The big issue is that there are far too many unbanked people in the UK. As I have said time many times, that is the result of choices by the banks, not the unbanked. The banks will not provide what they consider to be unprofitable services, whatever the need for them.
Oh:
Under the payment accounts regulations, everyone in the UK has a right to hold a basic bank account offering the ability to receive and make payments.
Spuddism – the art of opinionating from a position of ignorance.
everyone in the UK has a right to hold a basic bank account
Is this actually true? Visitors? Illegal immigrants? Children? Bankrupts? The Post Office used to be the bank for the poor but they seem to have wriggled out of the obligation.
After returning from abroad for quite a few years, I found the “Unbankable” problem. Being in foreign = lost in space and time as far as the credit checks and other banking bullshit were concerned.
As Tim rightly points out, I was entitled to a “Basic Bank Account” and it’s far better than my previous ones, because it can’t go into debit / overdraft and isn’t subject to random £30 letters for little reason at all like Natwest was.
So, yes. Very happy to use my government mandated “Basic Bank Account” for my banking.
If Nige had had his account erased cos he was gay, Peter Tatchell would have committed sutee on College Green (can blokes do that or is it a ‘ladies only’ thing?).
Likewise, we would have had Lenny Henry chucking his OBE in the Thames due to the institutional waycism inherent in the system if he’d been a schwarzer.
But cos he’s white, hetero (AFAIK) and English, the left are ecstatic at him being cancelled.
The banks will not provide what they consider to be unprofitable services, whatever the need for them.
Funny how that works, isn’t it?
…unless their competitors do or they are forced to do so by government legislation.
One of the downsides of crony capitalism. If you can’t be trusted to do the right thing, you’ll be forced to do the right thing or lose your banking license.
Seems fair enough to me.
If the need was that great, maybe people would pay a price that covered the cost of providing them – or if the Grauniad thought they were so vital it would pay for them out of its ecess profits (just over £300m in the last two reported years)
This is just hilarious!
From Coutts’ web-site:
“Coutts clients are trailblazers and pioneers, the disrupters and challengers who help to shape the fabric of UK society.”
I’d say that was a pretty accurate description of Mr Farage, wouldn’t you? Fits like a glove!
It’s not just Nigel Farage:
“Gina Miller voices fear for democracy over closure of her party’s bank account” at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jul/28/gina-miller-true-and-fair-party-monzo-bank-account
Imagine a world where Farage & Miller team up to defend the rights of the ordinary man and woman. Batman and Wonder Woman. Christoph Waltz and Zoe Saldana.
Blimey.
Who does Jordan Henderson bank with?
Casey Affleck or maybe Ben Miller?
Karim Benzema – Shia LaBeouf?
Any script writers knocking about? If you’re not on strike…otherwise I’ll get ChatGPT to do it.
Farage has Tweeted in support of Miller and she’s thanked him.
This is now a problem for Remainers, do they stick to the line they took that Coutts was a private bank that had every right to cancel Farage’s accounts and throw Miller under a bus, or come out in support of Miller and on the same side as Farage and hope nobody notices their sudden change of heart?
So, wait – are poor people unprofitable or are banks unfairly profiting from ‘junk fees’ that pile onto the accounts of poor people?
‘Miller noted that Farage had been offered an alternative account with NatWest and said her case pointed to wider issues.’
As you can see, Miller’s case is different!!
I seem to recall Miller’s issue wasn’t a personal account but one for her “Political Party”, if you can call a party of one a party, I guess that qualifies as a ‘wider issue’.
Yes, JG, Monzo bank (me neither) claim to have a rule that they don’t run accounts for political parties, and have apologised for failing to identify True & Fair (sic) as one such.
I’m amazed that some of our esteemed commentators on this blog haven’t taken to screaming “If Farage can’t get a bank account why doesn’t he start his own bank” in the same way they moaned about the smoking ban in pubs………
Wouldn’t be me Addolff. I do own my own bar & the management takes a dim view of anyone doesn’t.
Under the payment accounts regulations, everyone in the UK has a right to hold a basic bank account offering the ability to receive and make payments.
Curiously I did, at one time want exactly the sort of account one is entitled to under this regulation. Deposits/withdrawals. No cards, no apps, no overdraft facilities, no credit, nada. Less being more as far as I’m concerned. The less ways to access the account the more secure. They told me they didn’t do one.
@philip – “Is this actually true? Visitors? Illegal immigrants? Children? Bankrupts?”
No. Only residents – so not visitors. Illegal immigrants, yes as long as they are asylum seekers or cannot be expelled “for legal or practical reasons”, Children, I can’t see why not. Bankrupts, certainly – that’s why the basic bank account does not have credit facilities.
Note that the The Payment Accounts Regulations 2015 Part 4 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/2038/part/4) says:
18.—(1) A credit institution must not discriminate against consumers legally resident in the [F1United Kingdom by reason of their nationality or place of residence or by reason of sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation] when those consumers apply for or access a payment account.
This is a “payment account” and not a “payment account with basic features”, so should probably apply to Nigel Farage. He should make a formal complaint. This doesn’t help Gina Miller as it’s not her own personal account that she had trouble with. While a lot of the rules only apply to basic accounts, I think they should apply to all – no person or organisation should be refused any type of account unless it is illegal or they have a specific problem (e.g. the person has been seriously rude to bank staff).