Obtaining correct information from banks on their transaction fees is like finding a needle in a haystack.
Natalie Abel, a research analyst at Infochoice, says consumers get conflicting information from banks depending on which source they approach - a bank teller, a bank manager, or a customer care call centre.
Infochoice provides comparative information about bank and insurance products.
Abel says it is praiseworthy that some banks publish pricing guides which make it clear what they charge for transactions.
Information is also available on the banks' websites. However, while some banks update their interest rates timeously, other websites show fees that are long out of date. Some sites haven't been updated for months, she says.
To further illustrate the difficulty of obtaining the correct information, Abel says that, in some instances, senior personnel at banks sign off information given to Infochoice as being correct, but later the bank refutes the information.
A few months ago, a bank took Personal Finance to task for printing "incorrect" information.
The following day, the bank's media liaison manager apologised, saying the information had been correct after all.
Last week, Personal Finance published an article ( Some savings accounts can cost you money) on how high transaction charges and low interest rates erode your savings. Despite the best efforts of the researchers, the article contained the following errors:
- At First National Bank (FNB), it costs you R5 - and not R15 - to make a R500 cash deposit over the counter. This means that Nedbank, with a transaction fee of R10, is the most expensive of the major banks for over-the-counter cash deposits.
FNB charges a flat rate of R1 for every R100 that you deposit over the counter, and a flat rate of R15 - irrespective of the value - for an over-the-counter withdrawal.
FNB also charges you a cash handling fee of 40 cents for every R100 you withdraw.
- The incorrect rebate structure was published for Standard Bank. The correct information is that if you maintain a balance of R6 000 in your PlusPlan account, you will receive a combination of eight free transactions a month. These include withdrawals, electronic account payments, inter-account transfers and debit orders. Deposits are not included in the free transactions.
However, there is no charge for depositing amounts of R500 or less into a PlusPlan account. All deposits above R500 cost R2.50 plus 0.90 percent of the deposit value.
Despite these errors, the basic argument of the article remains: It is tough to build up a nest-egg using a savings account, especially if you keep a balance of R2 000 or less in your account.
If you maintain a balance of R2 500 or more (the actual amount depends on the bank), you qualify for discounts on your charges or qualify for a certain number and type of free transactions ever month.