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HSBC raises fees for small business customers

30 - 08 - 2013

HSBC has announced that it will increase its fees for small business customers.



The new charges, which will be introduced on Sunday, will affect 700,000 customers.

 
Monthly account maintenance fees for small businesses will rise from £5 to £5.50 and an undisclosed number are expected to lose their free banking service.

According to HSBC, the new fees are part of a wider reconstruction of its accounts, aimed at providing ‘clearer, more transparent pricing’.

HSBC said that the new pricing system would make it easier for customers to manage their costs.

 
They also maintain that their small business bank accounts ‘remain very competitive’.

 
HSBC have confirmed that they have written to all customers who will be affected by the changes.

 
The changes are come as major UK banks prepare to introduce measures to make it easier for customers to switch banks from 16 September.

 
The new switching system will allow customers to change bank account providers within seven days, as opposed to the 30 days it can take currently.

 
The issue of free banking has proved controversial in the past.

 
Last year, due to anger from many customers, Santander dropped plans to introduce fees for small business customers having previously advertised the accounts as ‘free banking forever’.

 
Rich Lloyd, executive director of consumer group Which? and Andrew Bailey of the Bank of England are among a group of people who share the opinion that the idea of free banking is a ‘myth’.

 
They claim that banks make money from current accounts by paying no interest on them and by charging less transparent fees and penalties, on unauthorised overdrafts for example.

 



 

 

 

 

 

Foremans LLP Umberlla
Foremans LLP