Isle of Man Bank has come under fire for charging a club to close an account.

It follows last month’s debacle when the bank announced new charges on accounts held by charities, clubs and societies. That plan has now been put on hold.

Ed Freegard, who is involved with a number of charities and clubs, says he was not expecting to be charged to close one of them.

’I am the treasurer of a club which had a bank account with Isle of Man Bank,’ he said. ’The account was only used four times a year and we decided to close it.

’We sent in a letter asking the bank to move the funds and close the account. They did, and charged us £23 for closing the account.

’I’d suggest to your readers that if they ever wish to close an account held with Isle of Man Bank they withdraw all the funds by cheque or internet transfer and leave Isle of Man Bank with thousands of empty, but not closed, bank accounts in their system.’

By writing to the bank, Mr Freegard activated a bank-to-bank transfer system which resulted in the fee.

A spokesperson for Isle of Man Bank said: ’There is always a fee applicable when a manual payment using CHAPS is requested.

’Normally there wouldn’t be a charge for a transfer of funds because there are several ways the bank can settle an account for free.

’One way is withdrawing the cash, another is a Faster Payment transfer - which depends on the size of the funds being transferred - and the third is by a cheque.’