Thin end of the wedge

First Direct are going to start charging customers £10 a month for using a current account.

There are two ways of looking at this;

Either, as the banks claim, it's costly to run certain accounts and that the vast majority of customers will be unaffected.

Or, banks don't make enough profit and they're simply trying to fleece customers for more without lifting a finger. You can see their problem, HSBC, First Direct's owners, only made £12.5bn profit last year, so they must be well strapped.

Banks seem to have this idea that customers money does, in fact, belong to them and shame on anyone who thinks otherwise. After all, customers have no say in the way their money is invested while banks have their grubby little paws all over it. Banks and credit card companies make millions investing in offshore, over-night transactions with not only the money they have, but also money they know they're going to get back. The interest gained on accounts from internal investments far outwieghs the interest passed back to the customers.

Yet the majority of customers who use banking facilities simply have no choice. If you work for a medium / big organisation, try asking your HR department to pay you in cash and see how long it takes them to stop laughing.

Bank charges have been declared unfair by the OFT, yet banks still charge disproportionate amounts for unjustifiable reasons.

Hopefully, this is a toe in the water exercise to see how many people close their accounts in response. If enough people do, it could be seen as an experiment that failed (remember cash-point charges ?).

However, if most people either accept it or take out other services to negate the charges, expect to see account charges at a bank near you soon.