The charges are "fair and reasonable" - honest!

[fivelaws]

The Alliance & Leicester continue to publicly state that their charges are “fair and reasonable” and by extension that they are a true reflection of the cost involved in processing transactions that are outside of the agreed terms and conditions, such as bouncing direct debits and sending letters accordingly.

Although we all feel, on gut instinct, that these charges aren’t reasonable, the banks insist that if they were forced to prove them in court, then they could. Is this possible? Well fortunately, as a public listed company, the A&L legally have to publish some of their financial figures. And here are some key ones from FY2005;

Retail Banking costs 2005 : £379m
Active Current accounts : 1.52m

The cost includes everything to do with retail banking, which includes loans, mortgages, savings and current accounts. This will include the establishment costs of the hundreds of branch offices and head offices (rent, rates, utilities etc) all the staffing costs of branch and head office personnel as well as investment/depreciation on computer equipment etc. Don’t forget that this figure includes all costs associated with the “core 4” elements of retail banking, not just the management of current accounts.

If it genuinely cost the bank £34 to send a letter, then it must also cost the same amount of money to send a monthly statement. After all, this often runs to several sheets of stationery and also invariably includes glossy leaflets for other A&L services. Let’s be kind, however, and assume they cost the same. For 1.52 million active customers, they would generate 18.24 million statements a year. At a cost of £34 each, these would cost the bank £620m, or greatly in excess of the total cost of running the business.

On the other side of the coin, if it really does cost £34 to NOT make an electronic payment out of an account, such as a direct debit, then it must be true that it always costs the same amount to NOT process a transaction. Most people organise their direct debits to fall on one or two days a month around payday, which means that there are on average 341 days per year that the account is NOT making such electronic payments. Each of these days, logically, must cost the same as a day where a direct debit is not paid, so the cost per account per year is £11,594. Total cost of NOT processing transactions, therefore, must be £52,404,880,000 or allowing for some rounding, £52bn – or 138 years of operating costs.

Doesn’t need a forensic accountant to work out that their figures are b*llocks does it?

[younganfree]

Erm......