Account and cardholders with several banks in Belgium will see the fees paid for banking services hiked from the start of next year, with several groups rising the costs of mailing bank statements to clients' homes.
Clients who wish to continue receiving bank statements by mail will see increased costs for the service, with BNP Paribas, ING, Deutsche Bank and bpost all raising their costs, according to HLN.
At BNP Paribas the service will costs customers €1 while at ING they will be charged €5, while bpost and AXA will charge between €1 and €2.50, on top of mailing fees.
The price for professional banking accounts will also see increases, going from a relatively slight hike of €3.75 to €5.25 per quarter at BNP to a sharper one at ING, which will increase the fee for a professional account from €4o to €50.
Current accounts at ING will also be slightly more expensive from 2020, going from the current annual fee of €40 to €44. Customers of AXA and BNP will also pay slightly more for their current account from next year, with monthly costs rising to €4.50 for the former and €1.75 for customers of the latter whose account is not included in a banking package.
Several banks will also increase the costs of a credit card, which will go from €22 to €25 a year at ING, a DB Titanium with Deutsche Bank will no longer be free, with the bank charging €20 for it and raising the costs of the DB Titanium Plus from €20 to €30.
The costs for transactions at the counter will also be hiked at BNP Paribas, which will charge €2 for clients depositing money at the counter, and €4 for issuing and collecting checks. Clients who want to continue using paper-based transfer will have to pay €2, with those making that transaction at the counter paying up to €6.
From next year, bpost banking clients who wish to access and print dated statements will have to pay €1.27 for the service.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
