Posted: Nov 17, 2008, 5:34 AM CST
lint874 wrote:All those bank branches in all those prime town centre locations cost money.
All those people working in all those branches and head offices expect to be paid too.
Banks don't charge for using their cash machines.
Personal current accounts are free - as long as you keep them in credit.
Using your credit card is free as long as you pay back the money within a month.Banks ramp up their charges in certain areas to subsidise the services they give away for free.
They'll also charge what the market will stand - like any well run business.
If you don't like it, why don't you start a bank with a different business model?
Do you just happen to work in a bank?
(I used to by the way......)
How about this one - this particular bank offers 'free' banking to anybody who maintains an average of £50,000 in their current account! I reckon if they only make 10% then that's only £5,000 per annum.
Personal accounts are not free if you keep them in credit - only in a few countries and in the UK they made it £50 minimum in the early 1980's then put it up to £100 minimum in your account....... then eventually it went down again.
If you don't like your car, why don't you start a car manufacturing business? Your last sentence was an insult, but I'd love to start an international bank if I had several billions to start one up - another reason banks can charge so much is that there as barriers to entry due to the size they have grown and a little bank could not compete easily!
And people DO start up non-profit organisations that have certain banking properties in local areas - to help people with poor credit ratings save and borrow at non-usury rates.
Banks have always been too foolish when house prices have boomed - they said in the early 90's they'd never lend so indiscriminately again but there is an economic 'herd' model that shows banks make more profit by lending recklessly in good times and then say 'don't blame us, everybody else did the same' when things go wrong.
Spain is more tightly regulated than the UK re. lending and Spanish banks have therefore been exposed to less sub-prime mortgages; however their economy is on the blink now and their banks will suffer like everybody else but not as badly as UK banks.
Banks DO need to make money, but lately they have got very, very greedy.......I bet you'd be delighted to make 30 to 40% profit with zero risk in one day with zero marginal human input (I was talking internet, human input free banking, remember)........ and if you did people would probably accuse you of doing something dishonest!
Banks have been reducing the number of branches and increasing the number of cash-point machines for years now............ of course you are right that people working in banks expect to be paid - and for those at the bottom banking is a poorly paid industry.
What you wrote does NOT negate my post that they are excessively greedy - the bank I am talking about has reduced its quality of service and increased its charges dramatically over the past few years........ and it has made an overall profit even in these hard times (lost money in sub-prime market countries and made slightly more money on other business elsewhere).
I believe in transparency - banks should be clear to customers what their charges are. They are not. For example, with this particular bank, you cannot 'see' how much you are being charged until AFTER the transaction has taken place!
The banks give nothing away for free - they have the 'free' use not only of your money but also the 'multiplier effect'.
Regarding they'll charge what the market will stand - exactly! Monopolies and cartels take advantage too - and it is often noted that banks, even if not proven, act as a cartel.
Banks aren't greedy - are they? : click here to read the entire thread »