November 21, 2009

Santander, owner of Abbey, has launched a bank account that does not impose any fees – even if the holder exceeds their overdraft limit – in advance of a major court decision into the fairness of penalty charges.The account, which will only be offered to customers that have a mortgage with the bank, also does away with another common charge – the fee usually levied on customers when they withdraw money overseas.

Santander, which also owns Bradford & Bingley’s savings arm and Alliance & Leicester, said that while it had a strong deposit base and mortgage book it wanted to grow its share of other products including current accounts, credit cards and insurance.The launch of the account coincides with a long-awaited High Court judgement on the fairness of the high penalty fees that banks have been charging customers who exceed their overdraft limit or have payments rejected.

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