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Cape Town - Just about everybody's got a favourite banking gripe, but there are some things you can do to avoid or at least limit financial frustration.
Paul Maggot, spokesperson for ICE, Old Mutual Bank's young urban market offering, has seven tips for getting the best from your bank.
- Shop around: Find a banking package that's appropriate for what you need at the least cost - there are some for as little as R85 a month.
Once you've found the best fit, modern IT systems make it relatively easy to change banks.
- Read the fine print: Understand what your package offers. Most prescribe a number of facilities and transactions and charge additional fees if you exceed these.
For example you're usually limited to a certain number of withdrawals and charged extra for using other bank's ATMs. By reading the fine print you'll keep costs down.
- Don't give away penalties: You'll be charged punitive penalty fees for bad behaviour such as bouncing cheques, not making cheques out properly or not having enough in your account to cover a debit order. You can avoid these by being sensible.
- Show some interest: Keep surplus funds in a higher-interest deposit account and then transfer the money into your current account as you need it.
- Be e-fficient: Do your banking online or at an ATM - it'll save you time and cost you less than going into the branch.
- Keep current: Banks change and update their offerings and launch new products, so every now and again ask about special offers or deals that may benefit you.
For example special interest rates for keeping a fixed deposit for an agreed period or a reduction in bank charges for routing certain debit orders through your account.
- Take advantage: Today many banks offer much more than just transactional banking. So if you need financial or investment advice, simply ask.
Most banks have qualified in-house financial advisors who'll be able to point you in the right direction and who can provide an array appropriate of investment and assurance products.
Maggot said: "By working out what you need and doing a bit of homework you can save yourself plenty of frustration as well as time and money.
"And remember, if you're not happy with what you're being charged or the service you're getting from your bank, it isn't that difficult to change."