How do banks rob us?

Answer 1

I know you shouldn't go overdrawn, but there's no need to charge £75 for going a penny overdrawn. I went £5 overdrawn and they charged me that! daylight robbery.

Answer 2

Well I worked for a Building Society and some points are valid, in terms of the fees that a financial institution will charge you for the simplest things (our BS never charged to use our atm, any other institutions atm or POS terminals), and so what if it is in the contract, if you have very little choice, you HAVE to pick the lesser evil, but still evil

Those fees are the smallest things though because a bank takes your money and pays you 3% interest (some way lower and some approaching 5%) but then they lend out your money at 10% or more (mortgage, car loan, etc. - often back to you). This in and of itself is merely capitalism....BUT...banks are legally allowed to lend as much as 10 times their deposits in some countries (US for eg.) and so the math works this way:

Earnings

Bank makes 10% on your $1 and you get 3% of this so the Bank benefit = 7%

Other $9 Bank lends based on your $1 deposit earns 10% but your benefit = $0 so bank keeps all the money

Answer 3

By charging £30 each time a cheque or direct debit bounce.
But... theres a way you can get all the money back, which is what i did last month :)

I wrote to the bank stating it was against the law for them to charge me £30 each time, and id take them to court. So they paid me back the £200 in charges over the past 6 years.
But, they closed by account, which i knew they would do, which is why i already opened up another account with a different bank before i asked for my money back.

Answer 4

A trillion ways, in fact probably every way they can -

Holding on to your interest whilst payments are made elsewhere. Only the banks earn interest when you do it. Free millions for them, every day.

The UK government recently outlawed unnecesarily high overdraft fees, but the banks are not automatically repaying the charges for previous years, unless customers individually claim.

Vast sums for using ATM and credit cards abroad. They're free from Nationwide Building Society, so do not have to amount to several pounds per transaction, however small.

Other fees that do not reflect the amount of effort on their part.

Most banks reward interest on current account balances at some ridiculously low rate, like 0.1%, So accounts in credit also earn them a ton.

Answer 5

I am going to make myself very unpopular here.
Yes so far you are all right - these do seem like unnecessary or even penal charges. However the Banks have to give you details of their terms and conditions for operating your account and advise you of any changes to them. If you abide by the terms and conditions most charges will not apply to your account. You are entitled to go dispute any charges with your bank manager! Many people do this and get large parts of their fees refunded. The ultimate sanction is for you to remove your account to another organisation. If more people followed that then the "BANKS" would have to change their policies and improve their relationships with their customers.

Answer 6

They have hidden fees everytime you use their service:

1) Using ATM machines.
2) Talking to a bank teller.
3) Using a debit card without inputing your password.
4) Calling their phone service.
5) Making transactions over the phone or internet.

Answer 7

By charging us fees that they themselves don't know how they are calculated. And when they have to pay them back because the gov't tells them too, they take a long time 'adding it all up', then cheat you in the end. And charge you for all the back dated statements they had to print to calculate this for you.

Answer 8

charge you for having a account whether there is money in it or not