Consumers, already staggering under the burden of punitive interest rates, are being slammed with huge increases in bank charges.
Personal Finance's latest survey on banking charges reveals that some banks have raised transaction costs by up to 150 percent in the last few months. (See bank charges table on page 2.)
This is in spite of record profits of between 18 and 40 percent announced by the banks over the past couple of months.
The survey, which is published twice a year, provides fresh evidence of how the banks are rubbing salt in the wounds of high interest rates.
Transactions which have been targeted for major increases include monthly service fees, cheque costs and over-the-counter transactions such as cash withdrawals and deposits, as well as transfers between accounts.
Permanent Bank has increased its monthly service fees by 70 percent and Nedbank, which showed the lowest increase, put up service fees by 15 percent.
The bank with the most expensive monthly service fee of R14,25 is Mercantile Bank. The cheapest is Nedbank and Perm at R10,50.
Using your cheque book is becoming increasingly expensive, with rises in cheque costs ranging from 7,5 percent at First National Bank to a staggering 43 percent at Allied Bank.
Cheques are most expensive at the four Absa banks, which now charge you R4,63 for a R250 cheque. The cheapest bank for cheque costs is Mercantile, where writing a R250 cheque will cost you R2,76.
Stop orders and debit orders are also getting much more expensive.
All the banks, except Standard and Mercantile, have increased charges on debit and stop order transactions.
Absa's increases on debit orders range from about 30 percent to 150 percent depending on the bank and on whether you choose a fixed debit order charge or one based on your monthly service fee. Stop order fees at Absa have been upped by between 37 and 87 percent.
Other alarming increases are:
* A 200 percent increase in the cost of cash withdrawals over the counter at Mercantile Bank;
* A 100 percent increase in the cost of stopping a payment at Nedbank and First National Bank;
* A 100 percent increase in the price you pay to transfer money between accounts at Volkskas;
* An 88 percent jump in stop order costs at Allied, Trust and United Banks;
* A 70 percent leap in the minimum monthly service fee at Permanent Bank;
* A 43 percent increase in the cost of writing a cheque at Allied Bank; and
* A 40 percent rise in the fee for depositing your money at Allied .
Absa increased the cost of banking at all four banks in May; Nedcor increased its charges in July; and First National Bank in August. Standard Bank has not raised its charges since February this year, just before our last survey.
Luigi Magnelli, spokesman for Absa, says one of the reasons for the extreme increases at the four banks, particularly Allied and United, is that before the increases the bank was subsidising a significant share of these charges.
Allied and United provided cheaper banking for many years, he says, but rising costs are forcing them to increase charges.
Gustav Preller, executive general manager of Permanent Bank, says the 70 percent increase in the bank's monthly service fee was to bring it in line with Nedbank.
Also, the bank has not increased this fee since 1996.