There's a lot of press about Ulster Bank's decision to scrap bank charges for its personal customers. The bank's made an announcement and the papers/television/radio news editors think it merits space/air time/etc. However, it's not twelve months since Ulster Bank scrapped free banking for its personal customers, which occurred with almost zero publicity. I know this is true because I was one of their customers who was stunned to find a large, previously unseen fee levied against my account when it happened.
Based on what I've heard, I'm unusual in that I keep close check on what the banks do with my accounts. I've caught them out on errors in their favor on at least four different occasions over the past decade or so. So, when they stealthily imposed fees on my account I was all over them. I called up enraged and hung up with an agreement that my account would remain fee-free. I got my fees refunded and haven't had to pay any fees for my checking account over the past year.
Why does the media play along with this nonsense? Surely there has to be at least one person working in the media who's aware of the fact that free banking was only recently abandoned by Ulster Bank and that this change of policy represents a climb down as much as anything.
