| Banks have been making profits of up to 14,000 per cent on penalty fees levied on a variety of basic transactions. If a customer exceeds an overdraft limit by $100 for one day, they can be charged a fee of $40. That's an annualised interest rate of more than 14,000 per cent, yet the cost to the bank for breaching the overdraft may be only a few cents.More than 85,000 people have signed up to join the class action and many more are expected to sign before the case begins next month. Penalty fees range from $25 and $60 for each breach, although fees have been cut by many banks recently in response to public outrage. The first round of class actions will target 12 banks: ANZ, Bank of Queensland, BankSA, BankWest, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Citi, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, HSBC, National Australia Bank, St George, Suncorp and Westpac. |
