Banks now charge for what they never did: What are we going to give extra money for?
The crisis caused by the coronavirus has also infected the banking sector.
Source: Blic
Last year, due to two moratoriums on loans, but also on interest rates, which are at an all-time minimum, banking sector lost a significant part of its income. On the other hand, many have increased commissions and service costs at the same time, and some have started charging for what they never did. To be honest, there are also banks that did not change commissions, nor did they introduced any changes in the part of charging for services.
Many of the 24 banks operating in the Serbian market have recently started informing their clients, and some of them may enter the Guinness Book of Records, given that the prices of services have doubled, such as in one bank was the case with maintaining current accounts.
On the other hand, some charge more for checking the balance at the ATM, SMS notifications, sending reminders. It is especially interesting that until recently, free mobile banking services, which banks have been advertising for years, have now become commission services. The practical payment of the bill, which was free, now costs from 15 to 20 dinars per bill.
Admittedly, not all banks have done that, but what the majority has adopted is the payment for taking over the payment card, as well as the introduction of a fixed fee for interest-free loans paid by credit card.
Also, clients of some banks will have to pay for rejected complaints, change of PIN at ATM and even incorrectly filled in payment slips. The allowed minus is also more expensive, the maintenance of foreign currency accounts, which now costs 300 dinars a month, and one of the largest banks on the market announced that it will start collecting commissions for the inflow of pensions from abroad, which has been free so far.
Profit lower by 200 million euros
Citizens state that banks do not choose the means to compensate for the consequences caused by the pandemic, and that the competent institutions would have to suppress their arbitrariness. The official data show that there was a consequence, according to which banks made 200 million euros less profit before taxes last year than in 2019. Their net interest income decreased by 7.5 billion dinars last year compared to the year before, and net income from fees and commissions by about 3.5 billion dinars.
The National Bank of Serbia (NBS), on the other hand, says that the Law on Payment Services stipulates that the provider has the right to charge the user a fee for the provided service, and that the amount charged depends on his business policy by which he tries to be as competitive as possible on the market. The National Consumers' Organization of Serbia (NOPS) says that there are elements for the NBS to react because there has been a collapse of some consumer rights.
"We addressed the NBS twice, but we did not receive an answer and especially warned them that some of the banks charge fees for invalid complaints. This is a measure that violates the basic right to object, because now it has to be paid for. That is why the NBS must abolish this, but also some other measures, because otherwise we will be marked as a black hole on the world banking map", says Zoran Nikolić, vice president of NOPS for Blic Business.
He adds that the NBS should reconsider the introduction of quasi-interest on officially interest-free loans with the help of credit cards.
"Until now, the deferred payment was without interest, and now the banks charge 50 dinars per installment, so if you bought something for 3.000 dinars for six months, you will pay an additional 300 dinars, which is not officially interest but a fixed fee, which is 10 percent more expensive. "If one bank gave up now, it would get more clients and there would certainly be others who would follow in its footsteps," Nikolic explains.
The idea of changing the bank is good, says M.V. from Belgrade for Blic Business, but is difficult to do so in practice. "Because of my debt on the basis of loans, cards, minus, which is somewhere around 1.200 euros, I was prevented from leaving the bank because I would have to settle all that. I had to close my foreign currency accounts because now maintenance costs 300 dinars a month," this citizen of Belgrade claims.
By the way, according to some estimates, clients owe banks an average of around 1.000 euros, which they would have to pay if they want to close an account in a certain bank. That is why many do not decide to do that, but open new accounts in search of a better offer, so we faced with the absurdity that there are more open current accounts than residents.
