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Friday, 24 March, 2000, 13:31 GMT
Cross cheques
![]() If you want to send a message to your bank, you might consider sending a cheque to a friend, suggest campaigners angry at proposed cash point charges.
As a form of protest it may sound rather tame, if not completely ineffectual, but the organisers of Penny Pinchers say there is method in this madness. Disgruntled consumers are being asked to write cheques to five friends, each for the princely sum of one penny.
It is thought each of these cheques will cost the banks around 45p to clear.
Steve Syder, the IT consultant behind the protest, wants Penny Pinchers to maximise the impact of the cheques by having supporters date them 1 April for clearing the following Monday. "We hope it's going to be a pretty significant event. It's looking pretty good at the moment," said Mr Syder on Friday. "We've already had more than 5,000 pledges of support on our website. That means the banks will receive over 25,000 cheques." That is a drop in the ocean for the banks, according to Richard Tyson-Davies from the Association for Payment and Clearing Services.
"On an ordinary day between seven and eight million cheques are cleared, going up to around 15 million. We're not running around like headless chickens worrying about penny cheques."
Mr Tyson-Davies says there is plenty of spare capacity. "If people go into branches with these cheques it might end up only being inconvenient for other customers forced to queue up." But Mr Syder thinks talk of the banks' ability to absorb a flood of penny cheques is a "wilful misunderstanding" of what lays behind the project.
"We're not anarchists trying to bring down the banking system. We're trying to give customers the chance to express their anger at the banks' arrogance."
Mr Syder, who says he has a very good relationship with his own bank branch, says the Penny Pinchers protest comes on the back of wider criticism of our High Street banks. "On its own Penny Pinchers won't do anything, but it may be the snowflake which starts the avalanche." Brian Capon from the British Bankers Association says there are many "scare stories" about proposed cash point charges. "The banks have ruled out double charges, where if a customer made a withdrawal from a cash machine belonging to a bank other than their own they would have to pay two fees. There will be no £2.50 charges."
Mr Capon warns against such oblique protests as the penny cheque.
"The better way to express concerns is to take them up with your bank direct." The Reverend Mike Bossingham was direct with his gripes about Barclays Bank's plans to close their branch in the village of Terrington St Clement in Norfolk. The Methodist minister led his parishioners into the building and staged an impromptu sit-in. Although such antics, seemingly straight out of an Ealing comedy, make the newspapers, they may not make much impact in the boardroom. Phil Telford, from the Consumers' Association, says despite bad press the big banks do not see much of a drop in their trade.
"The easiest way to express your discontent is to go elsewhere and switch accounts."
Mr Telford says customers think such movement is too bothersome, a belief generated by the sluggish behaviour of some banks when asked to close accounts. "Inertia in the market is the banks' biggest friend. They must look at their bad press, at campaigns like Penny Pinchers and say: 'Do we lose any accounts? No, so why change?'"
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