Seniors exempt from Butterfield’s new $1 savings account fee
Butterfield Bank has few friends with the imposition of a new $1 a month fee to hold a savings account.And seniors advocacy organisation Age Concern, while pleased that at least some of its members won’t be affected, is calling on the bank to reconsider.Seniors are generally offered preferential terms when it comes to banking services in Bermuda.And the new savings account fee does not apply to seniors.In fact, said a spokesperson, seniors were always exempt from the fee.“We were very concerned today to hear that new fees have been introduced to savings account holders at Butterfield Bank.“We were however pleased to be assured by the Bank that these new fees do not apply to specific groups that include: the youth, charities and older adults over the age of 60 years old,” said Age Concern director Claudette Fleming.“Unfortunately however, our membership begins at 50 years of age, so potentially there will be a portion of our targeted age group that will be affected by these fees.“The fees will further impact members of the age group under 60 who currently do not have jobs and/or are the working poor who typically have minimum savings.”Ms Fleming added: “Imagine being a 50 year old divorcee, with children and one source of income trying to maintain your dignity and independence by staving off the need for financial assistance only to be charged by the Bank for saving money.“These types of policies are not helpful to the Bermudian people. We hope there is an opportunity to rethink these new fees so that the working poor in particular, are not further disadvantaged.”About 54 percent of seniors do their banking with the Island’s first bank, according to a 2008 survey commissioned by Age Concern. The survey also found that 89 percent of the senior population had a savings account as their main account.Matthew Viney, a Butterfield customer brought the matter to our attention, complaining the bank should have directly informed its customers of the change.He also noted that a minimum balance of $24,000 would be needed to break even on a Butterfield Bank savings account, with the new fee, given the rate of interest paid.Yesterday’s story has generated considerable discussion on our website and radio talk shows with many people saying they will abandon the bank because of the fee.We asked the bank if it would reconsider the new fee.A bank spokesperson did not address the question, but instead stressed that there was no longer a $2 a month fee for savings accounts with a balance less than $100.“The fee on savings accounts represented a CHANGE to the fee (from $2 per month for accounts with balances below $100 to $1 on all savings accounts),” he said in an e-mail to The Royal Gazette.“Maintenance fees on savings accounts for seniors (60+), youth (under 18) and charities (registered) are waived.”Butterfield Bank says it acts competitively, but it appears to be alone in its savings account fee policy.Both HSBC and Capital G do not charge a fee for savings accounts unless balances fall below a certain minimum.
Due to Butterfields’ low interest rates, our company moved sizeable accounts to another local bank just over a year and a half ago. We had been with Butterfield Bank since 1972. If Butterfield is now imposing a $1 monthly fee on savings account holders as the story suggests, then our personal accounts, including those of our children, shall also be moved to another bank. Have a nice day
Trudy Trees$1 does not seem a lot, however, this is a principle. A “savings” account is there to save money, not to loose money. I don’t understand the bank at all. This is money they can use easily for lending with big return (since they hardly pay an interest fee anymore). It must be pure greed that drives them, and many businesses went down due to it. I already had moved some accounts of my young adult children from Butterfield to Gbank. Once you have less than a $100 in a savings account (and this is what happened to my children) they take six or eight dollars a month (cannot remember right now but once again no warning for the customer ahead of time) maintenance fee. What is there to maintain? They have a computer system (however, it is a very bad one, I learned the other day that the employees have to work with the same problem program that drives us customers crazy since they changed it), that should be able to keep a balance and automatically add the mini-interest. Sending a paper statement every three months costs about 1cent for paper, 2cents for an envelope, 3cents for toner, and 35cents for the stamp, 41cents every three months! Earn ten precent on interest when you lend it to other customers, and you make a nice profit. But no, we want more!!I will move another account to G-Bank, probably my cc-cards as well because it is almost impossible to find out your balance on your credit card with the new online programme). Farewell, Butterfield (That is the bank that did so well over the last years, wasn’t it, because of greedy investments with Lehmann and co, wasn’t it?). I feel bad for their employees. Here are another couple of hundred people going to loose their job “due to the recession” as they will claim. I will move my money before everybody else does, as long as there is still some. They seem to be in big trouble if they need to charge a dollar a month for saving my money. This recession they bring onto themselves.Concerned Family ManIf the bank is looking to make more money they should stop mailing me statements every quarter and save the postage and cost of printing the thing. Butterfield needs to get with the times and just e-mail out a statement. You would think a bank that was in trouble and asking for the government to back their loans would try and keep funds in house that they need to service the bad loans they wrote, rather than push customers away. If you don’t send out any statements, it is not costing you anything to hold onto my money. Off to see another bank if this is not changed in a week, but I am sure it will be.....
All in it Together24,000 dollars? ... who do you think ve awww de “Brady bunch? This is first and foremost an admission of ineptitudinal fortitude ... good for you mate but let us get back to our original relationship with out the nonsense. A bank uses a customers money to make a profit ... it pays the customer a percentage in interest to utilise said customers money, a bank signs a charter to do business in an ethical way ... do you honestly feel it is ethical not to give a fee to utilise a persons ‘money in this way? Now don’t get me wrong this island appreciates your loan but it’s people have ethical requirements that far exceed any other perceptional profit line proposal ... got dat?Mr Mumbo JumbodongButterfield tried this before with its credit cards — automatically enrolled everyone in its balance protection program deducting a small premium every month UNLESS card holders took the time to write to the bank and affirmatively state that they did not want the protection ...
Kate V-RI have to agree with most of the people here as this is not the first time that they change conditions and did not advise their customers although they always insist that they did. For example when they stopped paying interest on statement accounts and then require customers to come in and close those accounts and open new ones I am sure they did not tell me prior to doing it. They obviously do not have any understanding of good customer service!Watching closely
