Unfair Bank Fees and Charges Guide

Let’s be honest. Everyone hates getting their monthly bank, credit union or building society statement and finding a whole stack of fee’s regarding account transactions, cheque dishonour fees, account reference fees, account “service” fees, overdrawn fees and so on. Almost every Australian has been in the situation where their account is low on cash, and some incident in their life takes it over the limit resulting in a fee or a charge of some kind. The situations are endless - whether it be an emergency, a direct debit, forgetting the amount of cash in your account, overspending and so on - why should you be charged for it ? Mistakes happen, it’s not your fault.

Financial institutions in Australia work for you – you give them money which allows them to operate, invest, lend and conduct their operations. Without you, they wouldn’t exist. If all financial institutions took a more open, transparent and fairer approach to fees and charges then I wouldn’t need to be writing these tips. But they don’t, and therefore neither should you. You really do need to take on the philosophy of

They need you, more than you need them.

Remember, you are the consumer and always have choice. We are lucky enough to live in a country where moving from one financial institution to another is not difficult – sure, it’s frustrating and maybe downright painful – but the more you impress on your current financial institution that you will not hesitate, even in the slightest, in moving to a competitor – the more they will offer you to stay. You are their “life blood” so to speak and without you, they will need more donors – and we all know how hard it is to get donors (speaking of which, donate blood today!)

It’s time to fight back against financial institutions and their dirty tricks to charge you unnecessary fees and charges. So to assit the fight, I have decided to create a Unfair Bank Fees and Charges Guide which will give you the best chance at getting your Fees and Charges refunded – so you can do more with your money than give it to the bank.

How can I fight Fees and Charges?

You are always legally entitled to question and challenge unfair fees and charges that you have been forced to pay. Most of the time, financial institutions will simply state that it was your fault that the fees and charged were applied to your account, and that all account fees and charges are fully documented in the complex, lengthy and finely printed “Terms and Conditions” manual which was provided to you when you opened your account. This is their standard response and a lot of people take the attitude of “oh ok, i’m sorry I didn’t realise” and leave it at that.

To be honest, you should never be the one apologising for unfair fees and charges since you have done nothing wrong. If you were not made fully aware of the fees and charges when your bank account was created, then you shouldn’t be apologising for anything – the bank should. And even if you were made aware of them – no one is perfect, at least of all banks, so why should you have to pay?

Well, what are Unfair Fees and Charges?

I consider Unfair fees and charges as typically ‘externality’ fees and charges – that is – fees and charges that are applied as a direct result of excess account debit. Most of these fees are related to consumers not checking their accounts or statements regularly. Financial Institutions absolutely thrive on people who forget to check their statements and those of us who simply ‘can’t be bothered’ to dispute fees and charges. Of course, if you can’t be bothered to dispute fees and charges – why are you reading this ?

You should always be concerned about your money and what people are doing with it. You work hard for your money and anything extra that you give a financial institution, is one cent less you get in your pocket.

A list of typical unfair fees and charges to be on the lookout for is shown below. If you see one of these on your statement, it’s time to get angry and ring the bank to complain! : )

• Overdrawn account fees
• Credit card late payment fees
• Credit card over-the-limit fees
• Cheque Dishonour Fees
• Overdrawn account fees
• Deposited Cheque Dishonor Fees

OK, thats it – I have one of these on my statement!

First thing – it’s fantastic that you are checking your statement – so many Australians don’t. Secondly, let your anger settle down for a minute, since it’s not going to solve anything. Thirdly, keep reading.

Phew, anger gone – whats the First Step I take now?

The best and first step after you can take after you get your statement is to add up the total unfair fees and charges listed, and write down the exact reasons why they occurred (as best you can remember – reviewing your statement will help). You are going to be asked this by your financial institution when you call them to complain, and they are going to impress on you that it wasn’t their fault, but yours and yours alone – this is almost always their standard reasoning.

It is pretty important to take this first step seriously, since the financial institution may easily be able to disregard your claim if you can’t substantiate it and don’t have proof. Of course, there are ways around this which I will detail later – but to keep things easier for yourself (and less confronting on the phone when you ring up to complain), make sure you have proof of each charge and the reasoning behind it.

What sort of reasons are there ?

