Feeding Frenzy – Bank charges affect consumers

Teri Ann Renee Paisley, Gleaner Online Writer

Recently I wrote about Scotiabank’s intention to charge their customers $140.00 effective August 2013 for cashing a cheque at any of their branches. I calculated that if I get paid by cheque and cash it every month then I would have to pay the bank $1248.00 per year.

What if I had two cheques every month? Then I would pay a staggering amount of $2496.00!

Are bank fees too much for customers?

Well it is well known that all banks have fees and customers pay them whether they are aware or not.
One bank charge that was universal was the fee charged if a customer’s card is declined at an A.T.M. machine owned by the bank.
The fee for that transaction ranges from $11.89 at R.B.C Royal Bank to $12.00 at Scotiabank.

So basically you pay for not knowing you did not have sufficient funds in your account!

Do other banks charge customers for cashing their cheques?

Since there was no information on any of the banks’ website about fees for cashing cheques, I decided to call the banks to find out more about their policy about cashing cheques.

To my surprise, none of the banks I called had any fee attached to cashing a cheque.

Banking representatives from both R.B.C Royal Bank, First Global and N.C.B. had no knowledge of any upcoming changes to their policies and said that all that was required to cash a cheque at their bank was valid identification.

I wondered why Scotiabank had decided to place an additional fee on their service but a representative from the bank hastened to say that the fee for cashing the cheque would not be increased from $140.00 and perhaps other banks might soon follow their policy.

I hope this is not a case of Scotiabank being first to implement a policy that will be quietly adopted by other banks in the future.

In the meantime, I suggest that banks consider the extreme burdens that their customers have at this time and not try and add any fees that will have a negative impact.

Click to view bank charges from

• R.B.C Royal Bank http://www.rbtt.com/jm/personal/file-706105.pdf
• Scotiabank. http://www.scotiabank.com/intl/jm/PDF/about/Schedule_of_rates_v5.pdf

Check with your bank to find out their policy on cashing cheques.

What do you think of the fee for cashing cheques? Let me hear from you!