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[easycash]

THE Commonwealth Bank has defended its decision to charge fees to customers who use its internet banking service.

CBA chairman John Shubert told shareholders at its annual general meeting that the charges reflect the cost of providing the service.
"Fees have to reflect the cost of providing services to our customers if they are to be sustainable," he said.

"In the end we have to charge a fee to recover those costs."

Mr Shubert said there was no room to cross-subsidise the service since the bank's decision to lower housing interest rates as the Reserve of Australia's cash rate fell in the past few years

The bank has recently upgraded the security of its internet banking service and chief executive Ralph Norris said further upgrades would occur in the new year.

AAP

What's your view ?

[leanne21]

so have thay said what the fees going to be.,

[barbieclone]

The whole push for internet banking by all banks was to move customers out of their branches. Once internet banking took off and there was a lower demand for branch services, branches closed and people lost their jobs thereby saving the bank millions. To me, fees for internet banking are just another grab for customers money. (my view)

[mattarm]

I see red when I read these news articles and then here that “The Bank” made a massive $1.9 billion half yearly PROFIT. What, 3.8 billion dollars in a year is not good enough, all I can say is its just legalised crime. To the share holders, would you still want that extra $3.25 in your dividends when you know that your own son is now out of a job so they can keep making increased profit? My last point, how much do the fat cats executives take home while these banks make there massive profits?

[powerman1]

BRILLIANT RESPONSE MATTARM - I COULD'NT AGREE MORE WITH YOUR VIEWS ON OUR SHAMELESS GREEDY BANKS WHOSE ONLY INTEREST IS TO MAXIMISE PROFITS BY FINDING WAYS TO MAKE CUSTOMERS PAY MORE AND MORE - IT'S JUST AMAZING THE VAST ARRAY OF FEES AND PENALTY CHARGES THEY HAVE DREAMED UP TO HIT US WITH - I BET THEY HAVE REGULAR MEETINGS WITH THE SOLE AIM OF WORKING OUT WHAT NEW WAYS THEY CAN SLUG CUSTOMERS - I HATE BANKS WITH A PASSION AND HAVE USED CREDIT UNIONS FOR YEARS AND HAVE NEVER HAD TO PAY A FEE/CHARGE YET WITH MY PARTICULAR CREDIT UNION

[leanne21]

if it was'nt for my loan i would not use a bank, keep my money under mattress or somethink

[PixieMb]

we are held in a noose .. you cant get paid unless you have a bank/CU account! ... we use a CU and it is supposed to be a free of fees account due to us both being on a pension. we live in a remote rural location and thus use internet banking to pay the bills. they charge us for this but charge more if we happen to be in a place where they have a branch and use the teller in the branch. they give us a couple of ATM uses free .. shame there is only one (20km away so 40km round trip) and surprise surprise it is often Out of Order

NO fees is a joke! [/color]

[andar]

Hi Guys.
Just over a week ago I deposited an overseas cheque for $50 US, which translated to $67 AU, for the privalige of changing over these funds they slugged me $10 , this works out to be somewhere around 15% and if you want to transfer funds overseas it costs $22 per transaction, these are the actual fees for transfers attached to my own netbank account, FACT.
What I think is that it SUCKS BIG TIME.
Cheers.

[Ca$hie]

Did you all see the show which had Citibank credit card charging people a $160 fee if they didn't spend $1000 on their cards before Christmas.

[sweep]

I have an account at Commonwealth and I always use ATM or Netbank (never over the counter), since I'm a student I pay no account keeping fee, and they used to give me unlimited free Netbank transactions, now I only get 3 per month and after that it costs $0.50 per transaction. I don't know if this applies to non-student accounts also... but I do know for a fact that there is one option that for your $5/month fee you get 15 free electronic transactions (and that includes Netbank).
Personally I think as long as they still allow some free transactions, it's fine for them to have fees once you use up your free limit. There are ways to avoid bank fees altogether (I will give you my big tip in the next post below).

[sweep]

WANT TO PAY NO BANK FEES? Here's my tip:
Buy everything on a credit card then pay off your credit card IN FULL every month. YOU NEED THE RIGHT ACCOUNTS and you can pay NO FEES! But you have to be DISCIPLINED and don't go spending more money than you have, so ONLY USE THIS STRATEGY IF YOU CAN CONTROL YOUR SPENDING.

1. THE RIGHT BANK ACCOUNT. Most banks have a special "savings" account called an award saver or incentive saver or something similar, where you get "bonus interest" if you make at least one deposit and no withdrawals in a particular month. What's good about these accounts is not the bonus interest, but you normally have NO ACCOUNT KEEPING FEE (depending on the bank, sometimes you have to make one deposit per month, but if you get your salary paid in then that takes care of the deposit), and you normally get ONE FREE WITHDRAWAL per month - and this normally is your choice of electronic or over the counter withdrawal. USE THIS WITHDRAWAL TO PAY OFF YOUR CREDIT CARD IN FULL EVERY MONTH.

2. THE RIGHT CREDIT CARD. You want a fee-free credit card (NO ANNUAL FEE) with an INTEREST-FREE PERIOD. There are several options out there but my personal recommendation is a Virgin credit card, there is no annual fee, and after you get the statement you still have around 2-3 weeks to pay before you start getting charged interest. WHEN THE BILL COMES PAY THE CREDIT CARD BILL IN FULL EVERY MONTH. With a Virgin credit card you pay by electronic banking, but other cards have the option of either electronic or a cash over-the-counter deposit.
Either way, make one withdrawal per month from your bank account and use it to pay off the credit card in full before the due date and you pay NO FEES!

The only thing this doesn't account for is cash transactions, because most people like to have some cash in their wallet. For those people I recommend one of the credit cards where you have the option to pay over the counter at a branch, that way when you make your monthly withdrawal to pay the credit card bill, you can also withdraw a bit of extra money to keep in your wallet.

Hope this helps some of you avoid fees

[Marci]

I just wanted to say thanks for posting this topic. I wasn't aware of it. I don't bank with them, but it doesn't matter, one one bank starts this, they will all follow.

[shue]

I couuldn't agree more. Due to bank fees I have received dishonoured payment fees because the bank decided to take out taxes or bank fees during the month and made the account under a dollar overdrawn. When my automatic rent payment is attempted to be taken out I get hit with a $35.00 fee.