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Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests


Barclays: rewarding the reckless?

Thursday, 29th May 2008

Barclays has announced that it is overhauling its overdraft fees, particularly where penalty charges are concerned. The bank has made busting through your overdraft limit cheaper, but is less keen to point out interest rates for those who stick within agreed levels are going up.

From June 2nd rates for an authorised overdraft will go up from 15.6% to 17.9%. I spoke to Barclays earlier and was told they only expect 20% of customers to actually use their "personal reserve" (the fluffy new name for being charged penalty fees). This means the 80% of customers who stay within agreed limits will see their rates go up to fund savings for those who can't.

Surely the rewards should be for those who behave rather than those who can’t keep their finances under control? Incentivising people to push their financial luck was how we got into the credit crunch in the first place.

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