Might Be Worth Checking the Accuracy of the Fees YOUR Bank Is Charging YOU

The Australian Big Banking sector is being ordered to refund customers more than $28 million after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) found that a majority of the big-name banks were (grossly) fee-overcharging low-income Australians who should have had low-fee accounts.

According to a report by the Daily Mail of Australia, the ANZ, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Commonwealth Bank and Westpac kept at least two million people in high-fee accounts with steep dishonour and overdraw charges when they could least afford it, ASIC found.

Part of the banks' strategy for keeping customers in unnecessarily high-fee accounts was to have difficult "opt-in" processes for switching to no or low-fee options. In many cases, rural customers wanting to switch account types could only do so if they travelled hundreds of kilometres to their nearest physical branch.

ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland revealed the banks had willingly "caused financial distress through avoidable fees and complicated bank processes". He said banks were easily able to identify customers that should have been offered more appropriate account types e.g. customers receiving government benefits. (Under Australia's banking code, such customers are entitled to basic, no or low-fee accounts).

Kirkland said the banks knew exactly what they were up to with these strategies, and it has taken ASIC's intervention to force them to cease and desist these totally unacceptable practices.

ASIC has, as part of the corrective orders given to the banks, instructed that processes be changed to to ensure customers can be automatically switched to a low-fee account without needing to attend a branch in-person with proof of a concession card.