National Australia Bank abolishes overdrawn account penalty fees
Wednesday July 29, 2009
National Australia Bank has announced as of October 1 2009 its bank customers will no longer have to pay its $30 overdrawn account penalty fee in an action expected to cut $100 million from the bank's bottom line. In an effort to improve the National Australian Bank image and reputation with its customers, NAB customers will not pay a bank fee if their accounts are overdrawn, or automatic payments are made with insufficient funds.
The National Australia Bank fee changes will apply to all savings and cheque accounts and personal transaction accounts with interest still applicable on overdrawn accounts.
The bank fee cutting move was made after it was revealed that overdrawn account fees were the primary cause for customer complaints for the National Australia Bank, with many cases of fees being charged through no fault of the customers own, as detailed by personal banking executive Lisa Gray advising senior NAB managers of the changes.
"We hear stories every day about a customer's pay going in a day late, gym fees or an insurance premium coming out early - the overdrawn amount is paid or not - but either way an overdrawn account fee is generated," Ms Gray said.
Bank fees have been the source of much of bank customer complaints over recent months with the Reserve Bank of Australia reporting that Australian banks took over $1.2 billion in charged fees from their customers in 2008.
The Rudd Government has warned Australian banks of such greedy behavior and actively encourages Australians to ';vote with their feet' through the Government BankWatch program.
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