I havent read through all of the replies in this topic, so my apologies if this has already been said. The poster of this topic says that the charges are a deterent and that that we should manage our accounts better. I would have thought that having direct debits and important cheques stopped because of insufficient funds would be deterrant enough, all my bills are very important and will do anything to pay them, i dont want to made homeless, or have my gas turned off through non payment. The only difference bank charges make are to make it even harder to keep the account in order. Nobody in their right mind would run over their limits because it would simply mean they are no longer able to pay bills. Mark