Reducing Bank Fees In Australia

• Before you open a new bank savings account in Australia ask them about all of the fees that you may encounter when using your account. Especially ask them which ATM you can use without attracting a fee, how many ATM transactions you can perform each month for free and if there are any bank fees for over the counter transactions.
• Make sure that any bank account that you have cannot go it overdraft unless you specifically want it to. Many banks in Australia have large bank fees for going into overdraft so disabling this facility will stop you from being charged this fee if you run out of funds in your account.
• If you write a cheque book that bounces your bank will charge you a large fee, so make sure that you don't write out any cheques before actually checking your account balance to see if you have enough money in it for the cheque to clear. One good way to do this is to write in big, bold letters inside the front of the cheque book CHECK BANK BALANCE.
• One of the worst bank fees in Australia is the low account keeping fees that effectively robs you when you are poor and have little money in your account. Always ensure that your bank savings accounts do not have this fee, especially if you are going to be transferring most of your money into either a high interest online savings account or your home loan mortgage offset account.
• When you start up a savings account for your children then make sure that you get a dedicated children's account that has no bank fees whatsoever.
• Online banking is what all of the banks want you to partake in nowadays. This, however is a bonus for you in some ways as you can reduce your bank fees by paying bills and performing bank transfers online. Just ensure that you bank does not charge a fee for paying bills online.
• If you get an online bank account or decide to do most of your banking online in order to save on bank fees make sure that you also set up a phone banking account as well. This way you can use your phone banking as an alternative when you don't have access to a secure internet connection.
• A lot of banks are offering customers the apparently cheaper option of rolling all of your bank fees into 1 fixed monthly fee. For some people this may be useful, but generally you will still be paying between $50-200 per year on bank fees. So if you shop around you can find much better accounts that have much lower banking fees or even a no bank fees account.
• If all else fails and you still end up with large bank fees on your statement then try calling the bank and asking them nicely to reverse this charge as you are a loyal customer who just made a simple financial mistake. Sometimes just insinuating that you will change banks is enough to have a one off fee reversed.