The huge increases in banking fees that you have had to face over the last few years will come under the scrutiny of Parliament next week.
Parliament's Trade and Industries' portfolio committee will hear evidence on bank charges as part of a probe into the financial services industry.
Hearings kick off early next week and Personal Finance has been invited to present the findings of the bi-annual surveys that we have done since August 1997.
The latest survey shows that various transactions at Standard Bank have increased by between 0,9 percent and 67 percent.
Standard Bank is the only bank to have implemented annual increases since the survey in August last year.
The August survey showed that transactions charges at some banks shot up by up to 150 percent.
This year, the biggest single increase imposed by Standard Bank is the charge for replacing your Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) card. This has gone up by 67 percent from R6 to R10.
You are also forking out 61 percent more for debit orders withdrawn from your account.
A debit order of R250 now costs R4,35 if it is being withdrawn by an organisation outside the Standard Bank group. "Internal" debt orders such as those paid to Stannic now cost R1,85 or 31 percent less on an amount of R250.
Another transaction that has been increased significantly is the cost of drawing a provisional statement over the counter which has been increased 43 percent from R1,40 to R2.
The cost of a provisional statement from an ATM on the other hand remains the same at R1,40, illustrating once again that it is cheaper to bank electronically.
First National Bank (FNB) has also increased the charge for drawing a provisional statement over the counter by 25 percent. This is the only charge to be increased by the bank.
You now pay R1,43 instead of R1,14 for every statement you draw over the counter at FNB whereas using an ATM will cost you nothing.
Although banks keep saying that you should use ATMs rather than do your banking inside the bank, electronic transactions have not escaped the latest round of increases at Standard Bank.
The fee for withdrawing cash has gone up by 30 percent if you use an ATM that is part of your bank's network of machines and by 21 percent if you use an ATM of another bank. It will cost you R3,25 to draw R250 from your bank's own ATMs and R7,25 at another bank's ATM network.
Cash deposit charges at ATMs have also been increased. On R250 you will now pay R1,99 instead of R1,88 which represents an increase of just over six percent.
Depositing cash of less than R250 is free and so are deposits made by cheque.
If you have lost track of how much money you have left in your account, don't use the ATM network of another bank to find out: a balance enquiry will cost you R1,85 or 23 percent more than last year. But checking your balance at your own ATM is free.
Other transactions that have been targeted at Standard Bank include the unauthorised overdraft fee which has gone up by 25 percent to R10. Fortunately this is a fee that you can avoid if you manage your cheque account properly and see to it that you do not go over your agreed overdraft limit.
But if you have been cost conscious all along and have been keeping a minimum balance in your account so that you can get a rebate on certain charges, you will now have to keep a balance of R2 000 in your account instead of R1 750.
Absa Bank, First National Bank, Nedcor and NBS/Boland have not yet done their annual reviews, so if you are a customer, sit tight and hope for the best.