Even better news on bank fees!
Well it gets better! Yesterday I blogged on the widespread reduction of several types of bank fees. Today NAB has come out with an even more aggressive move, scrapping the most important fee of all, the monthly account fee on its main personal bank accounts (from Jan 2010).
And in a style unexpected from a big bank, they even tied their own hands – “Today’s decision is final. There are no disclaimers and we won’t be recouping these fees anywhere else”.
It’s clearly a response to ING Direct’s launch of the Orange account, which is an aggressive attack on the transaction banking market (of course ING Direct can be credited with shaking up the online savings account market a few years back and having all others follow). There’s plenty to be excited about in the new Orange account, which is essentially fee free banking. I think we can expect a very aggressive marketing push from ING Direct in 2010.
NAB again has lead the charge of the majors, so let’s watch the other major banks follow in the weeks ahead…
It seems that 2010 may go down as the year everyday bank account fees finally tumbled, after years in the stratosphere. My UK based friends continue to be amazed that we have bank fees at all, given fee free banking is the absolute norm over there. So as usual the Australian financial market is a few years behind, but tends to get into consumer friendly land eventually!
And oh, the fineprint on the NAB announcement is that there is still no word on whether there will be any changes for business customers, who continue to be ignored…
Rohan Gamble is the Founder and Managing Director of independent finance comparison website Mozo.com.au – helping Australians compare loans, credit cards, savings and other banking products.
Well it gets better! Yesterday I blogged on the widespread reduction of several types of bank fees. Today NAB has come out with an even more aggressive move, scrapping the most important fee of all, the monthly account fee on its main personal bank accounts (from Jan 2010).
And in a style unexpected from a big bank, they even tied their own hands – “Today’s decision is final. There are no disclaimers and we won’t be recouping these fees anywhere else”.
It’s clearly a response to ING Direct’s launch of the Orange account, which is an aggressive attack on the transaction banking market (of course ING Direct can be credited with shaking up the online savings account market a few years back and having all others follow). There’s plenty to be excited about in the new Orange account, which is essentially fee free banking. I think we can expect a very aggressive marketing push from ING Direct in 2010.
NAB again has lead the charge of the majors, so let’s watch the other major banks follow in the weeks ahead…
It seems that 2010 may go down as the year everyday bank account fees finally tumbled, after years in the stratosphere. My UK based friends continue to be amazed that we have bank fees at all, given fee free banking is the absolute norm over there. So as usual the Australian financial market is a few years behind, but tends to get into consumer friendly land eventually!
And oh, the fine print on the NAB announcement is that there is still no word on whether there will be any changes for business customers, who continue to be ignored…
– Rohan Gamble is the founder and managing director of independent finance comparison website Mozo.com.au – helping Australians compare loans, credit cards, savings and other banking products.
