By Trudy Simpson,
Staff reporter
NATIONAL COMMERCIAL Bank (NCB) customers will start paying a fee each time they use their debit card to pay utility and other bills over the telephone from January 2001.
NCB's Card Centre manager for customer services and authorisation Claudette Rodriquez said the bank would be charging the $7.50 fee for any transaction using the recently introduced TeleMidas telephone banking service. The Bank currently charges the same sum for point of sale purchases.
News of the new fee comes just ten weeks after NCB introduced the service at the end of August. It appears to be just one in a range of fresh or increased charges likely to be levied on customers using debit cards for everything from bill payment over the phone to buying goods at a shopping mall.
Three years ago banks and other financial players joined in using the Multilink system, whose basic platform is employed by all the institutions but each has its own set of services and charges.
J.E.T.S. Limited, which runs the Multilink system, dealt with 97,000 users last month, some 28,000 of whom used their cards in the fastest growing service point of sale transactions, according to general manager Edmundo Jenez.
Checks with other banks indicated that they were either on the verge of charging or had already started charging for the new services.
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) manager of cards and alternative delivery, Clyde Singh said it was also considering whether or not to implement a fee for telephone banking. BNS was the first local bank to offer the service in February. The bank has consistently said that service will be free until the end of the year when it will be reviewed.
CIBC has said that it has been charging customers $10 per transaction for using their cards to purchase items but does not offer telephone banking. Trafalgar Commercial Bank does not offer debit cards and Union Bank failed to return calls.
Since the widespread introduction of "Multilink" debit cards, consumers have flocked to automated teller machines (ATMs) and used other services that have allowed them to carry less cash.
As well as allowing people to get cash, the banks have offered a range of services since the 1997 launch, including checking balances and making enquiries, transfering funds from one account to another and the ability to pay utility bills using the cards.
In April last year, the companies introduced point of sale services where cards can be used to purchase items and recently, to cover expenses via the telephone.
Costs
However, local banks are now trying to contain costs and claw back the cost of installing hundreds of machines and other support services needed to run the services they offer.
On average about 350,000 Multilink transactions a month are made, according to Mr. Jenez, with an estimated 450 new cardholders everyday.
The cost of services varies depending on who you bank with and whether you withdraw cash from an ATM owned by your bank or a competitor's machine.
If you are not a customer and withdraw cash from an ATM the charge ranges from $24.35 at BNS to $30.00 at CIBC. It costs the NCB customer $28.50 to withdraw cash from an ATM belonging to another bank via Multilink.
BNS does not charge its customers for the first five withdrawals per month if the customer uses a BNS machine. However, the bank charges its customers $5.00 dollars after that period has passed for using its ATM. NCB charges its customers $8.00, while CIBC charges its account holders $15.00.
There are also differences with charges associated with making enquiries via Multilink. NCB charges $17.50 to make an enquiry using the ATM of another bank, about $2 more than BNS and $15.35 even if the transaction fails to process. The Multilink fee is $5.18 if Midas is declined at a merchant.
In terms of enquiries via Multilink, CIBC, charges non-customers the most, at $20.00.
Mr. Jenez pointed out that the charges may seem high but were considerably lower than in the United States.
For the year 1999, $112 million went through the Point of Sale Network, with ATM's doing $490 million worth of business.