There are lots of reasons as to why the charges may have been applied to your account, but the only person would really knows is you! Some typical “generalised” reasons that I have used, and that Small Stocks readers have sent me, include:

• I was not aware that my account had reached such a low level and that a particular transaction debit was about to be applied to my account.
• I didn’t actually realise that I was being charge interest on my account which was overdrawn.
• My account was only just overdrawn, and the size of the reference fee applied is really disproportionate to the level my account was over.
• I only earn a limited amount of income (pension, youth allowance, center link, disability or other etc) and this fee substaintially reduces my, already limited, income.
• The payment to my account was late because I didn’t realize I had to pay credit cards between the dates listed on my statement.
• The payment to my account was late due to “x,y,z” circumstances which were really out of the ordinary and if you review my repayment cycles in the past, you will notice that they are regular and consistent.

OK detailed and reviewed – now what ?

Now it’s time to ring the customer service hot-line. While it is possible to also write a letter to a financial institution complaining about the fees and charges applied to your account – it’s a much longer process that will typically end up in a phone call anyway and will, more than likely, be dealt with by the “standard template” response letter. This just wastes time, frustrates your more and solves nothing.

Ringing up the bank is indeed, more confronting than writing a letter – but it also brings it to a more personal level. Remember, you are a customer of the bank, they are not a customer of yours – so don’t be “scared” by them. Be confident, polite and try not to get angry as it really goes against you.

A few “pre-warm-up tips”:

1. The nicer you are to the representative on the phone, the more likely they will refund the fee immediately over the phone. Don’t go in guns blazing – or they will retaliate and tell you to “stick it” in no uncertain terms. Remember, the person you are speaking to is a Mum, Dad, Brother, Sister, Sibling etc and they don’t like fees and charges as much as the next person – keep things on a “nice” level to begin.
2. Write down everything, and by everything I mean the time you called, the customer service representatives exact name (ask for full name), the tone in their voice (nice, angry, condescending, abrupt etc), detail what you have stated, what they stated and so on. You may laugh at this now, but depending on how far your complaint goes – this is all very important information to have written down incase things turn nasty down the track.
3. Do not attempt make things up – don’t say “I was never provided a breakdown of the fees and charges” when you in fact were. A lot of banks now days record the entire phone call conversion for legal purposes – if you start bullshitting, it’s potentially going to hurt your claim down the track if things don’t go to plan. If you stay honest, then there is nothing the bank can do.
4. Don’t be scared! The above 3 points may seem “too confronting” – trust me, they really aren’t.

Great, I am about to ring them?

Stop! First let’s go through what you need to say:

1. Once you have got through the 50 stage phone menu and got onto an actual human being – tell the customer service representative that you want to lodge a complaint about the fee(s) that you have been charged on your account and that you would like a refund. Provide the fee(s) type, the date the fee(s) were charged and the total of the fee(s) that you want refunded.
2. They will then ask you why the bank should actually refund the fees ? What is the reasoning behind the complaint etc ?
3. Be honest and tell the customer service representative the reason the charge was applied. You should already have these listed down with the relevant reasons (refe to some examples above). Remember, be honest!
4. Wait for their response – they may immediately state that they understand your circumstances and they are willinging to refund it “this time around”. If this is the case, thank them for “this time around” and hang up – great, no fees for you! If they start to question you more, you know the person you are speaking too doesn’t believe you and they may be a “difficult operator”.
5. If you fall into the second “difficult operator” scenario, wait for their response and tell the customer service representative that you feel the amount you were charged was entirely excessive compare to the valid reason you have provided, and that you are disappointed in the bank. Ask them to justify why the fee was applied ? And, more specifically, why they will not refund the fee ? (their answer to this question is very important to note down)
6. If they again refuse to refund the fee, ask to speak to their manager. 99% of the time, the “manager is unavailable at the moment and will have to call you”. Accept this, and state that you want a call returned from the Manager today (the day you are calling) as you are entirely dissatisifed with the excessive fee, and with the customer service repsentatives handling of the situation. Be confident and firm. Ask for the Managers name and the approximate time they will call you.

Hope this Post has been Helpful and you Manage to get back those Unfair Fee’s and Charges Back!!!