Consumers would not be happy if they had to pay monthly fees for bank accounts, according to Which?.
Customers would leave banks if they were asked to pay fees for opening bank accounts, according to a consumer watchdog.
Phil Jones, personal finance campaigner at Which?, explained that previous research by the organisation has found that eight out of ten people would leave their bank if they were asked to pay fees. Mr Jones was responding to a new report by Defaqto which suggests that the era of "free banking" is over.
However, according to Mr Jones, there has never been such a thing as "free banking". He explained: "People already pay for their bank accounts, even if it seems that they have got it for free they pay for it through interest foregone, they pay for it through various charges that they get and interest that they pay when they are overdrawn and things like that."
Mr Jones suggested that choice is the most important factor in ensuring that consumers get a fair deal. He gave backing to the idea that supermarkets could begin to rival traditional banks in offering financial services, another prediction made in the Defaqto report.
"Everyone goes to the supermarket anyway, so the fact that there might be a bank branch in the supermarket is going to be very attractive to a lot of people, it puts them [supermarkets] in quite a strong position," he said.
