Your say: bank fee rip off?

I bank with the ANZ and I’m always happy with their service. If I pick up the phone and call the branch I will always talk to someone straight away and they will assist me with my query. If I go into the branch I’m always met with a smile and a greeting. My account fee is $5 per month for unlimited transactions either at the shop or ATM, and that is all I get charged. All you have to do is set up a budget and stick to it. I find that if I can’t afford something then I go without. Hence I’m not being charged overdrawn fees.

As a bank worker, I have to point out that this is a lie, we have people in small business walk in weekly and get cash wages for employees. Banks dont force your wages into the bank, its just easier for large employers to do it over the net.

Please don't take out your anger on bank branch workers and tellers, we get paid min wage, we are abused daily becuase of these fees, we get them to if we overdraw our accounts! Branch workers are not execs. We hate these fees as much as our customers. We are trying to pay the bills like everyone else.

Let's face it folks-the ordinary man in the street is going nowhere but backwards with regards to bank fees, monopolies, petrol rip offs etc. Banks in Oz still have the highest interest rates in the world, they act independently and are now talking about an interest rate hike in December even though we are still in the throes of a financial melt down. KRudd has spent the pot of gold he inherited and now the banks see the time is right to start ripping us off even more. There is no free dinner-banks give with one hand and take more back with the other.

There's a simple solution, find a Credit Union or a Building Society in your area. They still give free and personal service without costs.

Banks are a business that make money out of fees and charging interest. They also pay interest, protect your money and (if you live within your means) they can help you buy a car, a house etc etc. If your account is overdrawn for something that is completely unreasonable, most banks would refund the fees, if your bank wont, find one that will. Like all things, the secret to saving on bank fees is to not give them opportunities to charge you, if you're paying a lot of overdrawing fees you need to work out a budget. Cut out the Chrisco and the Austar and the plasma screen repayments because the companies that are overdrawing your accounts are most likely making more out of you than the bank. Overdrawing fees should make people scared of 'living on the edge' financially, unfortunately that's not often the case. Cutting your budget and talking to your bank are the best ways to save on bank fees. Your bank might be able to save you a lot, you just haven't given them the opportunity.

I'm definately waiting on commonwealth changing theres to zero..if not, i'm going to nab for sure. I've been caught out too many times from bank holiday's, public holidays for transfer accounts. We all know its illegal, but our government denies this as they have the power to stop it. They make laws to stop fraud, they make laws to stop proceeds of crime. They make laws for the rich to get away with what ever they want. Bring on a catastrophe and see who survives when money is worth nothing ?

Of course we are all being ripped off, and I don't buy it when we are told to read the fine print (bank account terms & conditions) those same terms & conditions give the Bank's the right to raise these fees as they see fit, so the fees today are not the same as when we first opened the account!. Back when there were no bank fees there were more branches and more staff employed by Banks offering good service. We are now forced to pay extravagant fees without the service. Most of the fees we are being charged do NOT equate to staff members performing the extra work on our accounts as these staff members have all lost their jobs to computers! So what exactly are we paying for????

When 'essential' corps charge whatever they see fit because THEY CAN it only makes hard workers bitter, vengeful and justifiably angry towards his 'fellow human beings'. There's no wonder why our social and moral ethics are rapidly declining when our governments that are meant to serve our best interests allow such blatant preference for profit over peoples' well being. The financial crisis we're now overcoming is due to one thing alone...GREED through unreasonable lending practices. This at least shook financial institutes into some realization that we should all look after our fellow man. But sadly this realization was shortly lived when their greedy ways and hate for humans took hold once again. They keep the hard workers from getting ahead by keeping them needing so they don't have to get their own hands dirty

It looks to me like we don't really have a 'Big 4', only a 'Big bank' with 4 different logos. None of them seem to really do anything original. They watch each other, not their customers. Maybe we just have 'Big Sheep'. I'll be supporting the little guys.