Suncorp Bank Tips: How to Minimise Your Account Exception Fees
Posted February 25th, 2010 and last modified February 7th, 2012
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Suncorp Bank is serious about helping customers understand and minimise banking fees. This is especially true with ‘exception’ fees, which could be easily avoided by understanding what they are and how to avoid them.
Minimising Suncorp Bank Account Exception Fees
Account exception fees are those fees charged on things such as over-limit fees, overdrawn account fees, dishonour fees and late payment fees.
It’s estimated that Australians pay almost $900 million in credit card account fees each year. Unfortunately, many of these fees could easily be avoided with just a little information and understanding of how they can affect your own accounts.
Below is an overview of some Suncorp Bank Exception Fees and how you can minimise them.
Outward Cheque Dishonour Fees
If you write a cheque against your account and you don’t have sufficient funds to cover that cheque, then the person depositing that cheque won’t receive their money. This is commonly known as ‘bouncing’ a cheque and you will incur a dishonour fee when this happens.
The easiest way to avoid incurring outward cheque dishonour fees is to make sure you always have enough funds in your account to cover the amount of the cheque you’ve written.
Check your balance until you notice the cheque has been cashed. This is important, as some people don’t always cash their cheques immediately. If they delay banking your cheque and you forget about it, then you may inadvertently withdraw the money for other expenses you have, leaving your account short of funds when that cheque is presented.
Direct Debit Dishonour Fees
If you have personal loans or other bills that are paid using a direct debit agreement, then your creditors will have the authority to withdraw the amount you owe from your Suncorp account on the repayment date.
There may be times when you don’t have enough funds in your account to cover the full amount of the direct debit payment. If this happens, your creditors will not receive their money.
While you will find that your Suncorp account will incur a direct debit dishonour fee for having insufficient funds, you may also be charged a missed payment fee from your creditor. This is especially true if your direct debit is to pay for a personal loan from another lender.
Over Credit Limit Fee
You may be charged an over limit fee if you charge purchases to your credit card that take your balance over the available credit limit. For example, if your credit limit is $2,000 and you already have a balance of $1,900, then if you spend any more than $100, you’ll have drawn your account over the limit.
Suncorp Bank makes an effort to help customers avoid going over their credit limit by not allowing electronically authorised transactions to go through.
Unfortunately, banks often allow the interest charged on credit cards to capitalise onto your balance. This means banks charge your interest and then add the interest charges to your balance each month. If this happens and you’re already close to your credit limit, you could find your account goes over the limit simply because the interest charges have added onto your balance.
Always make sure you check your balances through the month. Know when your interest charges will be added to your account and make sure you make a payment to keep your account well below the limit to help reduce these fees.
Late Payment Fees
If Suncorp Bank hasn’t received at least the minimum payment due by the due date shown on your statement, you will be charged a late payment fee. The obvious way to avoid being charged a late payment fee is to pay the minimum amount by the due date.
Unfortunately, if you pay your bills by BPAY, you could find that it can sometimes take a day or two for funds to appear to your creditors. Even though you might have paid your bill on time, you may still receive a late payment fee. If you do use BPAY, be sure to make the payment one or two working days before the due date to be sure your creditors receive the payment on time.
Suncorp Bank is transparent about the type and amount of exception fees you may be charged on your accounts and they work hard to reduce the amount of fees their customers pay. Keep track of your accounts, understand how to avoid incurring these fees and you could reduce the amount of fees you pay.
Image source: jekert gwapo
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