If you have a current account at Nedbank, you can expect a reduction by an average of 13 percent on your bank charges from July 1, 2006.
Saks Ntombela, the managing director of retail transactional and investment products at Nedbank, says there are no hidden surprises in the bank's move to put fee increases on hold this year for its retail clients. The bank has also reduced fees by between three and 100 percent on the following accounts: current, savings, Transactor (a low-cost transmission account), Mzansi, the Money Market Investment Account and credit card accounts.
Some of the more notable adjustments to the bank's pricing from July 1 are:
- You will pay less for debit orders, stop orders, cheque payments, branch cash deposits, branch transfers and account payments because the standard service fee of R4/R1.50/R23 will be reduced to R4/R1.20/R23. (The formula means you pay R4 for the first R100, R1.20 for every next R100 to a maximum of R23).
- The ATM balance inquiries will decrease from from R1.65 to R1;
- The Saswitch balance inquiries will be cut from from R4.90 to R3.50;
- Transfer fees will be reduced from R3.20 to R3;
- Stop payment fees are to be cut from R85 to R50;
- Unpaid items on savings accounts and unpaid items due to irregularities (such as post-dated or unsigned cheques) on current accounts will be reduced from R75 to R50;
- The fee for cheque card transactions (a type of debit card) will be simplified from a complex formula (55 percent of the standard service fee) to a flat fee of R3.25 a transaction.
- The charges on bank-guaranteed cheques and on the bank's own cheques from current accounts will be reduced by R20.
The new fees follow an out-of-cycle pricing adjustment by the bank in March this year.
Banks normally adjust their fees once a year but they sometimes fine tune them in between their annual reviews.
In March, Nedbank reduced the honouring penalty fee (a fee charged to you to honour a debit order when you do not have sufficient funds in your account) on the Mzansi account by 87 percent, from R75 to R10, and it also cancelled stop-order instruction fees on all small business and individual accounts. Before March, the stop order instruction fees (for initiating amending and cancelling stop orders) was R20 for each transaction.
Cash withdrawals
Cash withdrawals are charged on a sliding scale formula and the formula differs depending on whether you use the bank's own ATMs, a Saswitch ATM or draw your money over the counter inside the bank.
An analysis of cash withdrawals on a current and a savings account at both Old Mutual Bank and Nedbank shows that cash withdrawal fees at Saswitch ATMs will be reduced by three percent on a withdrawal amount of R350 - from R12.75 to R12.40. Currently, the formula for cash withdrawals from a Saswitch ATM is a fee of R9.15 + R0.90 for every R100 or part thereof withdrawn. The new fee formula will be R8.80 + R0.90 for every R100 or part thereof withdrawn .
Over-the-counter cash withdrawals (through a teller in the bank) will be reduced by four percent on a withdrawal amount of R350 but the fee for making such transactions remains steep.
After July 1, the fee for withdrawing R350 over the counter will be R24.60 (instead of R25.50).
Bear in mind that it is cheaper to use the bank's own ATM network rather than the ATMs of other banks, that is, a Saswitch ATM. For example, making a cash withdrawal from a Nedbank current account at a Nedbank ATM (after July 1) will cost you R2.85 + R0.90 per R100 instead of R8.80 + R0.90 per R100 from a Saswitch ATM.
Deposit fees
Cash deposit fees on a Nedbank current and savings account, will be charged at R1.10 per R100 with a minimum fee of R10, which will be waived on deposits of R500 or less.
If you have a Nedbank savings account, the first deposit you make in a month is free, and thereafter deposits are charged in the same way as for current accounts.