If you surveyed a bunch of average Canadians about fees they hate paying, it wouldn’t be long until bank fees came up. Many of us hate spending the $5 to $15 each month our bank charges for having an account and using our debit cards.
Some companies have capitalized on this, creating branchless banks that give reduced service in exchange for no bank fees and better interest rates. In a world where most transactions are done electronically, many customers find they don’t miss having branches at all.
But at the same time, it’s easy to argue the pluses of doing banking face-to- face. Having a sympathetic banker can help when getting loans. Attentive employees can easily spot and correct errors. And many would much rather deal with a human than a machine.
Some people view bank fees as a form of cheap insurance. Generating $10 a month in account fees is easy profit for a bank that it wants to keep. Thus, employees will make sure customers who pay them are happy. An online bank has less incentive to take the same attitude.
In the scheme of things, bank fees aren’t really that expensive. Sure, losing $120 per year hurts--especially when a customer rarely visits a branch-- but for a family making $75,000 or $100,000 per year, it’s peanuts. Besides, it’s usually pretty easy to downgrade a banking package to save fees.
Ultimately, bank fees do matter. But for most folks, they don’t matter enough to really get that stressed over.
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