BSP relieves customers from fees

BANK South Pacific’s (BSP) reduction of certain fees over the past six years has seen customers benefit by almost K50 million per year, says chief executive officer Robin Fleming, pictured,.
In response to social media commentary on fees claimed to be unnecessarily deducted by the bank, Fleming said they had reduced or removed a number of fees and charges over the past six years with the intention of making banking services and products more affordable for its customers.
He said these included eliminating the cheque processing fee of K2.50 in 2015, eliminating the annual Visa Debit card fee of K100 in 2017, waiving dormant account fees and eliminating statement mailing fees last year, reduced commission charged to electronic funds transfer at point of sale (Eftpos) merchants and eliminating branch deposit fees for Kundu Standard account customers this year.
“On a cumulative basis, these fee reductions have seen our customers benefit by almost K50 million per annum,” he said.
Fleming said there was a lot of commentary on social media recently relating to bank fees charged by the bank or unauthorised deductions from customers’ accounts.
“Much of this information is incorrect or outdated.” He said the bank had two main products for its retail customers:
lThe Kundu Package account where a monthly fee of K9.50 was charged and all branch transactions and the majority of electronic banking transactions are free except the mobile and easipay top up which attracted a fee of 50 toea and an airline ticket payment of K2.50; and,
lthe Kundu Standard account which charged 25 toea for an Eftpos transaction, 50 toea for mobile banking, K2.50 for an airline ticket payment by mobile banking and a K4 withdrawal fee with a teller.
Fleming said the Kundu Standard account did not have any monthly fee, no deposit fee and no dormant fee.
“BSP also offers fee free savings products for all customers such as our Plus Saver, Kids Account and Sumatin Account, which also attract higher interest rates than any similar product offered by other banks.”
He said that if any customer had complaints about fees being deducted from their accounts that appeared unusual or not on the bank’s published fee schedules, or if they are approached by staff for commissions or favour payments they could email him on [email protected] and report the matter.