Bank charges on some current accounts have doubled, Personal Finance`s
latest survey of bank charges shows.
Every six months, Personal Finance compares the bank charges of some common
transactions across the major banks.
The latest survey reflects annual increases implemented by Absa, First
National Bank and Standard Bank. Nedbank, Permanent Bank and Mercantile
have not done annual reviews since the last survey in September, although
some adjustments have been made.
Absa`s new fees are effective from April 1.
The charge that increased the most at Absa is the card replacement fee
which goes up from R13,80 to R20, reflecting an increase of almost 45
percent.
Also from April, a cheque of R250 will cost you R5,05 instead of R4,73 - a
seven percent increase.
Steep increases at FNB include the charges for cheques, debit orders,
provisional statements obtained over the counter, stop orders and
depositing a post-dated cheque.
Drawing a provisional statement over the counter will set you back R2,28
instead of R1,14 while stop orders go up 80 percent from R2,85 to R5,13.
Depositing a post-dated cheque into your account now costs 25 percent more
at R42,49, so you should keep a eye on the date of any cheques handed to
you as payment.
Cash deposit fees at FNB increase by 15 percent to R2,84 and cash
withdrawals from your bank`s own ATM go up by 18 percent to R2,70.
Standard Bank put up its fees at the beginning of the year. The biggest
increase - 48 percent - was in the minimum monthly service fee which went
up from R13,50 to R20.
The cost of depositing a post-dated cheque has increased from R34,20 to
R39,90 and a stop-payment instruction is up by 12,5 percent to R13,50.
* Bear in mind that the charges in the table apply to the basic cheque
account packages at the banks. If you have a middle or top package, your
fees may be slightly lower.