Every time I see my bank charges and think about all the impoverished people getting charged a hefty sum for such small transactions, it renews my anger towards our blood-sucking banking system.
Every time I see my bank charges and think about all the impoverished people getting charged a hefty sum for such small transactions, it renews my anger towards our blood-sucking banking system.
I worked in the UK for a number of years, and the two things that I found refreshing (excluding the cold weather), was the relatively cheap food compared to one’s salary and the efficient and honest banking system.
There are no ATM withdrawal fees, not even if you use another bank’s ATM, there are no deposit fees or monthly charges for internet banking or any of the other service fees that we get charged here in South Africa.
It seems as though our banks have colluded over-pricing and there is no strong competition. What angers me most is that our banks make money by targeting the poor.
If you have a lot of money and are able to open a money market account, then you won’t have ATM charges, whereas if you are poor and have a standard savings account then you will sustain cutting ATM withdrawal fees, as well as deposit, transfer, and a myriad other service fees.
Of course, these fees climb up and up: actually they jump up and up. Last year my bank charged me R14 each time I deposited a cheque via the ATM, and this month it has suddenly jumped up to R18 – a 28.57% increase.
Talk about greedy! This is a new development over the past 10 to 15 years, as our banks used to be quite reasonable institutions before the smell of easy money started the feeding frenzy.
Bank charges in South Africa are said to be among the highest in the world, and they are obviously not being challenged enough on this, otherwise things would be changing.
A large percentage of our population are taught in school or told by others to use banks because of compound interest and that it’s a good, safe investment but in reality the little sums that they deposit, get whittled away and consumed by our greedy and uncharitable banks, who instead of helping and educating the poor on money matters, blatantly rob them of their hard earned pittances through hidden fees and confusing charges.
I am ashamed to say that our banks are committing unashamed daylight robbery, and our ignorance has allowed this process to continue for too long.
It is my wish that bankers conciences are pricked and that the people of South Africa stand up and refuse to tolerate the incessant cutting into their hard earned money by our banks. The cancer of eating into people’s finances must be stopped.
Geoffrey Embling is a teacher at Mary Waters
