🚀 go-pugleaf

The UK bank First Direct charges a minimum of 17 pounds for
transferring money to most banks in the world, but the minimum is 20
pounds for transfers to European banks.

It seems like the banks do not believe in the single market. The UK is
outside the Euro but inside the single market. There is no excuse for
bank customers to be forced to pay more for a transfer to France than
to Australia. Does anybody else think that the UK should volunteer to
comply with the following regulation:


http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/finances/payment/area/01-1827.htm

Under the Regulation:

* charges for withdrawals from cash machines and the use of bank cards
(up to �12,500) must be the same, when denominated in euros, for both
national and cross-border transactions, from 1 July 2002

* the charges for credit transfers (up to �12,500) between bank
accounts must be the same, when denominated in euros, for both
national and cross-border transactions, from 1 July 2003

* payments in non-euro currencies will also be subject to the
Regulation if the Member States where those currencies are used notify
the Commission that they want the rules to apply.

The Regulation's rules will be extended to cash machine withdrawals,
use of bank cards and credit transfers up to �50,000 from 1 January
2006.

A Regulation, unlike a Directive, is directly applicable in the Member
States without national implementing measures.

A survey published by the Commission in September 2001 indicated that
the average cost of cross-border credit charges remained virtually the
same in 2001 as in 1993 (�24 for transfers of �100)