Westpac and St George reduces fees
Westpac and St George have announced that they will drop all exception fees on business and retail accounts to a flat $9 as of October 1.
The reduced fee will apply to all overdrawn fees, outward dishonour fees, credit card missed payments and over-the-limit fees.
The reduction in fees is expected to impact the Westpac Group's full year revenue for 2010 by around $300 million with the impact on cash earnings and reported profit expected to be about $210 million.
Both banks believe it is still necessary to charge the reduced fee to cover costs incurred when accounts are overdrawn or payments missed.
“It also ensures we don’t encourage customers to overdraw their accounts and pay additional interest rate charges,” Westpac retail and business banking group executive Peter Hanlon said.
“The comprehensive and significant reduction in these fees supports our commitment to have a transparent and fair fee structure in place for all our customers,” Hanlon said.
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