Greedy bankers

First Direct are planning to charge a £10 monthly fee for customers who pay less than £1500 into their account each month or have an average monthly balance of less than £1500, with other banks looking on to see how this goes.

The government says that part of tackling debt and helping people on low incomes is persuading people to get a bank account. Being able to pay in £1500 a month requires earning an income of roughly £28,000, more than the average wage, so if other banks follow First Direct's lead then most people will end up paying extra charges to bankers who already make billions of pounds of profits. Banks already charge people living in more deprived areas every time they need to withdraw cash from an ATM.

Provisional BBC has a good joke article on the call for new taxes on people for being poor, it seems like the bankers read that and thought 'what a good idea'.