New Bank Charges ‘To Hit Vulnerable Hardest’
Bank fees imposed on customers paying bills by cash will hit vulnerable consumers the hardest, according to one charity. Virgin Media and BT are two companies that have been charging extra fees for people who are paying their bills in cash in a drive to get more customers to use direct debit. However, Chris Tapp, spokesperson for national money education charity Credit Action, believes that the financially excluded will fare worst from the fees as they might not even have bank accounts.
He adds that the elderly will also be hit hard by the new levies since “even where they do have a bank account, they would rather pay with cash”. Mr Tapp continued that elderly people “want to be able to go into the post office to pay in cash and the idea of setting up direct debits is firstly complicated and secondly, makes them slightly nervous as it feels like they’ve lost control of it a little bit”.The research follows a YouGov survey on behalf of uSwitch, which found that 83 per cent of customers would change banks if they started charging for free accounts.
People struggling with their debts may wish to take out a debt consolidation loan to help out with their repayment obligations.
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