How do consumers of banking service fare in the age of "integratedaccount" service - CHOICE # 376

The once ubiquitous handy "savings passbooks" to your bank accounts are seemingly vanishing.

"Integrated account" or "bank-in-one" services has been rapidly taking up its place as banks target for the more coveted customers with privileged services.

The Consumer Council has conducted a survey of 19 banks (with 18 of them providing the traditional saving accounts), and the findings are instructive to the astute consumers in their choice of banking service.

The survey showed that in fact "savings passbooks" are here to stay - at least as far as the overwhelming majority (16 out of 18 banks) are concerned.

But 2 of them have ceased to offer this service to new or all customers who will now instead receive a monthly statement for record purposes.

In the majority of cases, consumers needed to pay only a nominal $10 (8 banks) or $100 (5 banks) to open a bank account. The highest amount required by one bank was as much as $30,000.

Probably one of the most common bank charges these days in the age of integrated accounts is the monthly service fee charged on accounts with asset value below the requirement of individual banks.

In general, asset value includes mortgage, insurance and investment products, and savings that an account holder has with a bank.

In the case of integrated accounts, the asset value requirement ranged from $5,000 to $800,000, which is substantially higher than the minimum balance requirement of between $1,000 and $30,000 for traditional savings accounts.

All banks (16 banks) offering integrated account service would levy a monthly service fee unless the asset requirement is reached. The fee is mostly not more than $100, but one bank would demand a high $300 a month on accounts with less than the required asset value.

Exemption to monthly service fee is available by 8 of the banks - 4 would exempt the elderly, youngsters or underprivileged while the other 4 to those customers who use their various banking services.

The provision of service types and benefits generally varies in accordance with the customers' asset value - the higher the asset value the more the benefits.

Therefore, consumers with less asset or no genuine need for integrated banking services will do well to think twice whether they really want to join the scheme or not.

It was noted that under the terms and conditions of most integrated account service agreements, banks reserve the right as they see fit to make adjustments to the level of minimum asset value or service fee.

For any changes in fees and charges, banks are required to serve a minimum 30-day notice to affected customers before the new charges come into effect.

Consumers are advised to pay attention to any such changes, and to consider whether they would be better off switching their accounts to other banks.