Farewell and Good Riddance

Finally I ended my association with an Australian bank that believes it can be arrogant, provide poor value for money and charge you excessively. The reply to my letter was the last straw.

I wrote to them, making them aware that they were just not providing a good deal and detailed competitors offers. A reply to the letter is here, and makes interesting if not laughable reading and highlights their total arrogance towards customers.

To address a few misleading statements

• "Businesses through the world charge customers for services they provide. Banks are no different from other businesses in this respect."
  

Yes banks are different, the principle behind banking has been to make money from interest, not fees. Banks in the UK don't charge fees on regular accounts, in fact my relatives were amazed that most Australian banks did.

• Most customers would agree that it's fair to pay fees for bank services, as long as they receive value in return.

Show me some evidence! Read this. Many customers, if not most, are very annoyed at the bank's justification of charging fees with record massive profits. Where they pull this line from I do not know.

• yarda, yarda, lowest interest rates mean lower margins, people are paying less overall

Yes, perhaps this is true, but the costs in providing banking have also reduced. They operate less branches (my local branch closed 5 years ago) and less staff. Why shouldn't the bank pass reduced costs on to customers? Other businesses do. BTW the interest rate on my credit card was 17.9%.

• "Providing subsidised services is really the roll of Government"...

Oh what good samaritans! That 4 billion dollar profit could have been higher if it weren't for those petty low income earners.

Come on government, regulate this ridiculous behavior. Thank goodness not all banks feel the need to treat their customers with such contempt.