Banks are hitting you where it hurts most - in your pocket - if you conduct
your account badly, the latest survey of bank charges shows.
First National Bank is now charging a whopping R85,50 instead of R13,68
every time you want to stop the payment of a debit order. Stopping a cheque
will still cost you R13,68.
If you lose your card, replacing it will also cost you. Absa charges R20,
or almost 45 percent more than six months ago to replace your card, and
Standard Bank charges R10,50 or 12 percent more.
The other banks have not put up this charge this time round.
This week Personal Finance compares the costs of operating a transmission
account at the big banks. The increases reflect by how much a transaction
has gone up since our last survey in September last year.
Other transaction charges which have risen sharply are the monthly service
fees - at Standard Bank these cost R3,80 a month or 27 percent more and
R9,41 a month or 10 percent more at FNB.
Absa has introduced a monthly service fee of R3 for the first time.
The cost of debit orders has also been raised. Debit orders at Absa cost
R3,75 or just over seven percent more, R2,62 or 17 percent more at FNB, and
R3,30 or 10 percent more at Standard Bank.
The survey again carries a warning to ATM users - stick to your bank`s own
network of machines. A withdrawal of R500 at another bank`s machine will
cost you R8,95 if you bank with Permanent Bank, R9,72 for Absa clients,
R9,50 for FNB clients, R8,38 - Peoples Bank, R8,25 - Pick`n Pay Financial
Services users, R7,30 - Standard Bank and R6,73 for NBS clients.
Absa has increased the ``other ATM`` withdrawal fee by eight percent, and
Standard increased its fee by 10 percent.
Cash withdrawals from your bank`s own ATM have also been affected. Absa
charges almost eight percent more, FNB 15 percent more and Standard Bank 10
percent more.
Click here to view the table.