Most Irish people think bank charges are too expensive, but less than one in five bothers to shop around for the lowest rates, a new Irish Times/MRBI survey shows. More than half of those surveyed said they either paid no bank charges at all, or else had no idea how much they were charged.
The survey - which examined the ownership of bank accounts, the amount of charges paid per quarter, whether account holders considered them fair and if they had shopped around to find lower charges - found strong consistencies between genders and across the regions.
Seventy two per cent of adults in the Republic have a bank account - but that figure rises to 83 per cent in the 25 to 34 age group. Correspondingly, half of all old age pensioners do not own accounts.
The survey of a representative sample of more than 1,000 people, also indicated class differences. Some 86 per cent of the AB and C1 groups - made up of professionals and white collar employees - have bank accounts, compared to just 63 per cent of the C2, D and E group, blue collar workers and the unemployed. Seventy six per cent of farmers own accounts.
On bank charges, the elderly, farmers and students are the smartest at avoiding having to pay. More than half of the over 65s, 36 per cent of farmers and 34 per cent of the 18 to 24 group said they had to pay nothing for their bank transactions. The age groups in the middle - 25 to 34, 35 to 49 and 50 to 64 - typically pay more than any others.
Overall, 25 per cent said they pay no charges, 27 per cent believe they pay between £1 and £10 per quarter, 12 per cent said their bank fees came to between £11 and £20 and 4 per cent between £21 and £30.
Just 3 per cent of all of those with bank accounts said their bank charges amounted to more than £31 per quarter, but double that proportion, 6 per cent, of the 35 to 49 age group believe they pay the highest amounts.
However, a staggering 29 per cent of all those with bank accounts simply did not know whether they paid charges or not. In Connacht and Ulster, this figures rises to 42 per cent, while in Leinster, not including Dublin, just 18 per cent said they didn't know.
Asked whether they thought the charges they paid were fair, a majority - 59 per cent - said the fees were either "somewhat expensive" or "much too expensive", compared to one in four who said the charges were "reasonable".
On this issue too there was a fissure along age lines, with 34 per cent of the 18 to 24 group, saying they felt the bank charges they paid were "reasonable value for the service", while of the 35 to 49 year olds just 18 per cent described the charges as such.
These figures were broadly reversed for those who answered that charges were very unfair; just 14 per cent of the younger adults felt the fees were "much too expensive", compared with 44 per cent of the older, 50 to 64 age group.
Despite the tendency to complain about the fees that banks charge their customers, the survey found that just 17 per cent actually shopped around for accounts bearing reduced or no charges, while the remaining 83 per cent did not.
Senior citizens are even less likely to shop around; only 9 per cent said they did. The only group of people that shows even remote interest in shopping for a low-fee account is the 18 to 24 age bracket, with 24 per cent. Women, at 18 per cent, were marginally more likely than men, at 16 per cent, to seek out low-charge accounts.
But while the answers to this question can be portrayed as laziness on the behalf of customers to use their clout, some analysts will see it as evidence that people regard the banks as having such similar policies when it comes to charges that no real benefit will accrue from changing banks.
When the personal relationship that many customers have with their bank managers are factored into the equation - along with the prospect of having to rebuild a credit history at another bank - some may see even less incentive to switch institutions because of charges.
