In my day job I reconcile a lot of bank statements, both personal and business, from my diverse customer base.
The bank charges exacted by the banks never cease to astonish and disgust me.
“Service charges”
“Overdraft Fees”
“Electronic Services fee”
“Item Deposit Fee”
“Administration Fee”
“Loan Acceptance Fee”
“Shared ABM Fee”
“Monthly Service Fee”
“Cheque Viewing Fee”
"Tax payment Fee"
“Hard Copy service Fee”.
“NSF Fee” - going both ways at $42.50 per for a $25.00 cheque bouncing because my client's client bounced their cheque. This must be the award winning scavenger hunt prize of the year for the banks due to the domino effect on multiple business accounts of one client bouncing their cheque (it has happened to me).
And on it goes.
There is no professionalism or dignity in a bank charging an o/d fee of $10.00 for a client short-falling by $2.00 one day only to deposit a $10,000 cheque the following day. With no interest given by the bank for the month they sit on it.
Some of my clients pay $80-$120 a month in fees, that's over $1,000 annually, money they can ill afford. Particularly when the bank makes sockloads of interest on their often significant deposits.
And another thing: who gets the interest on all those transfers that are held, sometimes for 2-3 days, sometimes longer, when one is merely transferring from one bank account to another within the same branch or bank?
No wonder their profits are through the roof and their bonuses obscene. All at the expense of us peons.
I closed my business account last month. I could no longer afford to maintain it with my reduced client base.
