Budget action on basic bank accounts desperately needed Almost two million people still don’t have access to a current account
Banks are expected to be forced to offer all customers a basic current account at the very least in Wednesday’s Budget.
Despite claims by the banks that ‘everybody can have a bank account’, many consumers complain they are unable to get any account facility when they apply, due to poor credit ratings or because they have not been resident in the UK for long enough.
Often, providers give application forms for standard accounts to those with poor credit scores and, if rejected, they are often left without any facility rather than being given a basic account instead.
One MoneySavingExpert.com forum user reported: “At first I was refused an account because of adverse credit history … they had tried to open me a top level account complete with overdraft.” There are also numerous instances of customers being rejected for basic bank accounts.
This leaves 1.75 million people unable to carry out transactions that many take for granted.
Martin Lewis, MoneySavingExpert.com creator, comments:
“These government plans for a universal service obligation are long overdue. However, that’ll require legislation, and with an election due, that means ‘plans’ is the operative word.
“While banks have been offering basic bank accounts for a long time, their application process indicates they don’t really want to offer them.
“Go into some branches, and say you’ve a poor credit score, and you’ll often just be given a normal application form. Then rejection ensues and instead of saying ‘try applying for a basic account’ you’re allowed to walk out unbanked. MoneySavingExpert.com
“Banks can’t have it both ways. Basic bank accounts were brought in as a sop to offset political pressure for banking for all. But if banks are promising current accounts for all they need to deliver – hopefully tomorrow will be a step forward.”
About MoneySavingExpert.com: Consumer revenge website MoneySavingExpert.com is a free to use consumer finance help resource. The aim of the site is simple: showing people how to save money on anything and everything and fight back against big companies profiteering. Set up five years ago, for just £100, its no advertising, free to use, ethical stance quickly made it the UK’s biggest independent money website according to internet ranking site Alexa.com and number 1 “Business and Finance – Business Information” site according to Hitwise. It currently has over 4,000,000 people opted in to receive its weekly Martin’s money tips e-mail, and over 8,000,000 unique monthly users of the site who visit over 15,000,000 times a month and receives more than 900 million hits per month.
