Banks - small business salami sliced to death

BANKS – ‘whose money is it anyway?’ MARCH 2009

I am right, aren’t I? It is my money, isn’t it? As a sole trader of modest means money is important to me – especially my money, yet my bank takes a slice at every turn. I’m being salami-ed into insolvency.

On the Monday a customer parts with their hard-earned wages for the latest must-have paperback from my shop and I bank said brass on the Tuesday. Or so you might think. If I deposited cash as coin of the realm then bingo, by the time I have returned from the local branch my internet banking shows my account credited - but at a cost. I am charged for crediting my own bank account with my own cash. But at least my money is mine – perhaps I have not paid in as much as I thought but it does register as mine to do with as I see fit.

If I had paid in a cheque with the folding stuff then I have to wait 24 hours for the credit to show – cash included, and a further three days for the cheque to clear. Oh and I get charged an additional 28p per cheque on top of the charge of 70p for making the manual deposit – I’ve been sliced twice on the one transaction. In fact closer inspection of my statement and breakdown of charges reveals that I get salami-ed a third time; I pay a further 0.6% of the total cash paid in every month.

In order to accept card transactions I have to hire a PDQ machine (from the bank) and then I am charged per transaction – you guessed it, by the bank. Having shaved me twice already the bank takes a third charge when the credit eventually lands in my account. Bearing in mind I have to wait three days for my money to reach me this delay could itself be construed as a charge. I will have been sliced four times by my bank for the one transaction; remember this was for a deposit transaction, I haven’t borrowed a bean. The bank has charged me three times on the cash credits and four times on the automated credits for providing it with the funds for it to earn interest by lending to others.

Or to me. In order to pay the bank’s charges I have paid an overdraft arrangement fee and interest on the loan. My bank is now slicing me either 5 or 6 times on every sale.

But I am mistaken … it is not really my money. The money I receive for the bestselling book sold has to pay the supplier, the rent & rates, the wages, the overheads, the advertising - leaving me with the thinnest of wedges from which to pay myself and of course my bank. Since it isn’t my money, since I need to pay the supplier I will have to make another bank transaction to effect this payment – and yes I am charged for that as well. In order to sell one single item to a customer I can be sliced 7 times by the bank – it’s death by a thousand cuts.

JB

First Published 'The Observer Group' March 2009