Banking Charges

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 32, 1 November 1932, Page 11

Banking Charges

Sir, —With the Bank of England rate at 2 per cent., is it not essential that the banking charges o£ the New Zealand banks should be revised. Recently the banks increased their charges for keeping accounts 100 per cent., from 10/- to £1 per annum, notwithstanding that the accounts are in credit and they pay no interest on current accounts, and more unjustly, still, because keeping customers’ accounts is the ordinary function of a bank or any other business. The exhorbitauc charges for exchange on cheques in New Zealand, where all banks have branches throughout the Dominion and all under one Government, should, I contend, be immediately revised - . The banks must have the use of hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling from current accounts on which they pay no interest and charge up to 7 per cent, for overdraft. The position requires immediate attention. Another matter requiring adjustment is the high fees charged by doctors and solicitors. The public cannot afford these high charges, and as the wages and salaries and incomes have come down, surely something should be done to have these fees put on a reasonable basis. If the Government can reduce interest, wages and salaries, surely they can create a scale of charges in keeping with the times for doctors and solicitors. If those who see these matters in the same light will endeavour to have them remedied then something will be done. Let’s hope the House will do something before the session ends.—l am. etc., EQUITY. Wellington, October 30.