Bank charge information 'difficult to understand' European Commission found

Many banks are guilty of making it difficult for consumers to find out fee structure information for their current accounts, a new report has concluded.

The European Commission (EC) study found that almost one in three customers in the European Union has difficulty comparing the charges on their account to those in place at other banks.

In addition to this, the data provided online by financial institutions is often insufficient and in two out of three cases the bank had to be contacted in order to receive information that had not been published on the web.

Banks based in Italy and Spain were found to have the highest charges in place for current account customers, while those located in Bulgaria and Portugal charged the least.

In Germany, 81 per cent of all transactions were made electronically, a trend which is also growing in the US, where the American Bankers Association found recently that online banking is the preferred method for a quarter of customers.

Written by Asim Shah