Bank Accounts

Current accounts

Current accounts are there for your day to day banking, typically you will want a current account for basic banking tasks such as

• Accessing cash machines
• Sending cheques
• Establishing direct debits or standing orders
• Having your employer pay you conveniently

Online banking current accounts are now being seen for how attractive they really are, you can see all your transactions and set up standing orders from anywhere on the banks' website. Some will even pay you money for setting up an account with them. You can still use high street banks to interface with your online bank company.

Savinings Accounts

There are so many options now available to savers concerning savings accounts that it is difficult to know where to begin. What sort of savings account is best for you depends upon several factors - for example, how long you can tie your cash up for, how quickly you are likely to need access and whether you pay tax or not. Here is a list of accounts available:

Regular savings accounts

If you can ensure that you can commit yourself to making regular savings, these accounts are pretty good and may be for you. They often pay better annual rates of interest and they do this by giving savers an annual bonus payable as interest on top of their interest rate.

Instant access accounts

These accounts are ideal for money you may need to access quickly. Your emergency fund should be in this type of account in the case of problems so that you can immediately meet any unexpected costs.

Notice accounts

Your savings should earn a better rate of interest if you agree to lock them away for a set period of time. The trade-off is that you cannot get at your money within that set period or immediately.

Cash Isas

Cash Individual Savings Accounts (Isas) are excelent savings accounts if you can put regular money into it. Yyou will earn tax-free interest. however you can only put £3,000 in a cash Isa each tax year.

Bank Charge Victims Offered Pay-offs

Banks are attempint to pay off customers who they think are about to complain about their overdraft charges to stop them trying to reclaim even larger sums.

In one case, a mother was approached by one of the leading banks and offered a cheque for £2,400 before she had even complained about her bank charges. She became suspicious about this and decided to check so she added up her overdraft charges and it came to a whopping £13,000. It is the latest ploy by banks as they try to cut the amount of disproportionate charges customers are being forced to pay.

Rebecca, in East Sussex, knew she had paid some charges when she had gone overdrawn on her Abbey account in the past six years but did not realise the extent of the overpricing.. She used a template letter downloaded off the internet to ask for a list of all those she had paid.

Although she sent the letter she made no mention of her plans to reclaim the charges at a later date. However, the leading bank wrote back to Rebecca offering to repay £2,400 as a goodwill gesture.

Rebecca said: 'I became very suspicious when they did this. I guessed that I was owed far more than this but still did not have the bank statements to prove it.'

Rebecca kindly declined the refund and once again demanded her statements. The bank still refused and offered her the refund again, but after turning it down for a second time finally she was eventually sent her  bank charges. When she totalled them up, they came to a whopping £13,000 in the past six years alone.

She is now taking the bank to court. And Rebecca is not alone. Many online consumer groups and networks have received similar stories of  leading banks offering their customers to settle for a paltry sum of the actually outstanding charges before any complaint is made. The bank says that its initial offer was a goodwill gesture and believes in dealing with customers fairly and openly.

For the past year many online campaigns have helped tens of thousands of bank current account  and savings account customers get a refund on charges incurred for payments that are bounced or authorised when they have slipped a few pounds in to the red.

In response to this consumer backlash, some leading banks have refused point blank to assist customers in getting their current account bank statements or list of charges; others have even taken the extreme action of threatening to cancel customers' accounts if they complain.

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