If I lent you $10,000 would you hand me 108 pages of Terms and Conditions for taking it, and wouldn't I immediately take you for being some sort of scammer, and run for my life.
So, I just opened two bank accounts with a big deposit, savings and transactions. I only wanted one, but this seems to be standard these days, and accepted a DEBIT card. No Credit Card, No Overdraft.
So why did they send me 108 pages of Terms and Conditions?
MY Terms and Conditions are simple. It's my money, look after it, and use it wisely while you have it.
Pay me some interest, but don't try to screw me with definitions.
Give it back to me as soon as I ask for it, and don't try to rip me of with sneaky little Fees that may be buried in bulls* T&C's
I just want to know what "Fees" they can help themselves to. There's nothing in 108 pages, except a link to the website homepage, where you have to search, and can only find a page that looks more like marketing than legal.
They say "No Fees". I don't believe them.
What other "Fees" could they charge?
What sneaky underhand Fees are your banks extracting from you?
Comments
I think the t&cs are to make things clear and to protect themselves. The amount of times ive seen people say the loophole/whatever silly thing is ok just because it didn't say so in the t&c. E.g. When someone complained about maccas not accepting photocopied vouchers
Everything has fees to some extent. The question is what representations did they make to you when you/they opened the account?
Are these products really suitable for you? These questions should have been raised during the conversation you had before the accounts were opened. Otherwise the salesperson has technically broken the Banking Code. Of course, they will always deny this or the fact that a Banking Code even exists…
I note that it is sometimes the bank and not yourself that opens the accounts, usually without permission. A mere signature is not consent if the client has no idea what has been signed. It also doesn't help that sometimes the summary of accounts opened doesn't include every account that was opened that day…
Are the accounts opened really the highest interest they can offer? If so, which of these accounts are the highest interest (as of the date you signed). These are reasonable bits of information that should always be provided, but rarely are… Sometimes they will open several savings accounts to confuse you so that you don't know which product is the best.
That's not how banking should work.
http://www.bankers.asn.au/industry-standards/ABAs-code-of-ba…
Back in the Old Days, people used to Hang Bankers for doing the wrong thing. Luckily for them, these days they don't even go to jail.
Sometimes, it is not fees, but interest that you will lose.
I have detailed my experience with NAB Reward Saver in this thread:
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/189766So you think based on the description of the account, once you have met their conditions, you will get the bonus interest.
Not so, this is where their entire book of T&C comes in, buried deep within, there will be a clause that obviate them from paying you interest for a few days.
Unfortunately, it is hard to be aware of of such things, until it happens.
Fortunately, it does not happen that often. Most banks do not do this.
You don't want 10K or any money in the bank. If you apply for Centrelink they will whack you with a waiting period and anything left will be assessed under deeming rules. Never say never with Centrelink either. If you have 10K attached to that debit card it can vanish in minutes too if someone cracks your account. As to fees, all the main banks will waive the monthly fee if you are poor and have a HCC with associated benefits, otherwise they will waive if you have over $2K a month through the account. Other fees vary. Westpac say waive overdraft fees if you are on Centrelink and have a "Basic" account
I closed an account with the Commonwealth. About the only thing they CAN do is help themselves to my money that I entrusted to them.
So I haven't opened an account in many years, and don't want to dump on the new one, MEBANK, and I don't have a problem with them, and this post isn't about which bank is better, but I was gobsmacked.
I think it would be safe to guess their solicitors all copy one another's Terms, so they will all be substantially the same."t&cs are to make things clear and to protect themselves" from what….my money? I opened the accounts online, just to protect MY myself and MY money from CBA.
The reason I ask the question, is that interest rates are low so the banks must be making their money somewhere else.
Because, I don't expect to keep a lot in this account, it won't earn the bank much. Thanks for the link bluesky. Mathematically I have no idea what you are talking about, but I'm sure most of the population wouldn't either, and that's the way the banks like it.
Is there a loophole in Debit Cards or EFTPOS? Foreign Currency in every form is a ripoff for all of them.
Lost69, I can't see any reference to monthly fees, and that bothers me!
Do they have traps in transaction volumes that I haven't discovered?"t&cs are to make things clear and to protect themselves" from what….my money? I opened the accounts online, just to protect MY myself and MY money from CBA.
Maybe the same reason as every other company who has T&Cs? You gotta know the rules of the game to play it.
The ones that I don't know about.
I suspect one of the reasons is they dont know how to make things simple. People tend to write and write, blog and blog, and talk and talk. They are too generous with their words, what I called verbal diarrhea. (I am half doing it now). They think the more words they use, the better they express themselves. Academics and solicitors in general are the worst. What irks me is they keep repeating themselves using different words/phrases ….
In my previous life, I used to write reports. Volumes of them. I had Table of Contents, Heading and sub-heading. I made sure I dont repeat. Love dot points, love spreadsheets and tables. We charged clients by the contents, not number of words.
Newspaper is another one. Just finished reading an article about having pets in complex. I would have cut out 70% and still carries the same message.
End of Rant.
Here's another one you might not have seen: at ANZ, no service fee if you have $50,000+ in their bank. Except— they don't tell you, you would have to have looked through their site to find it. I had to ring them & they gave me the previous year's fee back. Wasn't that kind of them? I wrote a complaint that if this is something offered, it ought to go into affect automatically! I lost $60 per year for the last 4 years prior- gives me the sh*ts!
Also, no fees for full-time uni students (Access Advantage), so I had my son ring them about his account.
Lastly, I go in with my 16 yr. old daughter to open a Progress Saver. The woman does the paperwork as we sit there & the only thing she tells my daughter is that she's allowed one withdrawel per month without fee charges & does my daughter want a debit card with it??
FFS! This is an account that you must deposit $10, every month, in order to earn the only real "bonus" interest & if you take even one cent out, you lose that interest. It's a long-term savings account, WTF*ck would you want a debit card?! Seriously, a kid is there to learn to save, getting an account that ONLY earns when you don't touch it, & only if you deposit every month—- > and THIS is what was omitted from the conversation.
It's like any more you have to do everyone's job for them! Good grief!
(end of rant)
Which bank and what are the actual name of the accounts you opened ?