Westpac regrets account closures

By JOSIE CLARKE

WestpacTrust admits it has lost customers with its latest round of fee rises.

Spokeswoman Jane Anderson said "a number" of customers had closed their accounts, complaining that a new $2 fee for paying their credit card bill over the counter was unfair and that they felt penalised for paying off debt.

The bank scrapped the fee last week and regretted it had not explained the charges well enough to customers or outlined ways to avoid them.

"We hate losing customers. We hate to lose any business," said Ms Anderson.

"Customers perceived it as a charge for paying off their debt. We saw it as a charge for using the branch. They said, 'That's not fair.' We listened and decided to withdraw it."

The bank still plans to introduce a range of new fees from May 1, including an extra $10 for late payment of a credit card. There will be a $5 charge to start a direct debit and $4 to change it.

For telephone banking, customers will pay 50c for each call made after the first six each month.

Ms Anderson said customers were aware they could avoid the remaining new charges, and seemed to accept them.

However, a pressure group led by Labour MP Graham Kelly has met WestpacTrust in a bid to persuade the bank to withdraw the charges. A second meeting is scheduled for Monday.

The group has also lobbied Finance Minister Michael Cullen to reconsider WestpacTrust's contract as the Government's banker.

Mr Kelly said if his group did not get anywhere with its negotiations, he would raise the issue more seriously with Dr Cullen.

He said the charges impacted unfairly on some of the bank's poorest customers. A significant number of them were beneficiaries who had been Trustbank customers and who stayed with the bank when it was bought by Westpac in April 1996.

"WestpacTrust fails to realise that there has been a change of Government and that there is a deep-seated resentment about these charges, and they take a risk that this could explode nationally if we do run a campaign," Mr Kelly said.

Ms Anderson said the meeting contributed to the bank's decision to drop the $2 credit card fee.

The bank already had initiatives for various groups in the community, for example, fee-free banking for superannuitants who had their benefit direct-credited.

"The meeting highlighted to me that WestpacTrust could do a better job of explaining some of those things to our customers."