April 23, 2013Dear Sir,I would like to express my agreement with a letter appearing in your column on Saturday, April 13. I agree wholeheartedly with the opinions of Pembroke contributor ‘Disgusted at the Continuing Greed’. Nor do I wish to be nickeled and dimed any more.It was with some distain that I had read on that leisurely Saturday evening, one of your front page articles ‘Bank: $5 fee in place to promote online usage’.Having just returned from abroad, I had just that morning looked through mail including a chequing account statement; my eye definitely caught a never-before seen debit entry of $5 simply described as Acct Maint Fee.What, another of their wool-over-the-eyes do it and see how much the public reacts manoeuvre? Just like the recently introduced monthly $1 fee per savings account charge…I remember wondering if I had missed (during a mere 12 days abroad) an announcement made by the banking facility to it’s customers of this new fee.Glancing again at the statement, top right, I see a very informative six-line update of this change - which had already taken effect during this statement period.I then looked back by one month there is no such announcement on the previous statement.I refer again to your article, continuing on page 2 - upon reaching an (anonymous) bank spokesman: “We believe that the application of usage fees is preferable to having all chequing account customers many of whom write few or no cheques subsidise the costs of cheque clearance through higher monthly fees.”One has to wonder then, the purpose of offering a chequing account with fees attached, for those customers “whom write no cheques”???Also, I am curious to learn of these “alternative, secure means “of making payments other than cheques which carry no fees at all”.This implies to me that there are multiple method choices. Is this so, particularly in the case of one-off payments or vendors used in a once-only point of sale, on-the-spot transaction?And so, within the last few weeks I have closed two different savings accounts and now one chequing account with this particular bank. This does sever years of an otherwise happy relationship with the facility.In all instances the process has taken at least 45 minutes (or more); a mere ten minutes to complete the actual closure (of the account), but more than half an hour spent waiting for a floor representative who is able to do this.(I have twice been informed that there is only one service representative on duty plus one in training).Also involved were several phone calls through a lengthy automated system (typically ten to 15 minutes, on-hold), because one account has continued to have an open balance of 30 cents.I have taken funds of considerable value (relative to my life situation) to another local institution whom I have never banked with before. I was welcomed and felt reassured by the ease of the process. Further-more, there are no account fees nor any fees for the two debit cards issued.IN WITHDRAWALPaget