Bank overdraft charges too 'difficult' to understand
Which? study shows that even maths PhD students are baffled by the rules used to work out unauthorised overdraft charges
Bank overdraft charges too 'difficult' to understand”
Bank overdraft charges are currently too complex for the majority of Britons to understand, according to a consumer group.
Which? has called on the government to put more pressure on the banks to provide easily understandable information about the cost of unauthorised overdraft charges after research from the firm highlighted current complexities in the system.
Which? asked 12 people to work out the cost of an unauthorised overdraft relating to 48 mock accounts at high street banks such as HSBC, Natwest and Santander.
The participants, which included a maths PhD student, only got seven out of 48 correct between them.
The charges for the same large unauthorised overdraft could range from £66 to £150, with HSBC found to charge the highest amount out of all the banks surveyed.
Peter Vicary-Smith, Which? chief executive, claimed that previous reforms announced by the government to tackle unfair overdraft charges do not "go far enough".
"It's extremely disappointing to find that bank charges are still too high, too complex and impossible to compare," he said.
"It's essential that the government gives the new financial regulator the powers to limit these charges and to challenge their complexity."
Posted by Jack Ramsey
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