# How do banks (in the UK) make money from current accounts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2019, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-banks-in-the-uk-make-money-from-current-accounts/841712 "2019-10-13T11:05:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-banks-in-the-uk-make-money-from-current-accounts/841712/81 "2019-10-18T14:30:16Z")
> [@slash2k](#): > > No, they don’t. > > The big banks mostly do, but smaller banks and credit unions quite frequently do not. > > I have accounts at a medium-sized regional bank and a smaller local credit union. The credit union has no bill pay features at all. The regional bank does have “Internet Billpayer”; however, that doesn’t necessarily mean electronic payment. They have relationships with certain companies (such as the local utility), but for other vendors “Internet Billpayer” means you tell them who to pay and they print and mail a paper check. I said ‘my bank anyway’. Anyway gets back to customer demand I mentioned before, based on custom. You know you can get this service. You use a financial institution which doesn’t provide it. Just trying to get a handle on the mindset here. To me ‘X consumer service is not widely available here in the US’ means you can’t get it, or it’s hard to get. It doesn’t mean it’s easy to get but lots of people choose not to get it. I got a CD recently at a local credit union, because they happened to be the highest rate for that maturity nationally. I always go with the highest rate nationally on CD’s from whatever FDIC bank is offering or NCUA insured credit union where I meet the membership requirements, but nowadays a lot of CU’s allow anybody who joins some ‘foundation’ for $5 or something. Anyway we waited a long time in the musty smelling store front office for the one lady to _glacially_ work through the person’s case ahead of us. Which was fine as a one-off for a 5 yr deposit. It means they aren’t spending our money on nice digs or expensive overqualified people, and a non-profit, which helps them give us the highest rate, and the highest rate is the whole deal for me on a govt insured CD. Anyway meantime lots of people cycled through the office to the tellers for cash, I doubt all for huge amounts though I don’t know for sure. So, that means ‘we don’t have ATM’s so much here in the US’? I guess more likely those people don’t like to use ATM’s. I don’t care, and there’s no reason I’d have a checking account at that CU unless they had the best deal. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-banks-in-the-uk-make-money-from-current-accounts/841712/82 "2019-10-18T15:08:39Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > - People have mentioned being able to do things that are inconceivable to me, like making a deposit at a bank where they don’t have an account. I suspect that’s a lot easier to do in a country with 100 banks than one with 10K The number of full-service retail banks in the UK is probably closer to 10 than 100. There’s been a _lot_ of consolidation over the years. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-banks-in-the-uk-make-money-from-current-accounts/841712/83 "2019-10-18T15:33:00Z")
> [@Hermitian](#): > > I am having a hard time imagining a scenario in which I need to pay for something more than $100, I can’t go to an ATM, they won’t take a check, a debit card or a credit card. A place like that will go out of business in no time. Might not be a “place” but rather a person, an individual selling a car or a horse or a sofa or whatever on Craigslist, Armslist, etc. No way would I take a check from an unknown person, and I’m not set up to take debit/credit because I’m not a business. Person-to-person electronic transactions are more difficult in the US than they apparently are in some other parts of the world. First person to show up with sufficient cash gets the item. > [@Corry\_El](#): > > I said ‘my bank anyway’. Anyway gets back to customer demand I mentioned before, based on custom. You know you can get this service. You use a financial institution which doesn’t provide it. One of the most important attributes for my retail banking is a local branch, where I can go in and talk to somebody if there’s a problem. None of these big banking institutions you mention have branches local to me: there are no Wells Fargo or Chase or Citibank branches within 50 miles, and even BoA recently left town. Beyond that, what “service” exactly are you discussing, person-to-person or person-to-business (because you’ve mentioned both)? Person-to-business, for example, relies on the business being willing to accept payments electronically through your chosen app. For example, take my water bill. I have three options for payment: cash at their office, a check at their office or by mail, or an electronic check or credit/debit payment at **their** website (not the bank’s, but the water company’s). The company doesn’t do Venmo or Paypal or whatever. If you use a bank’s internet billpay feature, your bank sends them a paper check; yes, it’s not you having to write the check, but it’s still a paper check. Sure, I can go to the water company’s website and use an e-check or debit card, as I can go to the gas company’s website and the trash collector’s and the county treasurer’s (which adds on a surcharge for credit/debit), but that has nothing to do with my choice of financial institution. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2019, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-banks-in-the-uk-make-money-from-current-accounts/841712/84 "2019-10-21T00:22:24Z")
The only checks I write these days tend to be to the state government (Michigan). It’s not that Michigan doesn’t offer the ability to pay electronically, but state law apparently requires them to pass processing fees onto the user, and the registration notices don’t say anything about using Zelle or whatever else has sprung up recently for free bank-to-bank transfers. I can pay by check (or cash at a service center) or pony up a credit card fee. That’s one check each year, plus one every 5 years for the driver license. Additionally, I sometimes get a bill in the mail from some health service provider that I was completely unaware of being on the hook for before our health care system is so awful, and they make it much easier to pay by check than any other method. I did read recently though that the Fed is apparently going to work on a nationwide electronic payment system to bring us up with the rest of the first world. > **[The Fed - Press Releases and Notices](https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/fednow_press.htm)** > > The Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington DC. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-banks-in-the-uk-make-money-from-current-accounts/841712.md?page=4)