkuk

In message , BrianW writes

Why would NW charging for services be what you describe?

Reply to
John Boyle

linkuk writes

I doubt that they would want their competitors to know their costs! They may have over-done the charges, but I still think a punitive amount on top of the bare costs is justified. I will be very uneasy to think my charges may help to subsidise the bad debtors.

Reply to
Gordon H

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