Payday lenders often like to moan that banks don’t get the same sort of scrutiny that they do when it comes to the subject of ruinously high cost credit.

While it doesn’t, and shouldn’t, grant their bad behaviour a pass, they might just have a point.

Which? has just put out research demonstrating that consumers needing as little as £100 can end up paying up to £156 more for a 30 day unauthorised bank overdraft than the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) allows payday loan companies to charge for borrowing the same amount over the same time (£24).

Needless to say, that is the sort of fee that might have made the former bosses of wonga.com sit up and say "yowza!" in the days when they could charge what they liked and took to using fake solicitors’ letters to bully distressed borrowers.

The £156 more than payday lenders overdraft charge, by the way, is from NatWest, which is in the middle of an intensive ad campaign that seems designed to distance itself from its parent. That would be Royal Bank of Scotland. Oops.

Now, of course, the banks will tell you that Which’s research covers unplanned and unauthorised overdrafts. If you call your bank, they’ll say, it’s usually possible to extend an authorised overdraft for a relatively modest charge.

The problem, as ever, is real life. People should call their banks. But in the middle of a crisis when they're already working long hours, with kids running around, and/or elderly relatives to worry about, it’s easy enough to forget. Banks don't have a wonderful reputation for being easy to deal with and if a family member is struck with a sudden illness, or if someone suffers a bereavement, even if they're the victim of a crime? Well, it's easy enough to see why that call might not get made.

Directors of retail banking for big financial institutions have “people” to help deal with problems arising from any troubles they might face. Ordinary customers aren't able to claim from what a friend of mine once described as "the corporate welfare system".

However, Which? has also found that some people can simply end up with unauthorised overdrafts because of the charges levied for authorised overdrafts. Or because the amount they inadvertently borrow isn’t quite enough to trigger one of those text alerts banks are so proud of pointing people like me to.

The organisation says it has found troubling evidence of people getting trapped in a cycle of charges that leaves them drowning in the debt.

That, by the way, is exactly the sort of thing that used to happen with payday loans companies until it prompted the regulators to institute a crackdown.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled – leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: “Europe’s largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid £3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rue’s contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped £4m off of Flybe’s revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airline’s estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

The problem of unauthorised overdrafts, and the charges for them, has been hanging around the banking industry and its regulators like a bad smell for years now. It was being discussed even before the financial crisis of 2008 that led to the industry receiving billions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash to keep it afloat.

The Competition & Markets Authority did a big number on the retail banking industry a while back, but didn’t do very much to address this particular issue, other than telling banks to come clean over their charges. Now the FCA, which has taken on the job of policing consumer lending, is taking submissions ahead of a review of its own into short term credit.