Bank customers are powerless to prevent banks from charging dubious fees for minor transactions, unless the fee is completely unreasonable, the Banking Ombudsman says.
Liz Brown said yesterday: "If I was faced with something that was beyond all bounds of reasonableness, I might be able to take a
closer look at it."
One such case involved fees being charged customers who had already discharged their mortgages.
"We became involved, at which point the bank decided to review its practices and make some changes."
But she added it was not normally under her jurisdiction.
"I'm not a price-regulator. I can't control their fees any more than you control what you're being charged for potatoes in your supermarket.
"But I can look at questions of charging the wrong fee, charging one when there's an exemption in place or when fees are not properly disclosed."
Bank stories about dubious fees continued to pour into the Herald yesterday, including:
* A woman who says ASB charged its customers $3 for deposits over every $1000 inside a 24-hour period. "Is this normal practice for all banks or is it only the ASB?"
* A woman who was asked for a fee when she tried to change her obsolete coins into the new coins last year at an ASB in Christchurch. The charge was eventually tossed, "but how stupid is that? I only wanted to swap my old coins for the new ones. I can't see why it warranted a fee".
Others, however, defended the fees.
"A bank is, after all, a business, not a public service," writes Alison.
Bank teller Nathan writes: "Bank staff encounter customers who come in requesting change on a regular basis. If a non-customer came in to my branch without saying 'please' or 'thank you', I would definitely let him know that there is a fee involved and that he should go to his own bank."
Spokespeople from major banks say fees are applicable in certain circumstances, but not standard practice for changing small amounts of cash.
The Consumers' Institute advises bank customers to seek out the options to find the bank most suited to them.
