Banks to make current account costs more transparent

08/10/2009

The Office of Fair Trading has announced that the nation's banks will make personal current account costs more transparent and the switching process more reliable.

The OFT's 2008 market study concluded that transparency of costs, difficulties with switching and unarranged overdraft charges confused consumers, meaning the market did not work well for them.

Now lenders have agreed to improve the market for consumers, beginning with the introduction of an annual summary of the cost of their account for each customer.

They will also take steps to reduce the problems that arise when transferring direct debits and launch a website designed to increase customer awareness of the automatic switching process.

According to debt solutions firm EuroDebt, making charges prominent on monthly statements, so that consumers are more aware of the charges they pay, is a positive step forward and one that is likely to focus the mind on whether to look at switching your bank account.

Any steps to reduce problems that arise from transferring Direct Debits are welcomed as this is fundamental to the process of moving salary or wage payments to a new account and then streamlining the switching of regular payments like your mortgage and other essential expenditure items like utilities and council tax.

EuroDebt has established its bank switching service at www.bankswitching.co.uk to provide all UK residents with a prepaid current account where there are no penalties for failed direct debits.

• Share
• 
• 
• Store
• 
• Follow
•