Thousands of charities and community groups have been told by Barclays that they will have to pay for their banking after it deemed that they no longer qualified for free services.
About 5,000 not-for-profit organisations, ranging from small charities to scout groups, have been told that they must open a business bank account with the high street lender, meaning that they will be charged for services that previously were provided free.
Community accounts are provided by Barclays free of charge to not-for-profit organisations that have an annual turnover of under £100,000. This allows the organisations to use services such as making and receiving payments without being charged. More than 100,000 organisations are estimated to use the service.
However, having reviewed the service, Barclays has found