Retailers angry about BNZ handling fee

Press, 23 July 1987, Page 2

Retailers angry about BNZ handling fee

Bv

RICHARD CRESSWELL

Retailers in Christchurch are angry about BNZ plans to Introduce a cash handling fee from Monday, July 27. The fee will be charged only on deposits or withdrawals of more than $2OOO.

A spokesman for BNZ in Christchurch said the fee would be $5, and $2.50 for every $lOOO dollars above the $2OOO.

The fee applied only to business and corporate bank users but could also apply to high cash users, including public customers.

The plans have angered retailers, some of whom approached "The Press" yesterday to express their

disgust at the fee. Mr Ross Middlemiss, the owner of Radar Records, said retailers who used BNZ would be “livid” about the charge. He would change his account to another bank which did not have the fee rather than pay money to BNZ for depositing money on which it and other banks made a profit. Banks made their money from deposits and so it was ironic they would now be charging for the privilege, he said.

He and others who approached “The Press” felt people should know about the planned charge. Neither ANZ, Westpac, National nor Trusteebank Canterbury charge a simi-

lar fee.

However, the BNZ spokesman predicted it would not be long before the other banks followed suit.

The National Bank charges a fee for coin only.

The BNZ fee has been introduced because of the familiar gremlin known as “user-pays.” The BNZ spokesman said the Reserve Bank of New Zealand had until October last year held cash in trusts for supplying the banks but now the trading banks held their own which was a cost to the bank. The Reserve Bank would no longer cover the cost of holding cash amounts for trading banks.