Another big-four bank slashes fees
The Age
Thursday August 6, 2009
MILLIONS of bank customers will pay much lower penalty fees from October 1 after the Commonwealth Bank yesterday became the latest of the big-four institutions to cut its charges.The country's biggest lender is to slash its overdraft fees from $30 to $10 while dishonour charges on business and personal transaction accounts will fall from $35 to $5.Late payment fees will be cut from $45 to $25, while the bank will retain the penalty charges on credit cards, one of the bigger money-spinners for the industry.Westpac and St George reduced late payment charges on credit cards to $9 as part of a wide-ranging reduction of what are called "exception" fees. The banking industry earned nearly $1.2 billion from such charges last year.The latest fee reductions were sparked by National Australia Bank, which last week announced it was abolishing its $30 overdraft fee. However, that was the only charge that NAB changed.The announcement by the Commonwealth leaves ANZ Bank yet to show its hand on its fee structure.Its chief executive, Mike Smith, said yesterday the bank was working on big changes to its penalty charges to make them more transparent and allow customers to select the costs that they would be prepared to pay.That indicated ANZ would also lower its fees but not get rid of them. But Mr Smith said that any announcements about fee changes were still weeks away.
© 2009 The Age
