[dspillett]

> You pay a monthly fee to the bank for the privilege of banking there.

Free banking is not as ubiquitous in the UK as it used to be, especially as rules regarding using admin charges (for letter sending and such) as a revenue source are getting tighter.

A number of banks are planning to drop their free options in some instances. FirstDirect, to name one, already have: their standard (and only) current account is free if you pass at least a grand per month through the account or maintain an average balance of a grand, otherwise it costs £10/month (they word it the positive way around: the is always a £10/month fee, but if you pay enough in or otherwise keep a good balance they "waive" the fee) - so it is free for many but far from all (if you are on, or close to, the statutory minimum wage your wages won't be enough after tax/NI even if you work full time (assuming full time is between 35 and 40 hours per week).

One thing that still gets me is how long it takes for payments to get from some accounts to some others. Over the last couple of years "faster payments" has become common so between most current accounts payments take less than an hour (sometimes less than a minute) to show up at the destination, but it still takes three working days for money to get from my current account to my credit card account despite the fact that the two accounts are held at the same bank.