‘Fee free’ is not a thing of the past
June 2007
Recent Reserve Bank figures have shown that bank account keeping fees are on the rise and Australians seem to be settling for having to pay these fees without researching their options – but there are fee free alternatives in the market.
While most banks hit their customers with monthly account keeping fees that can be up to $60 per year, not to mention EFTPOS transaction fees and competitor ATM fees, other financial institutions such as Credit Union Australia (CUA) educate their members on how to hold an account without attracting fees.
In fact, according to CUA Managing Director Mr Graham Olrich 90 percent of more than 380,000 member accounts held at CUA have operated without being charged any monthly account fees.
“CUA is a member owned mutual organisation and it has always been our philosophy that profits are reinvested in the form of better products and services, rather than distributed to shareholders,” Mr Olrich said.
“This offers the added benefit of lower fees and in most cases ‘fee free’ banking.”
Mr Olrich said the successful merger between CUA and Australian National Credit Union in 2006 was the catalyst for improving the fee structure.
“As a result of the merger we promised members a benefit of $2 million in the reduction of fees and not only have we achieved this but we exceeded this goal delivering a saving in excess of $5 million.
“It proves it is possible to have a bank account without paying those annoying account keeping fees.”
Mr Olrich said bank customers were not generally educated how to minimise bank fees.
“At CUA we aim to discourage members from misusing their accounts by encouraging and rewarding members for appropriate management of their membership.
“We set fair fees and provide our members with education on how they can operate their accounts to ensure they have fee free banking.”
Mr Olrich said CUA members were not charged any monthly account keeping fees and excess transaction fees were only paid by a small minority because of education and reasonable fee free allowances.
“Even EFTPOS transaction fees can be avoided by using a Visa Debit card. Whilst some banks have introduced this feature as something new, CUA has had this product available for many years now.
“The benefit of a Visa Debit card is that you can use it to pay for a product or service but save the EFTPOS transaction fee by pressing the ‘credit’ button on the EFTPOS keypad. Doing this also saves any credit card interest because you are using the money from your own savings account.”
Mr Olrich said people needed to get smarter about their banking to save money by avoiding fees.
“Consumers are putting up with excessive fees without needing to – they should look at all their options and ask the right questions.”
