CHOICE gives CUA thumbs up on penalty fee cuts
Australia's largest credit union has been given the thumbs up by CHOICE following CUA’s decision to cut commonly charged penalty fees.
CUA Managing Director Mr Graham Olrich said the credit union supported the CHOICE Fair Fees Campaign.
“CUA reviews fees annually to ensure our members benefit from fair and reasonable fees,” he said.
“For two years running CUA has reduced penalty fees, highlighting an important difference between CUA and the banks.
“As a mutual organisation, CUA does not need to satisfy external shareholders and we therefore reinvest profits back into the business to create better products and services.”
From 1 September the CUA penalty charged when a member’s account has insufficient funds to cover a direct debit to a third party will be reduced from $20 to $16, a 20 percent reduction.
CUA’s outward cheque dishonour fee will be reduced from $40 to $35, a 12.5 percent reduction, and their inward cheque dishonour fee will be reduced from $15 to $9, a 40 percent reduction.
On their website, CHOICE states that CUA’s new fees are substantially less than the fees charged by most of the major banks.
“CUA’s fee reductions make some of the large banks’ penalty fees on standard accounts appear completely excessive, and we think there’s no justification for them,” the website says.
“At $45, St George’s direct debit dishonour fee is now nearly three times CUA’s. ANZ, Commonwealth and Westpac charge $35 for direct debit dishonours, more than double the credit union’s $16.”
Mr Olrich said that while many penalty fees would be cut, they could not be completely eliminated due to CUA’s reliance on the banking system.
“Unfortunately some penalties are unavoidable because they are third party fees charged to CUA through the banking system,” he said.
“However, CUA remains committed to pressuring our bankers to continue reducing the fees that they charge us.
“Our members can rest assured that they are substantially saving money on fees.
“At CUA we don’t charge account keeping fees and we educate our members on how to operate their accounts without transaction fees.
“In fact, over 80 percent of more than 400,000 members at CUA do not pay any regular transaction fees.
“CUA’s number one priority is our members and we will continue to work hard to ensure we provide the best service possible to our members.”
