All of us are or have been in the case of paying what we know as bank commissions, which is nothing more than an amount that banks force us to pay for making use of certain services.
At Hinojosa Abogados we have witnessed countless cases of impotence and indignation on the part of many clients who see how their bank unfairly and abusively charges them sometimes very high amounts, sometimes for the simple fact of moving their own money.
Let’s see what are some of the most common bank fees and some ways to avoid them as far as possible.
Bank fees: «the bank wins…».
That’s right, «the banks win», because the data show the chilling figure of more than 2,500 million euros that the most important banking institutions in our country pocketed during 2021 thanks to these mandatory taxes to which they subject their customers.
Many people ask us if they are obligatory, if they are legal, if they can refuse them before their banks…let’s see how far we can go and if there are formulas to avoid them.
Actually, banks are legitimized to establish banking commissions on certain services they provide to their clients. The amount and the rate is determined by each bank and they do not have to be the same in amount or modality.
What they are absolutely obliged to do is to inform the client of this before he opts for that service or in the case of proceeding at a certain moment to apply a commission on a service that did not require it before, they must inform the affected parties two months before implementing this measure.
Bank commissions are very common in the opening of mortgages, loans, opening and maintenance of accounts and cards, transfers, obtaining money from ATMs, etc.
Sometimes we can negotiate with the bank before taking the step of opening an account or taking out a mortgage or similar. Depending on the amount and if there is a linkage of other services, some entities are willing to forgive these or some of the initial commissions.
If, on the other hand, there is no possibility of negotiating for this, we can choose to stop working with that bank and move to another one. Online banks do not charge these types of fees and are less expensive for the customer in this respect.
When we have to make a transfer to an account that is not from our bank, to avoid the commission charge we can use other payment methods such as bizum or PayPal.
Beware of withdrawing money from ATMs other than those of our bank, because it usually involves a surcharge. In this case, it is best to look for one of the same bank or one that does not charge a commission.
The threat of taking all our accounts to non-commissionary banks can be effective. Sometimes it has an effect and we manage to get these commissions eliminated. There are entities that charge them and on the same day they reimburse you the commission in your account, but again it is a matter of reaching a previous agreement for this.
Consult any doubt about the possible bank commissions that could be charging you so that from Hinojosa Abogados we can advise you on how to put an end to it.