LETTER: Banks don’t fight for customers

As we draw nearer to that dystopian future of a cashless society, I've noticed that, apart from the occasional TV advert, our banking institutions are no longer fighting for new customers, or indeed, fighting to keep their old ones.

The banks are sacking employees and closing branches everywhere, whilst many of the remaining available ATMs are starting to charge for withdrawals. They're now talking seriously of stopping paying interest on our savings, and charging us for keeping our money in their banks. No doubt they have plans afoot to end 'free banking' and start charging for each transaction we make. That's every direct debit, every standing order, and every time we swipe our debit card to make a purchase.

Imagine the lucre that this will generate for the banks when we can't even buy a newspaper without using a card. Imagine what it will be like, knowing that every penny you spend, and where you spend it, being monitored by someone else?

How did it come to this and how did we succumb so easily? Should we begin to demand the right to keep the pound in our pockets? Or, like many other things, is it too late?

John Davenport, Wednesfield

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