My Money for Business fee steep fee increase

[michaelnz]

In the mail this morning:

"From 5 January 2017, the monthly fee on your MyMoney for business accounts will increase to $8.50, bringing it closer to current market rates"

There seems to be a creative cash grab of sorts at the bank, with creditcard interest changes, business account fee increases and non existent interest rates on savings accounts.

It is my firm belief the bank is anticipating a housing price crash, opps I meant "correction", and is grabbing funds in the only way they know how - by screwing savers to subsidise property investors.

I expect this also explains why the bank is pimping credit cards hard right now.

[Yvonne]

Hi @michaelnz, nothing as serious as that I hope, the team have advised that the fee hasn't been changed since this product originated in 2010 and research suggests that the change will bring us in line with competitor offerings

[michaelnz]

While the letter has made the bank's rhetoric clear, this price increase makes the BNZ account base fee more expensive then ASB's offering. [1]

BNZ has always marketed this as cheaper then others. Why the change of tune? Will this potentially weaken BNZ's 5-star Canstar position, which is shared with Kiwibank? [2]

What "research" is this? A few minutes surfing the website's of the other major banks?

1. ASB - Business Focus account
2. Canstar - Business Transaction Accounts